Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
Stumble
Actors Zach Braff and Donald Faison are interviewed by a reporter at a Barack Obama presidential campaign office in Las Vegas on Saturday, July 28, 2012. The television personalities most known for their roles in the TV sitcom “Scrubs” were in town to support volunteers canvassing in the central valley. In the middle is Jason Karsh, digital director of Obama’s Nevada campaign offices.
Saturday, July 28, 2012 | 7:16 p.m.
Related content
Zach Braff and Donald Faison huddled around a laptop in a dingy back room of a Barack Obama presidential campaign office Saturday afternoon in Las Vegas.
Between responding to tweets on a special live Twitter chat event, the actors cracked jokes and composed the beginnings of a mock love song. At the campaign office, 860 S. Rancho Drive, they were just two miles away from the north end of the Strip, but they might as well have been in another city, because catching a show and placing a bet were the furthest things from their minds on this trip.
“I don’t think either one of us has been here and not gone to the Strip,” Braff said.
Not this time. This time, they were in town to motivate volunteers, inform people and visit a few homes in what Braff calls “150-degree heat.” The former “Scrubs” TV show actors were there to use their fame and get residents involved in the 2012 presidential election.
“We’re here to rally the troops and say, ‘You have to participate, please participate,’” Braff said. “So if the fact that we are known in the public eye can remind people, ‘Oh yeah, I (need) to check that I’m registered’ … we’re happy to use that because we want to bring attention to the election.”
Faison and Braff spent the afternoon giving brief speeches to volunteers at two Obama campaign offices in Las Vegas, tweeting about the election and canvassing door-to-door. Faison said their status as celebrities offers them an opportunity to have an impact on the election.
“You get people who are ready to receive you instead of telling you to scram, because they recognize you,” Faison said.
They said the highlight of the visit came during the hourlong canvassing in the sweltering 105-degree heat. Faison said a woman came sprinting from a home they had just visited asking to sign up to vote. The two even went inside to help her register.
“It was exciting. We were like, ‘We have that form,’” Braff said.
Volunteer Cathie Buchanon said seeing the two actors come out in support of the election has been a great experience.
“It’s important,” she said. “For them being there, (people can see) they’re taking time out of their busy lives to come do this, so they can see it’s important.”
While the dingy back room of a campaign office next to a tiny bathroom might not boast the same amenities as a penthouse suite at the MGM Grand, at the end of the day, Braff and Faison knew they were exactly where they wanted to be.
“Nevada is a swing state. The election will be decided here and a couple other places,” Braff said. “If we grab the attention of some young people that like me and Donald on 'Scrubs' and have never participated in a presidential election, and we get some of those to register, we really feel like we’ve made a difference.”
What a joke. Actors who have never had a real job trying to pad their Hollywood resumes for a turd who also never had a real job. I hope they learn the meaning of "hunger."
Yeah, like some Hollywood has beens are going to influence the votes of anyone with even half a brain.
Whoops, on the other hand, looking at Nevada's 50th place rating on the educational index, means that they can actually influence a great number of the citizenry of this state!
The great Welfare Organizer in Chief has put them to work, just like so many others he has added to the welfare payrolls.
Thank you, Zack and Donald....
Please ignore the ignorant and hate-filled,
brain-dead republicans.
OF COURSE republicans are going to lose again.
No sane voter would vote for the fools who
DESTROYED OUR ECONOMY AND MIDDLE CLASS.
WE'RE NOT STUPID!!!
WERE KEEPING PRESIDENT OBAMA!
THE BEST PRESIDENT IN OUR LIFETIME!!!
@mikegino, like Reagan?
awesome article brian.. good to see your work online!!!
It's so sad that these mis-educated uninformed and inexperienced young people are being used and they don't even know it!
They are working hard, thinking they are doing the right thing when in fact they are destroy their own, and their children's futures for candy that can never be delivered. They are selling their honor and their future for the promises of candy that never has ever been able to be delivered by such utopian promising governments in the history of the world! Why do they think it could work this time? It this what their radical leftist professors imbedded in their pudding minds? Did they not learn about the millions these utopian governments have killed, the very same millions they used to obtain power.
Government can NEVER replace personal responsibility ! Just look around! Everyone that has given up taking personal responsibly and turned over their lives to the care of the government are unhappy, living in poorer conditions, and not able to enjoy the fruits of our world envied capitalistic system, and rather than take personally responsibility, all they will do is cry for more free hand-outs instead of taking the personal responsibility of improving their own life through hard work!
GIVE UP THE UTOPIAN DREAM, IT'S ONLY BEING USED TO IMPRISON YOU AND YOUR CHILDERN!
Enough said. Tricky Mitt Romney is no different from Bernard Madoff and Tricky Dick (Pres. Richard Nixon). For 50 years (half a century since 1960) Madoff was not charged with $65 billion fraud because of power, influence, bribery= secretly known as not a lawbreaker like Tricky Mitt and would never have been caught had he not voluntarily confessed. Tricky Dick of Watergate notoriety was never charged and even got re-elected as President because of power, influence= secretly known as not a lawbreaker like Tricky Mitt. Tricky Mitt has not yet been charged with perjury, tax fraud, tax evasion, money laundering,etc. because of power, influence as state governor and mormon bishop and insufficient evidence yet from a potential whistleblower.The wheels of justice grind so slowly. Not having hung out with communists did not stop Tricky Mitt from creating jobs in Communist China, bankrupting companies in USA and making thousands of jobless in USA as a consequence.All American voters have a right to examine Shady Mitt's 12- year past tax returns to make sure that he is not a crook like Al Capone, money launderer, tax fraudster or tax evader using Mormonism cult as a tax cover.After 100 years of unsuccessful attempts, Affordable Care Act is now a law benefiting all Americans and affirmed constitutional by the SCOTUS.Sadly, we currently have the worst 112th Congress whereby the House Republicans voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act on 33 separate occasions yet they have never voted to replace it with something better to benefit all Americans.