The campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama hit Thayer Street yesterday in the form of an actor best known for portraying a brilliant and often senseless stoner.
But unlike the character he portrays in the "Harold and Kumar" movies, actor Kal Penn was mostly business in urging the roughly 70 students at Blue State Coffee to canvass for the Illinois senator.
"Something that's really phenomenal, I think, is seeing everyone from the senator's senior policy staffers to the 16-year-old intern that can't even vote yet are knocking on people's doors and making calls," he said, as Obama campaign staffers passed out canvassing sign-up sheets to audience members.
Penn, wearing a black fleece jacket with an Obama logo, took questions from the crowd for about half an hour, answering many with details about the candidate's platform and Senate record.
He stuck to one of the main points of Obama's campaign: That the first-term senator can bring citizens together like no other candidate.
"Something that really motivated me (to join the campaign) was that there's such an incredible amount of experience that Senator Obama's had in bringing people together and achieving what other candidates only talk about," Penn said.
Penn, currently a visiting professor of Asian-American studies at the University of Pennsylvania, has been campaigning for the Democratic presidential candidate since December, according to Obama's campaign Web site. He has been primarily speaking to college students around the nation; he visited universities in Wisconsin and Ohio earlier this month.
Though Penn's talk was mostly serious, he did keep the crowd's interest with his passionate manner of speaking and some spontaneous humor. One attendee asked him what he thought Obama's weaknesses were.
"I'm probably really biased to answer that question," Penn responded, drawing laughs from the audience. "But you know, the more questions I ask, the more impressed I am by him."
The actor also planned to visit Bryant University, Rhode Island College and the University of Rhode Island today, ahead of the state's primary elections next Tuesday, according to a press release announcing his Ocean State tour.
The Rhode Island visit was arranged Tuesday, said Harrison Kreisberg '10, a spokesman for Students for Barack Obama.
Obama will visit the state tomorrow, to speak at Rhode Island College at noon.