Drove from Rockland County New York to descend on Allentown with hundreds of other committed out of staters.
Met a like-minded volunteer among all the others pouring into the designated launching point -an empty factory/industrial building; even ran into two friends from my town who had also made the two hour plus trip early in the morning! The enthusiasm was infectious and I wished this were something I did every day of my life.
After about four hours of walking (with a lunch break in-between), my canvassing partner and I distributed GOTV flyers - door hangers and other information - in two separate neighborhoods - one, very marginal low-income; the other, solid (but clearly suffering) middle class. The beautiful flyers have already been mentioned in another diary; they contained information about the recipient's the exact polling place, polling hours, and "how-to's" about your rights and responsibilities as a voter. Instructions were clear and simple. We were given Spanish versions for the first, heavily hispanic neighborhood we worked.
How many did we end up successfully placing in those two shifts? (below the jump...)
169 in all. Out of a possible 177
The organization that IS the Obama campaign is a marvelous thing to see in operation. Everything flows effortlessly, as if they run historical, world-changing campaigns every day with one hand tied behind their backs. The money is spent in the right places - not on the headquarters, which was bare bones and had only one toilet for hundreds of volunteers (and they somehow managed to keep it working and clean, too!) but on the literature, Spanish literature (some Lehigh County Republicans had already blanketed the Hispanic areas with leaflets stating that hispanics should vote Nov 5th)- and a downticket hand out.
We had the lists of names and addresses to canvas in our hands, were trained, and out the door and on the street less than 20 minutes after arriving. Out of the first 75 registered democratic (or otherwise Obama-leaning) names, only 5 refused the literature or wouldn't let us in (the morning, in the low income neighborhood, was mostly apartment buildings where we needed to be buzzed in. ) Out of our afternoon packet of 102 door hangers, we placed 99. Two we didn't place because the recipient said he/she had voted absentee (for Obama, of course!)
Obama voters were to a person upbeat, thrilled, and appreciative of our efforts. A guy in a military uniform drove by us (easily recognizable in our t-shirts), honking his horn and thrusting his fist in the air in a victory gesture, while grinning madly. Another guy in the downscale neighborhood pulled his beat up wreck of a car over to proudly show us his t-shirt, hat, and button. He was pretty gamey, was missing teeth, but just so excited about going to his polling place on Tuesday! And Obama volunteers - well, if you could package their/our good, positive energy and drop it over the Middle East, there'd be peace in a heartbeat.
Allentown is definitely not in the bag for McCain, despite its white blue-collar reputation. Lots of signs out proclaiming "TEAMSTERS FOR OBAMA"...and I'd say on every street we canvassed, or every apartment building, we placed flyers on 1/3 of the residences.
1/3 registered Democrats - who knows how many more undecideds (or Republicans with consciences) come out on Tuesday!
The handful of McCain supporters whose homes we approached in error (it happens, even in this amazingly accurate campaign) were not such happy people. They were nasty and grumpy. My favorite was the slovenly woman who was drunk out of her mind, reeking of alcohol, with her son? cowering in embarrassment behind her. "I don't support this man!" she yelled at us. "He's for Ayers and terrorist attacks in America!" Though I wanted to tell her to have another drink and go back to Fox News, I remained polite, dignified, and apologized for the error.
After all, I was representing the NEXT PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!
I can't return tomorrow or on election day (would be there if I could!), but another phenomenon of this political machine took place back at headquarters (and on the streets, too!) - volunteers recruiting other volunteers. While I was leaving, several people signed up to be line watchers at the poll. There were also several lawyers and law students there who had been trained to be poll watchers. Everyone wanted to do SOMETHING...and then, to DO MORE!
This campaign ROCKS.