I doffed my old campaign fedora (as FDR used to call his favorite hat) and I headed west across the Delaware to sally forth in search of votes for our nominee today. (My fedora was of the 2004 vintage replete with the "Stronger America" logo - though I can trace my first efforts back to Carter/Mondale '76.)
New Jersey seems safely in the Obama camp, while a short commute away the McCain forces are targeting the Keystone state for a last-ditch battle. So, faced with the options of trying to turn the last Repub vote Democratic in the Pine Barrens or stomping the streets of the City of Brotherly Love to shore up the GOTV effort, it was an easy choice to put my time into PA.
Good thing I drove in, instead of taking the train, because when I got to the Campaign for Change office in Center City, the field organizer said they need canvassers on the northside. (I don't know the SEPTA system well enough to have gotten there before election day.) Follow my trek over the fold...
I don't want this diary to be a travelogue but I thought I'd add a little local color.
I'm just a volunteer of no particular note. I don't bring a lot of political savvy or campaign experience to what I do. Little by little over the last few election cycles I've put in a little more time. Like all of you here, the anger at the last eight years has risen to levels I never thought possible. Over that time, I've tried to get others to understand how seriously our country has deteriorated until many of the people on my contact list got tired of hearing from me.
I confess that despite working the phones in 2006 for Democratic control of Congress I was disappointed with how little we were able to change, and I lost faith for a while. But I've got a daughter who's a college freshman, away at school in Virginia. And from the moment she got there she went right to work for Obama and Mark Warner. She's been phone-banking and canvassing, earning kudos for helping organize the other volunteers, and actually meeting Obama when he held a big rally in Fredricksburg in late September.
Her enthusiasm and hard work, as well as the dynamic nominee himself, got me off my ass. Obama needs us pounding the pavement and working the phones. It's pretty obvious America wants Obama to be its next president, and the optimism in the ranks of the volunteers is almost intoxicating, but like Tim Robbins last night on Bill Maher I won't take anything for granted.
So block after block in the rain I went knocking on doors. I met a lot of people who plan to vote for Obama, telling them I'm just here to encourage them to make sure they do vote, and everyone in their circle votes, take nothing for granted. My fellow canvassers fanned out all over the city today with the same message: every vote is vital!
Back at the organizer's townhouse with a sheaf of fairly sodden check lists of voters visited, a lot of wet volunteers commiserated about the weather. These included a trio of guys who drove down for the day from Brooklyn NY (for the same reason I came to Philly). Somebody passed on a report that some McCain aide was quoted saying Palin had gone "rogue" on the campaign and we all saw that as a further sign that the wheels are coming off for them. But it didn't make me or anyone else feel cocky; it made me grab another list and head out for another round.
This isn't intended to be tooting my own horn. I don't feel that a day of canvassing is any great accomplishment. I know I have a lot to make up for after years of neglecting my responsibility for getting Democrats elected. I'm just trying to say that if more of us feel the infectiousness of being part of this campaign, we can get Obama to the White House and see how different this country can look.
My daughter sees it, and we can all learn something from our children.