I've been reading the canvassing diaries on DKos and have enjoyed everyone's reports of their experiences. But that wasn't what convinced me to get off my duff and hit the bricks myself.
Eight years ago I canvassed for Gore in NC. The organization was pitiful. The list I got was poorly designed and about half of the addresses didn't even exist. The ONE young man who was working the campaign office wasn't very helpful when I told him I couldn't locate half the people I was supposed to canvass. I also went out on my own, since there weren't enough canvassers to go around. Since this was my first experience canvassing since McGovern in 1972, I wasn't very effective and I didn't feel like I got a lot of support from the local campaign office.
Four years ago I phone banked for Kerry. Again, the local campaign office was poorly staffed and although we had a script, many of the folks I spoke to had been called five or six times and weren't very happy getting yet ANOTHER call. The organization was so poor, and I didn't feel like I had had any success.
This year I was convinced that I'd give my money but not my time to Barack Obama. I just didn't want to feel like I was floundering again. But then I started reading the canvassing diaries on DKos. Everyone talked about how organized the Obama campaign was. And then I had friends who volunteered in the local effort and told me how much fun they were having, how they went out in pairs, how they had up-to-date lists and were enjoying the chance to have real conversations with their neighbors.
So, when the local Obama campaign called me and asked me to canvass today, I said "Yes." Skeptic that I am, I wanted to see for myself if the vaunted Obama organization was all it's cracked up to be.
Well, it is. And then some!
We met at a neighbor's house and got our lists, a set of North Carolina Democratic slate handouts and door hangers that had the addressee's voting precinct and hours printed on them. Pretty impressive. And once I hit the road (accompanied by my young African American high school sophomore friend whom I just met today) I found that the maps, addresses and names were so much more accurate. Sure, there were a few people who had moved, but we were still able to talk to their neighbors about voting and leave literature with them.
We hit 53 houses, apartments and trailers. We either talked to or left a door hanger at every address. We talked to poor white folks, poor black folks and middle class white folks. Only one person told us to "Scoot." One lady said she didn't believe in politicking on Sunday (I think we can safely put her down in the McCain column.)
My favorite moment? The Hispanic man who told us his neighbor no longer lived in that apartment, but he wanted to know what we were doing. We told him we were out talking to people about Barack Obama. He got very excited and told us that he was an American citizen and he would be voting for the first time and that he was "100%" for Barack Obama.
So thank you, Kossacks, for all your reports from the field. If you hadn't written your GOTV diaries I never would have believed that Democrats could be so well organized, especially in a formerly Red North Carolina. I only wish I had volunteered earlier, but you better believe I'll be there in 2010 AND 2012!