Ok, I live in Illinois. But my parents are from Central Texas and my mom and dad are from Texas and have lived there since 1975, when my dad retired from the Air Force.
I went to high school in Austin (Travis) and, after a stint in the Navy, took my graduate degree at UT-Austin (1985-1991).
My dad left this world in 2004, but disliked Bush until the end.
My family has been yellow-dog Democrat for as long as I remember; I grew up with brass plaques of JFK, MLK, and RFK on the walls.
Our entire family remembers that horrible day in November 2004 when Kerry conceded. The memory is a bleak one for us.
But that doesn't mean that my family and I always agree...more below the fold.
It turns out that the Clintons have established themselves in roughly the same role as the Kennedys did. So when Hillary Clinton decided to run, my family was overjoyed; my 81 year old mother especially longed to have a credible woman candidate for President.
You should see her when Hillary Clinton is talking; mom is there cheering her on! For her, Hillary "taking it to the boys" is a sweet turn-about for every insult and put down that she took from living as a female in a mostly male dominated culture.
To see a smart, strong, capable woman run for the highest office in the land; well, Mom never thought that she'd see the day!
But in the eyes of Mom and Sis, one member of the family went bad...
Yep, that is me with my wife; my 13 year old daughter is behind me.
Ahh, I live in Illinois! But I've also been moderately active, and while working on campaigns for city counsel candidates and for State Legislature candidates, a certain name kept popping up.
I kept hearing: this guy is for real; "what you see in public is what you get in private." "This guy will halt work on a bill to hear a different point of view; he doesn't dismiss anyone."
Yes, I heard that from many people, completely independently.
So, I backed Barack Obama, as did most of the people in my area:
http://blueollie.wordpress.com/...
I did some number crunching from the election statistics and found the following in Peoria County (both the City and the Coutny):
22662 people cast ballots for a Democratic candidate and 19451 for the Republican. This is interesting, given that the Republicans had a congressional contest (US Congress) that would, in effect, determine who is going to represent us in Ray LaHood’s old set (Aaron Schock won big with over 70% of the vote).
In the Democratic contest, Obama got 15066 votes for 66.5% (73% within the City of Peoria) and Clinton got 6975 votes for 30.8% (25% in the City of Peoria).
In the Republican contest, McCain won 9421 votes for 48.4%, Romney 30%, and Huckabee 15.8%.
I've done a couple of door to door canvasses, and made, so far, 43 Obama calls. I've given some money (I am not rich) and talked him up quite a bit.
But my family didn't take this lying down.
My noisiness made them understand that Obama has millions like me backing him up, including hundreds of thousands in Texas.
So they got to work when Hillary Clinton opened her Austin office.
Yep, that is Mom, who is fluent in Spanish, staffing the phone at a Hillary office. Yes, I bought her that shirt.
I bought my sister a shirt as well, and she told me that she has increased the length of her daily walks to as to generate maximum exposure:
and she has modified the shirt from the back:
My sister describes the experience here:
http://journals.aol.com/...
Early voting starts tomorrow so Mom and I jumped in and offered our help at the Hillary headquarters here in Austin. My husband didn't want to call or make signs but he did go and do a bit of shopping for food, water, and office supplies and donated them. He also fixed up a yard sign. Krys offered her help on Friday and at the rally after her classes on debate day which is Thursday. The workers told us they wanted a presence out on the Mall at UT all day long. So we're out there working it! Below is a picture of Mom doing her thing on the phone. Numerous times the call from others working the phones was "Nellie, una mas!" Seems Mom was the only Spanish speaker there at the time. Luckily others came before they wore her out. Me? I made rally signs. :-)
So, my fellow Obama supporters, this is what we are up against.
We had better make our calls, because the Clinton supporters are making theirs!
And yes, I'll make some more calls this week, even though this Saturday's Texas calls (McAllen, TX, near the southern border) didn't go that well.