I came across this story in the NY Observer. It details the short-lived career of Phillip Weiss as a volunteer for Bush/Cheney in Ohio.
With two weeks to go, I volunteered for Kerry in Wisconsin, so with nine days left, I'm volunteering for Bush in Ohio. I show up on Sunday at a suburban headquarters out side Cincinnati, and they put me to work on the phone bank, confirming volunteers who've signed up for the final weekend.
Everyone seems a little on edge. People keep coming in to get lawn signs, and the lady who runs the office, Crunch Reyna, tells them that if the signs get stolen, they are to call the police, report the crime. A farmer comes in and talks about the Bush office in Cincinnati being bombed.
The
story is here. It's a quick read that shows something of the mind set that we're up against.
For a comparison, read
this story by the same author detailing his volunteer activities for the Kerry campaign.
It's a union hall on the west side of Milwaukee, but the people pushing through the glass doors don't look union. They wear old hiking boots and North Face jackets. The kid with the earring has come in from South Carolina; the tall austere Asian-American in designer glasses has come from Los Angeles. They're what the Kerry campaign calls "Kerry travelers," pouring into the swing state to do anything they can in the last 18 days of the campaign. I've flown out here because of a couple of issues that are as important to me as citizenship, Iraq and the spirit of tolerance. The shock of recognition is all the other people I run into like myself.
No deep insights but both pieces clearly establish a little of the mood and tempo of the respective campaigns. Now we can all make it to a battleground state, if only vicariously.