While attention is focused on South Carolina, Obama supporters, volunteers and activists in February 5th states are keeping their focus closer to home. With just 11 days until the primaries and caucuses in 22 states, the sprint to the finish line has commenced.
Here in New York, it's impossible to keep up with all of the activities. There are now Obama offices in Downtown Manhattan (the headquarters), Harlem, Brooklyn, Queens, Hudson, Poughkeepsie, Albany, and Buffalo. Those are just the ones I'm aware of - offices are opening up every couple of days!
The view from inside the Harlem office.
So what's all this Obama activity in New York, you might wonder?
Why hasn't the Obama campaign written off Hillary's home state?
Well, once you have a sense of how excited New Yorkers are about Obama, you'll understand.
Here's a map showing scheduled events in downstate New York this week. Each of those little logos is an event. We've had to create a special page to list just the events in New York City. Right now there are over 40 events listed!
And here's how supporters spent their time at last week's Nevada caucus-watch party: phonebanking. Yep, everyone brought their cell phones and made calls to supporters to remind them to vote on February 5.
And phonebanking isn't just a one-day affair. Phonebanking centers have been set up in several locations in New York City, and are going strong every day.
We're also doing visibility events around the city, informing people about Barack Obama and signing up new supporters and volunteers.
Today we had our largest visibility event yet in the city: A 5-borough Walk for Unity and rally. Supporters traveled from Brooklyn, Queens the Bronx and Staten Island, meeting up with Manhattan groups in Harlem and at Union Square.
I wanted to document as much of the event as possible, and headed up to Harlem. Even from several blocks away I could heard the shouts "Fired up! Ready to Go!"
Here's the scene outside the Harlem office before the walk commenced.
And here is State Senator Bill Perkins talking to the group before they set out.
The Harlem group, which numbered about 150, set out down Lennox Avenue toward Central Park.
I then headed downtown by subway to meet up with the Union Square group that was making it's way uptown. I found them near Herald Square.
It was astounding. The downtown walk was enormous. Supporters lined both sides of Broadway, chanting and waving signs.
We made our way up to Times Square.
It's a little hard to tell here, but in the background is a tour bus with people giving us the thumbs-up.
The downtown and uptown groups met up at Columbus Circle for a rally at the southern tip of Central Park. The police estimated that we had a total of 500 Obama supporters at the rally!
Here is Lamont, one of the main organizers of today's event, with the crowd.
Among those speaking at the rally was Ronnie Eldridge. For those of you not familiar with Ms. Eldridge, she spent her life working for political and social change, including in the administrations of Mayor John Lindsay and Governor Mario Cuomo. She has fought for many causes, and has been a champion of women's needs and interests. She also served in the New York City Council from 1989 until 2001.
Another guest speaker, Haile Rivera is a Bronx resident who was one of the lucky winners of the "Dinner with Obama" contest.
Can I say once again how much I love Obama crowds. Yes, the enthusiasm is wonderful, but so is the diversity and sense of common purpose.
No other candidate's crowd is like an Obama crowd!
As you can see, there is plenty of enthusiasm for Obama here in New York. He stands to pick up more than a few delegates, possibly quite a few.
If you want to get involved in our NY efforts, go to the New York page on the campaign website and sign up. You can find events in New York City on this page, or in other areas by going to this page and typing in your zip code.
The sprint to February 5th is on!
And if you can spare a little extra this month, consider donating to the Obamathon started by Populista.