I returned to West Virginia on Saturday afternoon to do my small part for the Obama campaign. Since I grew up in and went to college in WVa, it's where I cut my political teeth. But I left in the mid 80's and hadn't been back even to visit for at seven years, so I wasn't sure what to expect. More after the fold.
It was in southern West Virginia that I began spotting the first tangible indicators of how the state has trended the last couple of presidential elections. I saw some extremely conservative billboards. One warned that ABORTION IS FOREVER. I saw a couple more for faith based marital counseling. Then I saw this one:
Seeing the horror of the 9-11 attack on NYC superimposed against the beauty of the mountains was jarring. But I had to laugh when I saw the handmade sign near the base of the billboard:
I emailed that dire warning to John Cole and he used it to illustrate an excellent blog post explaining how the gun issue affects voting in West Virginia.
I didn't check into my hotel room until 6:30 Saturday and I was too wiped out from the drive to canvass that night but I did go into Clarksburg to check out the Obama hq there. It wasn't the easiest place to find. First I had to orient myself so that I could come down Main Street the right direction for the 300 block and then not realizing it, I drove right past it. Would you have pegged this as an Obama office?
Another office was just two doors up from Obama hq and was unfortunately too easy to find.
I later found out that this wasn't an official HRC office, just a vacant building owned by an ardent supporter. (One who apparently likes to leave Christmas trees up year round.)
I drove around again and this time, looked up in addition to watching the numbers. Turns out the Obama office is on the second floor.
I knew this office wouldn't feature the organized chaos which defined the Charlotte, NC field office. The population of Clarksburg is around 16,500; Charlotte is over 600,000. Still, it was a little shocking to climb the stairs and find only one person in the office. Meet Julie, an Obama field organizer:
Julie's working on her fifth state, having been assigned to Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, and Pennsylvania. A second field organizer and an intern are also assigned to the office. She was in desperate need of volunteers and was happy to see me.
I saw this encouraging sign in Bridgeport as I was on my way to canvass:
I canvassed a middle class neighborhood on Sunday. Excuse me, I mean a neighborhood of hardworking white Americans. Suprisingly, about half the people I talked to were undecided. But all of them were happy to take some lit from me and a few of them wanted to hear why I supported Obama. I think I may have actually convinced a couple of the fence sitters to come over to our side.
After I finished canvassing, I drove north to Fairmont, the seat of Marion County. This is my favorite shot, taken from the east side and facing downtown. The bridge crosses the Monongahela river, one of three rivers running through the city.
Next I drove to Morgantown, home of WVU, to check out the Obama field office there. It was on Beechurst in a highly visible location and as you might expect from a college town office, wore its enthusiasm proudly:
On Monday morning, I returned to Fairmont to take care of some family matters before going back to NC. When I checked out the Obama office, I was a bit disappointed. It's at the south end of town and not in an area that's going to get a lot of foot traffic.
It was also basically deserted. By contrast, the Hillary office was in the heart of downtown (er, all three blocks of it) and people were constantly going in and out. I even saw four Indian women in saris come out of the office carrying canvassing packets and climb into a SUV with Virginia license plates. Perhaps Hillary finally figured out this ground game business.
Apologies for the poor camera angle but just as I was about to snap the photo, an obnxiously large pick up truck pulled in and blocked my shot.
There were at least three "It's Our Turn" signs so it's probably safe to assume that strong willed women are still the backbone of the Marion County Democratic party.
Walking around downtown, I saw several flyers advertising Gov. Manchin's election eve rally at Fairmont State. Hillary's name was featured prominently on the flyers as she planned to be in attendance. No surprise really, since the three Clintons were all over the state this past week. I understand that it's a numbers game at this point and that Obama's efforts are better expended trying to run up the popular vote and delegate count in Oregon. But I do wish he had spent a little more time in the Mountain State. (Not that I'm unbiased or anything.)
This diary will not end on a negative note, though! While I was driving back to NC, Obama was shooting pool in South Charleston. And here's what MSNBC's First Read had to say about today's primary:
Take me home, country roads: Perhaps the best way to think of today’s West Virginia primary is like the final football game of the regular season, which really won’t impact the teams headed to the playoffs. Yes, the players will once again don their helmets and shoulder pads. Yes, the game will count, as will the statistics. But MUCH, MUCH more has to happen besides this sole game to change the postseason situation.