Ah, Nevada. How I missed you.
While the rest of you are staring at your cell phones on the slight chance of a middle-of-the-night text message, some of us are staring at our cell phones across state lines, whether we're travelers from a hopelessly red state or an unassailable blue state.
I'm in Reno, NV, county seat of Washoe County, where I and a group of amazing volunteers from all over the country helped produce one of Obama's biggest margins of victory in the Nevada Caucuses in January.
Word around the campfire is Northern Nevada could be the tipping point for turning Nevada blue this year, so I'll be spending as many weekends here until November as my girlfriend will allow.
I also want to put on my journalist hat while I'm here, since the local media is completely brain dead when it comes to covering the grassroots.
Case in point-
This was at the Sacramento field office. The poor guy on the right was only trying to buy a t-shirt, when all of a sudden, some guy from the local media dropped by to do an on-camera interview about VP speculation.
After asking a few mindless questions about cell phones and the timing of the announcement, the guy took off without even asking us what we were doing there on a Friday night.
Anyway.
Initial reports place the number of volunteers from Northern California in Reno this weekend at about 70, while Southern California is headed to Vegas. We'll be tabling, walking precincts, and registering voters all weekend.
Here's the outside of the Reno office-
And this is just inside. Obama's emphasis on down-ticket races is evident as soon as you walk in the door- Democratic candidates from all different kinds of offices have pamphlets, brochures, and window signs hung up and lying around the office.
The thermometer is keeping track of voter registration, the eventual goal being to overtake Republican registration in Washoe County.
It looks like we've got an uphill battle ahead of us.
While the inevitable sh**storm surrounding Obama's VP pick ensues on the intertubes, I'll be publishing pictures, videos, interviews, and analysis from the ground level here and at beatpanda.wordpress.com. If you need a break, check it out.