I'm going to start my plea with a little story.
My wife and I are enthusiastic Obama volunteers in Norcross, a northern suburb of Atlanta that is probably 80% Republican. In July, I said to my wife what if we go to visit my mother for Election Day and then volunteer there. Her response (and she is fine with my mother) - HECK NO! YOU DON'T HAVE FAITH, BUT OBAMA IS GOING TO WIN GEORGIA. She reminds me every day that she has known all along that Obama is going to win this election and he is going to win Georgia, and I am wasting all my time reading the polls everyday like an obsessive compulsive (fair description by the way).
I would show her the polls and say, I believe Obama is going to win, but he's not a lock, and no matter what, he ain't winning Georgia (especially after the Palin picked sent McCain's lead in the polls into the 15 - 20% range). She would ask why I volunteer so hard, and I would tell her a few things: 1) I believe in building the party, 2) I am hoping if Obama can get it close here, then maybe Jim Martin can win, and 3) Every extra vote in the final national totals is an ever so slight increase in our mandate.
Well, here we are 9 days away from election day, and what are we seeing:
- We have registered so many new Democrats in Georgia and have gotten them so enthusiastic to vote that we can start to be a statewide party again,
- Obama looks like he might be able to pull out a win if GOTV efforts continue to work as well as they have so far,
- Jim Martin is also poised to potentially win.
This gets me to the crux of my message which is to implore all Georgia volunteers to stay in Georgia on Election Day and bring Obama and Jim Martin to victory!
The Obama campaign is starting to come back to Georgia, and they need volunteers to stay here and help on Election Day.
And let me end this by also saying that this isn't only Georgia where I think we need volunteers to stay home. How many states have winnable Senate or House seats even if the state is not a swing state for the Presidential election. Just looking at the Senate, Alaska, Mississippi, Kentucky, along with Georgia as states that where Obama is a big underdog but our Senate candidates have a real chance.
This is the 50-state strategy, and now is as good of a time as any to show our support by staying home and helping win our own states. If we look broadly, we can win over 60 senate seats, 270 house seats, and Obama can win 375+ electoral votes.
Let's bring our party home to the massive victory we deserve all over the country!