Just ran the inaugural Indianapolis Monumental Half Marathon. I was lucky enough to run it with my younger sister, who recently got a job in Indy. It was a beautiful crisp day, perfect for running, and we saw a lot of good things during and after the race...
I had mixed feelings about running the race, since of course that meant I couldn't GOTV here in Ohio this morning, but I figured, hey, Indiana is actually a battleground state, and I thought it would be fun to run with my sister for a couple of hours, so what the heck?
I realize that the Indianapolis city area, like most major metropolitan areas, is going to be more pro-Obama than the rest of the state. But along the 13.1 mile course, I saw a grand total of ZERO McCain signs. None. No yard signs, no window signs, no car stickers, nobody with a McCain t-shirt, nothing. We passed at least two (I think three) Obama campaign offices along the route, and in both cases, there were plenty of people entering and leaving the offices. This race started at 8 AM on a Saturday, and by 9, there were people coming and going out of the offices.
I saw several other runners with Obama stickers or shirts, and my Obama t-shirt got plenty of love, especially for the obnoxiously large "Yes We Can" on the back. I passed several people who yelled it out as my sister and I went by. I talked to a guy who had run a marathon in all 50 states, and he told me he liked my shirt.
As an aside, if you're running a race with someone, and you're getting tired near the end, "yes we can" is a pretty fantastic mantra to help you keep going. There's a metaphor in there, and I won't bother to spell it out, but we're nearing the end of the race here, people!
At any rate, we saw TONS of Obama yard signs, car stickers, window signs, and several shirts along the race course. It was really a little silly. About halfway through, my sister and I started to really notice the trend, and I made a concerted effort to look for McCain/Palin signage, even on the side streets along the route. Zip. Zero. Nada.
So it was a nice day, I think my sister set her half marathon PR (2:02:45, not too shabby), and the day was just getting better. While heading home to the Dayton, OH area, looking for I-70, I drove by a huge line of people. I was wondering what all these folks could be doing at 11 AM on a Saturday in downtown Indy, and as I drove by, I saw that they were at the local board of elections. There were easily 150 people in line outside the building, waiting to vote! That looked good to me.
To be fair, on the 2 hour drive home, I did see several McCain stickers on cars, but they were all on Mercury Grand Marquis, or large SUV's, for whatever that's worth.
I've got Obama stickers of magnets on all 4 sides of my vehicle, and while on I-70 in the middle of nowhere, east Indiana, a guy pulls up next to me and then slows down. I was a bit worried for a moment, because you know, that's not generally a good thing at 65 mph on the highway, but he looked over at me as a big grin spread on his face, and mouthed "OBAMA!" and gave me a thumbs up as he sped away.
That was sweet. I even saw a car with a "My man Mitch" sticker (Indiana's republican governor up for re-election) on one side, and an Obama '08 sticker on the other side. Nice!
So here we go. Indiana is going to be blue on Tuesday. It's not going to be the tipping point state, but it's going to be some icing on the cake. I'm not sure we can win in Arizona, or North Dakota, or Montana, or Georgia, but Indiana is going blue.
For the record, I'll be working to GOTV the next three days, so I figure it was OK to just run 13.1 miles in an Obama t-shirt today.
Keep working, everyone!