Another hot afternoon in Albuquerque. My walk partner Kurt and I are assigned to knock on doors in an area northwest of the university, near Albuquerque High School. Many of the homes on our call list are hard to find, down unmarked alleys. There are barking dogs, chain link fences with locked gates. Lots of bars on windows and black mesh metal doors.
Not many stories to tell. Except one.
Here's Saturday's post: Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle Meets Canvassing in Albuquerque.
We are leading with Martin Heinrich, who is running for Congress in New Mexico's First District.
After a couple of hours of not-homes or already-voteds or inaccessibles, I find a middle-aged woman standing with a paintbrush in her driveway.
Hi, I'm volunteering for Martin Heinrich, Democrat for Congress. Have you voted yet?
No, she says. I support Heinrich, but not Obama. I don't trust Obama.
I'm wearing a white Obama sticker on my black and gray shirt.
What is it you don't trust about Obama, I ask.
She doesn't have much of an answer. She just says I don't trust him.
Generally, we're trained not to try and persuade people who support McCain, and besides we're leading with Heinrich, who needs this woman's vote more than Obama. I ask her about the other woman on my list for this address, and she says, she thinks the same thing I do. (For Heinrich. Against Obama.) I say thank you.
Aren't you going to try and sell me on Obama? She says I mark her answers on my tally sheet.
So I do.
I can't remember exactly what I say, but I use a line I've used before, referring to the Jack Nicholson movie where he says to Helen Hunt, you make me want to be a better man.
I say that one of the things I like most about Obama is how he appeals to our best selves.
Another woman around the comes in from the back yard, also with a paintbrush. He won't pledge allegiance to the flag, she says.
I don't believe that's true, I say. Where did you hear that?
On the TV. They couldn't say that on TV if it weren't true. It would be blasphemy.
Meanwhile, a grizzled old man with wild hair, drinking from a long can of bear, has joined us. Oh sure, he says, they can say whatever they want on TV.
He also offers that he saw the Obama half-hour ad on TV and thought it made a lot of sense. (He's not on my list, but that doesn't mean I can't talk to him.)
People say he's a Muslim, and that's not true, I say. Doesn't stop them from saying it. He's a Christian.
But why does he have that Muslim name?
It's his family name. His father's name.
And somehow we get to Reverend Wright, and how Obama spent 20 years associating with him.
Now these two woman and this man are all engaged and friendly -- there's maybe a little bit of confrontation, but they also seem like they're happy to be having this conversation. I'm being respectful, and trying to listen to them, but I can't seem to avoid challenging them.
Haven't you ever had friends who you didn't agree with what they were saying?, I ask. Lots of people have friends who think different than they do.
Not me. They're not my friend then.
I start to ask about this man here who seems to disagree with them, but maybe she doesn't like him, so I steer clear of that.
What about family? Do you agree with everyone in your family about everything?
No, I guess not.
I don't know if I changed her mind, but it was the most interesting conversation of the day.