New Yorker here - yes, along with Massachusetts, Hawaii, California, and DC (et. al), we help paint the sky blue, as it were.
We have the luxury of knowing we don't have to do a lot of canvassing in our home communities. We can call other states (I love calling NC people, especially when I run into fellow Meredith alumnae), we can go door to door in other states, we can send money to candidates in other states. It's a great position to be in, and we feel good about taking part in the 50 state strategy.
But let's not forget: Blueness Begins at Home.
I've been reading diaries here, reading many other blogs, and listening to Air America radio commentators. Everyone's focused - and rightly so - on the battleground states.
But we who are in safe Democratic states must GOTV too! We have at stake:
- House seats (29 in New York alone)
- Senate seats (we've got a chance at 60)
- California's Prop 8 bullshit
- New York's Senate, which is in serious play, as well as other state legislatures and governors
Plus, we haven't elected Obama (or more correctly, cast our ballots to direct our electors to vote for Obama at the top party school in the nation) to be our president yet!
So Safe Staters, GOTV in your home state too! Just because we're safe doesn't mean it's in the bag.
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And while I have your attention... just a couple of other thoughts:
- I have a dream that the
true base of the Republican Party - Buckley, and Dean, and Powell, Collins and Specter, and even Huckabee and Romney - kick the PNACers, FReepers, and rabid evangelicals OUT of the party. Palin can run for pres in 2012 all she wants with support of handfuls of extremists while the GOP gets back on point.
- I've said it before, and I'll say it again: for the first time in 26 years of voting, I am
voting FOR someone for president, not AGAINST the greater of two evils. And I even worked on Clinton/Gore '92. It feels good.
- I had a conversation with a friend who is a very
devout Christian in Idaho. This woman is conservative in her values, in her perspectives on the role of government. Yet she told me she's voting for Obama. "He's a true Christian" she said. She might have been persuaded to vote for Huckabee if he'd gotten the nomination, but she was so unimpressed with McCain's personality and Palin's "un-Christianlike Christianity" and has grown more and more impressed with Obama's character and faithfulness. She said all of her friends are voting for Obama too.
- I finally, this weekend, allowed myself to
imagine what it will be like to have President Obama in the White House. It's going to be a struggle, but a good struggle. I like that it will be a little hard. I like that it's going to feel like we put in a good days work instead of pissing against the wind for a change.
Oh yeah. Go VOTE!
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Testing for tomorrow:
NY-03 0% reporting |
Peter King (R-I) |
0 |
0% |
Graham Long (D) |
0 |
0% |