(Elvis standing in the NE Philly Obama Campaign Office)
Yes, folks, this is a photo of Elvis himself, pausing between stuffing packets and making calls on his iPhone at the NE Philly Obama-Biden field office.
To be fair, the King did not really pull his weight on canvassing, stating plainly,"I don't usually hang things on doorknobs." But, the fact that he even showed up on Bustleton Ave. lifted the already soaring morale of the GOTV volunteers. When asked why he chose this particular office for his historic endorsement, Elvis replied, "I was itching like a cat on a fuzzy tree and just had to show up to help bring in Pennsylvania. Uh, thankyouverymuchsenatorobama."
HATS OFF TO NE PHILLY!!
No matter what happens tomorrow, I wanted to join Elvis in celebrating the heroic efforts of the NE Philly field office. What a fantastic job everyone did.
Through the efforts of GOTV teams like the Bustleton office in NE Philly, tens of thousands of volunteers showed up untrained to 'help out,' and--because of the organization and tireless efforts of the field teams--were able to turn their enthusiasm into productive, on the ground, work. Millions of voters in PA were contacted, nudged, prodded, informed, fired up, contacted again, informed again, and generally brought into the enthusiasm of this campaign. And none of it could have happened without the work of the field teams.
I spent my GOTV time in NE Philly thanks to the advance work of kossack extrordinaire casperr (hurray!) and many others. Day after day, we all showed up at a rental car office on West 37th St., in the dark, bleary eyed, nervous, confused, and like clockwork we were loaded into vans and cars and driven over a hundred miles to North side of Philadelphia. There, we encountered a team of college students, their parents, and other campaign staffers who trained us, loaded us up with doughnut holes, pretzels, and gratitude, then sent us off to criss-cross the urban jungle.
To be honest, we had no idea what the heck we were doing when we showed up. But the field staffers told us what we needed to know, pushed us in the right direction (e.g., away from oncoming traffic), and off we were--criss-crossing the streets and neighborhoods of Pennsylvania and beyond.
And when our feet were too tired to walk, they sat us down in a room the size of a one-room school house, told us we the work we did would make the difference between winning and losing this election--between abandoning and salvaging our future--told us where to go to get the best pastrami sandwich in the neighborhood, and then sat us down to stuff packets and make phone calls.
Is it any wonder Elvis loves this place?
Never before have I seen such a dedicated crew working round the clock. They made it seem effortless in NE Philly, and while Saturday, Sunday, and Monday volunteers crawled back to New York on exhausted stumps of what once were fully functioning bodies, the Bustleton team tossed back a few more doughnuts holes, a few more cups of coffee, crossed off a few more thousand hash marks on the board, compiled a few more thousand canvassing lists, stuffed a few more thousand door hangers into envelopes, and prepared for one last day of the most incredible GOTV effort ever witnessed in the history of this country.
HATS OFF TO ALL THE FIELD OFFICES!!
And what's even more amazing than all this--even more amazing than Elvis himself showing up to endorse Obama at the NE Philly office?
The same amazing effort was happening all over the country, at the same time, by field office teams just as amazing as the team I worked for in PA.
Ohio.
Florida.
Virginia.
Michigan.
Indiana.
South Carolina.
Nevada.
Colorado.
Georgia.
Arizona!
Every state in this country was witness this weekend to a miracle of Democracy--the return of tens of thousands of citizens--showing up to volunteer their time to elect a man most have never even met, and the whole thing was made possible by team after team of underpaid, overworked, Obama field office staffers.
My goodness, people! Elvis is right.
Please join me and the King of Rock 'n Roll in celebrating our fabulous, amazing, unbelievably hard working and selfless field office staffers and coordinators. For everything they did--not only to bring in this election, but to make it possible or all of us to be a part of history--we are deeply, truly, and forever grateful.
There's one day left--so by all means: show up if you can. And either way, show some love for the field staffers in this thread.
And maybe a nice word or two for Elvis Hussein Presley.