Leaving it all on the road

I've been hearing a lot of stories like this one, from Heather in North Carolina:

Dear Kos. I imagine that this email must join the many others in your inbox, each congratulatory, hopeful, ecstatic, amazed. What a ride, what a journey, what an a-fucking-mazing outcome.

I have been a Kos reader since sometime before the 2004 election, back when I was a comfortable resident of a big blue state (California). I have since moved to a smaller red state (North Carolina), where I nearly died of shock when I realized that Elizabeth Dole was one of my Senators (*was*).

I have never commented, posted, or emailed before. But I am emailing you today to send my thanks. Not only for the absolutely amazing feat of creating something that has allowed millions of people to really look inside he previously obscured political landscape, but also: for kicking my ass into gear.

Without you, I probably would have donated the small chunk that my husband and I could afford. Without you, I would have voted, certainly. But for the first time in my life, I got in my car, drove to my Obama headquarters, and asked what I could do.

At first I said, "I'll do anything that doesn't mean talking to people." So I entered data and prepared packets. But as the election neared, I knew it wasn't enough. Without you, I might have just known it. But with your calls to Leave It All On the Road, for the first time in our lives my husband and I picked up the phone and started calling. And calling. We spent hours calling the rural parts of our state, laughing through the angered hangups, taking heart when someone would throw their support our way. We called throughout the day and evening of the election, calling into timezones where the polls had yet to close, hours after ours was a done deal. That night, savoring (with a certain about of disbelief) that we had pulled this off, I realized how much deeper the satisfaction was, knowing that we had put time and work into this amazing outcome. And yesterday, when North Carolina turned blue on that big map, I rocketed out of my office with the sheer pride of it - I know we didn't need it, but call me greedy: I wanted it.

So.  Thanks.  This community has so much to be proud of, and this is just the beginning.

I am proud.