Today was my fourth weekend in a row canvassing in Bucks County, PA, which is a Philly suburb. It landslided for Hillary Clinton in the primary and we're helping to make sure Obama wins it in 3 weeks!
I'm beginning to see patterns in my canvassing of these swing area. I'm interested to hear if other people are seeing similar things in other areas of the country, so please let me know...
- I've suspected that the Obama campaign seems to have pin pointed supporters really really well. Four weeks back, we would canvass neighborhoods but somehow we'd never knock on doors that already had Obama signs up. To this day, I've had just one house on my list out of about 300 that had an Obama sign outside.
- The past few weeks have been quite successful. We've been hitting lots of Democratic and Independent households. But we've also had a bunch of Republicans mixed in. Generally, our results seems to be about 3 to 1 in favor of Obama. Amazingly, most Republicans we hit, do lean Obama. I'm not sure how the campaign has targeted these specific Republicans as potential supporters but it's impressive.
- This week and last week especially, we've begun to stumble upon a ton of undecided voters. And i mean UNDECIDED with a capital U N D E C I D E D. It seems we're re-canvassing neighborhoods and hitting most of the undecideds again. This means the campaign already has tons of data on who the supporters are. We're doubling back to voters and there are still figgin' 3 weeks to go.
- The undecideds usually seem reluctant to vote McCain. They don't like Bush. They understand the problems in the country are Bush's doing. They are living the problems in the country. But, still, they haven't fallen for Obama yet. So we do our best to help them out and then we move on. Almost every point we make is met with a "yeah, but..." or an "im not sure i'll even vote." or "i dont like either of them". But hey, we're tryin!
- My favorite this week though is that we met four people who were at least leaning Obama and they said something to the effect that their vote isn't too important because Obama is gonna win anyway - he's way ahead now. This appears to be true based on Pennsylvania polling but it could be a problem. That said, it's a problem I'd have signed off for a month ago.
Canvassing is a great experiment. The reactions of these voters are so exciting and unpredictable sometimes. You meet the people who like Palin, the people who despise Palin. The people who love Hillary, etc.
I've enjoyed every minute of it during this campaign. There's been great weather and it's good exercise too. I highly rec it! Do try it once before the campaign ends!