Go and volunteer, at least for a few hours. Here's why:
Next Tuesday Barack Obama is going to be elected President of the United States.
He is. He is going to be elected President.
And all during the day on Tuesday, you are going to be glued to the television and the internet, and when MSNBC calls it at 10:13 p.m., you are going to want to celebrate.
Maybe you will be at home, maybe you will be at a bar, maybe at a friend's house. And when it happens, you can say I just watched history be made. I just saw history happen. And it will be amazing and historic, like Mardi Gras and Christmas morning and frozen Girl Scout Thin Mints and snow days all rolled into one. It will. And it's going to happen.
But I don't want that for you, brothers and sisters. I want it to be better than that. And it can be.
The sweetest campaign victory comes when you have worked as a volunteer on that campaign, even if only for a few hours.
It comes when you've made those calls, and walked those neighborhoods, helped pick up pizza for the headquarters office, and held those signs in the cold rain on election day as drivers whisk past, honking support.
Unable to contribute more and feeling like a spectator to history, in March I took a week off from work, left my family behind, and drove 500 miles to work on the campaign in Youngstown, Ohio for the primary.
That week was a hard, laborious slog, sometimes as sleet and ice came down sideways. We lost the primary, and Mahoning County, where I worked, by nearly 9 points. I got pneumonia and had to be hospitalized for two days.
And it was, without question, one of the three or four best moments of my life.
Look, I am telling you: The truest, best, unalloyed and unmitigated, bone-deep thrill comes in seeing a victory you had a hand in helping to create.
When you can stand there among friends and strangers as the tallies come in and you can say, I helped make this happen; In some small way, I helped make this moment happen.
There simply is no equal feeling. Trust me. I never worked on a campaign until this one, and please, just trust me. You are short-changing yourself if you don't get out there and get into the arena, even if just for a few hours.
You need to go to your closest campaign office and just see the work being done. Just see it, and I guarantee you that you will want to help, right then, right there.
And they need you, brothers and sisters.
Those tired people. Those poor, tired people, many of whom have been working on the campaign since Iowa, since New Hampshire. God how they need you right now. I met a man while canvassing in Dale City, Virginia last weekend. He stood for 8 hours on the sidewalk of a shopping center, handing out canvassing assignments and turf packs, and he looked like walking sleep. He was pale and sickly looking, and he told me he had been plugging away since South Carolina. He was flat wore out. Exhausted, and unpaid.
They need you. They need you badly.
This is the Big Push. This is where GOTV isn't just some acronym bandied about, with an end date somewhere on the distant horizon. We have a week.
One week.
It's not GOTV anymore. It's time to Get. Out. The. Vote.
It's D-Day. It's Omaha Beach out there, right now, in Tampa and Richmond, in the suburbs of Omaha and in the trenches of St. Louis. In the hollows of Beckley, West Virginia, and in the highlands of Boiling Springs, Pennsylvania.
Armies of volunteers are on the move in the streets of this nation. Banks of callers are getting out the word. Teams of lawyers are gearing up to protect the vote.
Multitudes are marching to the big kettle drum.
Help them. Help back their ranks. Help them help Obama across the finish line. Add your strength to the front lines. Grab an oar. Knock on doors. Make calls. Drive for Change.
I promise you one thing. Here it is:
You will never feel better about victory. You will be able to say, I helped make this happen. I was there.
I promise.
Do that, and I while this will be you election night, enjoying the moment with family...
..or enjoying the moment with dozens of ebullient and like-minded strangers
...but it will feel like this:
We few. We happy few. We band of brothers and sisters.
Join us. Do it for the cause, but also, do it for yourself.
I promise you. The sweetness of the victory will be greater still.
Go.
Go.
Go.