The last 30 hours have been a whirlwind as we end our visit to the battleground of Ohio. Sitting in the Dayton airport heading back to New England and reflecting on the last day and a half of closing the deal for Senator Obama.
On Saturday and Sunday we knocked on a couple hundred doors in Germantown and Farmersville, Ohio. This is a largely rural area that Obama will not carry, but not for lack of trying. Voter ID efforts have been going on for a long time here and the folks on the targeted lists respond pretty positively to our message. Few people are sincerely undecided and we think the turnout will be huge. Montgomery County includes these small town areas as well as the city of Dayton. The ballot is long and includes everything from president to local budget issues so it will take people awhile in the voting booth. Early voting has been very popular in Dayton giving a boost to our efforts.
After Sunday's convassing we took to the road to go see Barack in Cincy. We arrived at 6:30 for a 9:00 PM event. The line was long but everyone in a poitive mood. We spoke to a number of locals who worked hard for Kerry in 2004 and they see the same intensity this time. We stood online slowly getting into the arena by 8:45. But it was worth every minute. The crowd looked like America. Young, old, all races and ethnicities. But I was reminded again why we are fighting so hard this time. In front of us was a young family including three young children. They were all very excited to see Sen. Obama. They mom was too young to have seen Dr. King, but her children would see the first African-American president just moments before the election. The cynics can say what they want, but HOPE does matter. It matter for those kids so they know what is possible in this country. No one can take that away from us.
We heard Gov. Strickland give a nice speech on behalf of the entire Democratic ticket. Senator Obama came on and fired up the crowd. He reminded us again of all the reasons why we are doing what we are doing....and perhaps his biggest applause came when he spoke about winding down the war in Iraq with honor. He seemed a bit tired, but the 25,000 + in the U of Cincy football stadium were there to boy him up. We were so glad we went.
We had great energy during our three hours of GOTV today before we headed to the airport. The effort was organized out of the living room of a local woman and folks came by today in various waves to help with GOTV.
We are optimistic. More later.