My wife and I flew into Harrisburg, PA this weekend to canvass for Obama and to meet up with one of my friends and three other volunteers coming up from D.C. after we have been in South Carolina, California, Wisconsin, and Ohio...yes, on our own dime and I have to admit our best experience and worth every damn cent...Without getting verbose, I will give you some highlights...But I will say we have a solid chance of winning in PA!!! Which is exciting to see and now hands-on believe it can happen...I am gushing with joy tonight!
Saturday:
- We canvassed about 100 households around the lower Paxton Township area and it included a lower to middle class apartment complex of many different races...talked to about 30-40 households who were approximately 90% Pro-Obama in our direct conversation. Great!
- The highlight of the day was being sat down by an African-American couple who challenged us both why we were supporting Obama...It was a bit strange that we got invited into a household, but being involved in the campaign for a while, I've experienced lots of different situations (both good and bad). I guess maybe this couple wanted a behind-the-scenes vantage point of why this middle-class white couple in their mid-30's is supporting Obama or maybe just wanted to vent about all the events happening...it turned out we both wanted to talk about what mattered and why, the reality of the situation, why we are in the situation we're in as a country (trust me all around we're bitter and outraged, there is nothing elitist about that)...we talked about what has happened to our country...why we don't believe in our government anymore, what the reality is despite the candidate, and the truth is...accountability and involvement in our government and the belief that we want to be governed, and strongly believing Obama is only there to facilitate and provide leadership, but to empower us to believe in ourselves to better our country ....which led me back to why I support Obama - because first-hand I got to experience community organizing in Chicago as member of a neighborhood development organization, the most difficult and rewarding profession I have ever experienced...there are just too many...bottom line...THIS TIME WE ARE FOR SOMEBODY (Obama) and AGAINST the Bush/MCCAIN Administration and the War.
- Our drinks and venting with everyone in a bar in downtown Harrisburg, making sure that I was singled out as the guy who isn't a democrat and won't vote with party platforms (I know, I know, that doesn’t mean I wont support a democratic candidate). I've met some extraordinary people in this campaign and I am grateful of this.
Sunday:
- We canvassed about 100 households in a middle and upper-class area East of Harrisburg. We directly contacted 47 households and about 60-65% were for Obama, the rest for Clinton
- We did find additional Obama supporters within households, mostly husband-wife pairs, although we did get a few where the Husband was voting for Clinton and the Woman for Obama (which MSM tells us is wrong)
- A common theme I did get from people who were for Obama but Republicans (2 households) were that they thought Obama was too liberal but thought he was an honest man and could live with him being in the White House. One funny situation where they just called Hillary evil and another tracked down my wife to tell her that "by-the-way if Hillary was the only person I could vote for, I wouldn't show up and vote."
This was an amazing experience and a valuable and memorable one with my wife, and if we need to do more for Obama, we will. Our time is now, the right candidate is here! We're the ones we've been waiting for, I now believe this more and more...
QUICK UPDATE about tonight's events on CNN:
I am humbled to have him as our candidate...this is it...let's bring it home!