I spent the morning canvassing for Obama again, walking around a low-income neighborhood doing both voter registration and persuasion visits. It was encouraging to see that - in all cases but two - those people who already made up their minds planned to vote for Obama. When I asked the remaining people if they minded telling me if they were leaning Obama or McCain, their response was almost invariably, "I don't know ... I'm not very excited about either one but, I guess, McCain."
The Obama supporters were firm and knew what they cared about - jobs, gas prices, and health care. No doubt about. One single mom I spoke with said she had to reduce her work hours to part time because, otherwise, she made too much money for Medicare. (She had benefits from one employer but was fired for missing work when she had a high-risk pregnancy and had to miss to many days.) Her main concern was making it easier for people to transition from "the help" to full independence.
The undecideds/McCain supporters didn't really engage in conversation wtih me, which is understandable. Those who did rarely discussed the issues. One particularly disheartening response was a former Clinton supporter who was now leaning toward McCain! He was very unclear why, but he did say something to the effect, "Well, now we just found out that he was having an affair with a campaign worker." Excuse me? What, Obama? I was completely confused until I realized he was talking about EDWARDS! Oy vey. I tried explaining the confusion but he was halfway back inside by then. (Luckily, I did get a few good points in earlier about making Hillary's work in Congress succeed by having a president who supports her work on health care and the economy.)
What was incredibly encouraging was the response I received from one resident who was amazed that a person could feel so strongly about a candidate that she would walk around a neighborhood knocking on doors. He was an Obama supporter before we talked, but I think it may have planted a seed in his mind that he could be part of this real people-powered movement. Since my car was parked near his house, he was one of the first people I spoke with. As I was leaving an hour and a half later, I hear, "HEY, Mary! Nice meeting you! Keep up the good work!" And I said, "Thank you! Be sure to vote on Nov. 4th." He yelled back, "I've got your back." I said, "Yes we can!" And he laughed, put his fist in the air and yelled, "Yes we can!"
Fantastic. I'm still smiling.