The further adventures of a blogger in Iowa. This and other entries in the series can also be found on
Southpaw. Henceforth, accompanying jpgs will only be served up on Southpaw, as dKos is slashdotting the hell out of our servers!
Previous entries:
Perfect Storm Indeed!
Joe Trippi and the obscene phone bank
Things not to do while canvassing
Day 4: Mission Impossible
Day 5: Angry drunken Deanies destroy Democracy!
Days 6-8: The accidental Dan Savage
Days 9-10: Looks like I picked the wrong week
Day 12: Calm before the Storm
Day 13: The Storm begins
Extended entry follows:
Friday, January 16: The final Perfect Storm weekend begins
After fulfilling my quest for toothpaste (I don't know why I thought one small trial size would be enough for 18 days), I showed up at Storm HQ to discover that our entire flow-through process had changed dramatically. The entire first floor of the building has been repurposed for volunteer management. Whereas Check-In, Holding, Vehicle Check-Out, and Group Check-Out had all been in the same large open area out front, with only Training taking place in other rooms, now Check-In took up the entire open area, Holding took over the entire room in which we had previously been putting together the walk packets (no use for it anymore, after all), Training took over every small office not otherwise used, and Vehicle and Group Check-Out got moved into this little cave-like back room with an exit onto the street. Volunteers now flow in one door, and out another. This reduces random wandering around considerably. After a few early fiascos with groups wandering back to check out before they'd even been trained, the process settled into a groove, and it's been gravy ever since.
That's the good part. Here's the suck-tastic part: Since I'm working Check-Out now, I don't get to see anything. I used to sit right by the front door, so I got to see everything. Anybody walking in the building was fair game for my camera or blogging. Now I'm in this little cave with a piles of Dean literature and granola bars. It blows. I keep hearing about these political media celebs wandering around out front, but of course, I always miss them. On the upside, Adam Mordecai wandered by and I had him mess around with my iBook for awhile to see if he could figure out why I couldn't talk to their ethernet port. Turns out they just didn't have enough IP addresses to support everyone who wanted to plug in. They added a bunch more, and now I have braodband and my laptop to keep me company during the day.
The company of the Internet at large is really only necessary for the afternoon, though, because morning... well... morning is overwhelming. There are so many people here. I probably did not get a chance to breathe easy for the first 3 hours or so that I was there. We sent out three more times as many people as we had the previous day, and the previous day was something of a record-breaker.
Unfortunately those record number of volunteers had some asstastic weather waiting for them. It rained like crazy. It was wet and nasty, and I don't mean that in a fun porno kind of way. I have never seen such a bedraggled group of cold and hungry people as the ones that streamed back in to Storm HQ later that evening. But they were still motivated and anxious to make phone calls. After canvassing hours, it was hard to walk through HQ without having to step over an obstacle course of Dean volunteers sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall, and draped over every available seating surface, cell phones and call sheets in hand. It's a fascinating experience to catch snippets of their conversations as you move through them. We have no specific call scripts, so each volunteer invariably tells their own story: why they came, why they believe in Dean, why this or that issue is important to them. It's one of the most inspiring scenes of the campaign. If I had a video camera and a good microphone, I think I would just slowly wander from one end of Storm HQ to the other, pausing at phone bankers as I went along, just so I could share the experience with people who don't have the incredible opportunity I've been given to be here to hear it.
Speaking of incredible opportunities, the Tokyo for Dean people have been telling us all about an encounter they had in the afternoon. They realized the Gov. was going to be speaking at an event near where they were canvassing, so they decided to go. They got to meet the Gov (who was very impressed that they'd traveled all the way from Tokyo to canvass for him), but more importantly, they had a moving conversation with the widow of the only person from Iowa lost in the WTC attacks on 9/11. She had been a Republican but was unhappy with how things are going and very unhappy about the war, and was intrigued by Dean, but uncertain. The Tokyo people talked to her at length, very moved by her story. They shared their own experiences and feelings about the direction of the country, and why they believed so strongly that Dean is needed in the White House, and by the end of the event, the woman said she was very impressed, and liked Dean a lot. She didn't commit to anything, but the Tokyo people believe she's probably in the Dean camp now.
On a personal note, it always tears me up when I hear about 9/11 families who recognize the way the Bush administration has used them as cover for an illegal personal crusade of a war. It's hard enough for me as an American who loves my country. I can not imagine what it must feel like for someone who lost a loved one to watch the memory of that loved one being used this way. I'm not sure there are words to describe the sense of betrayal and horror.
On to happier things...
Trippi was wandering around, as usual, accosting canvassers to ask them how things were going. By the end of the day, I'd taken to wandering up front now and then just to keep tabs on things outside of my Check-Out cave, and one one of my trips, I saw him and took the opportunity to do a little accosting of my own. I grabbed him and said, "Joe! Have you met the Tokyo for Dean contingent yet?" He said he hadn't so I (just about literally) dragged him back to the Check-Out area where the Tokyo group was hanging out. I walked into the room and announced that I had a surprise visitor for them, and all hell broke loose. They screamed and jumped up and down. "You're real! You're really real!" Joe just kind of smiled and looked a bit sheepish at the oddity of the attention. They regaled him with gifts (a mousepad with pictures of sushi on it (no latte, though) and a Tokyo for Dean t-shirt) and with that nearest and dearest to his heart: canvassing stories. After awhile, a Swedish TV crew managed to wander back and start capturing the moment just as Trippi launched into a Braveheart moment. He gave those of us in the little room (maybe 6 of us at the most?) a heartfelt motivational speech. I don't remember the exact words, but the emotion is seared into my brain. He made sure we knew how grateful he was for everything we were doing, and how much this is truly about us, and how we must not rest until every possible vote has been found. Good stuff.
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After Trippi left, a bunch of BFA bloggers happened to find themselves in that same back area at the same time, and when we realized we all knew each other from the blog, another round of screaming and jumping and "You're real, you're really real!" ensued. There is something so intriguing and strange about meeting people whose on-line names you know so well, but whom you wouldn't recognize (and hadn't recognized!) when they're standing right next to you. When your contexts collide, it can be a dizzying experience.
Once it got late enough that we were no longer sending canvassing groups out, I snuck out to go back to my room. I was going to have to get up at 5:00 am the next morning for the Bloggers' Breakfast, and I still had a lot of work to do. I'm so glad I left when I did. The stars aligned just right and I happened to be in the right place at the right time to gain a new convert at McDonald's of all places. Not having time to cook something up for dinner, I decided to go through the drive through. The woman who took my money saw my Dean signs on the car and said, "Now which one is he? I'm voting for the black lady." Talk about an opening! I said, "Oh! Carol! She dropped out yesterday and endorsed him!" pointing to my Dean signs. The woman looked surprised. "She did? I was at work. I must have missed that!" I said, "Yep. She dropped out and asked all of her supporters to caucus for Dean." She said, "Well, OK. I'm glad you told me!" I thanked her and said, "I'm glad you asked!" Score one for Carol Moseley-Braun. Cha-ching!
Here's another couple of fun pictures from the day:
A woman from Texas has her MiniCooper "wrapped" with Dean. It's kind of beyond the power of verbal description, frankly. This is one committed Dean supporter:
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The giant "I See Dean People" banner from the Jefferson Jackson dinner is now stretched across the parking lot between the two buildings. Very impressive:
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Saturday coming your way next...