Getting Out the Vote Obama Style

Just got back from an intense weekend Getting Out The Vote in Rochester, NH. 4 cold nights at a cheap hotel. 3 long days working with some of the most inspired, articulate, kind, caring, informed and fired up people I've ever met. This was about more than politics. We were a movement.

I'm still reeling a little from the end result. I, like everyone else, can't figure out how the polls could have been so wrong... But I am so proud to have gone on my own time, on my own dime and slogged through the wet, slushy streets of NH, knocking on doors and talking to people about Senator Obama.

I learned a lot from being on the ground and talking to Americans in their homes about what is important to them. People are sick of Washington. They are sick of candidates that don't listen to them. Who don't care about the working poor. Who are more concerned with their own ego, than the wants and needs of their constituents. I talked to a man who says he's written numerous letters to his local Congressman about some problems that need to be addressed in his neighborhood and hasn't ever heard back. He said he could remember a time when writing a letter meant getting a response - of some kind. I talked to a 61 year old woman who in her own words, had been just a "sliver above poor" her whole life. She made just enough to not qualify for any public assistance, but was always struggling just to get by. I talked to a man shoveling his neighbor's driveway who had signed up to be a volunteer at the polls because he knew he'd be one of the first people to get to vote on Tuesday. All of these people were voting for Senator Obama. And sadly I talked to a few people who apologetically said that they loved Senator Obama and his message of hope and change, but were too jaded and cynical to believe it was actually possible anymore, and were therefore going to vote for the status quo candidate.

Many people who told me they were not going to vote for Senator Obama apologized to me, saying they felt bad that they weren't voting for him. What a sad statement about the state of affairs in America - that people can't feel good about who they are voting for, and are too afraid/disaffected/cynical to vote for the person they CAN feel good about voting for. We are at a place in our history where the current administration has botched things up so badly, that we have a unique opportunity to shift the paradigm and try something completely different. But the fearmongering of the past 7 1/2 years - while it has people hungry for change - also has them scared. Scared to hope for anything more than "not as bad as it is now."

Barack Obama can bring people together, inspire them, and effect change. He dares to dream big and inspires us to do so. One thing I saw first hand in NH is what his message can accomplish on a grassroots level. Our office was two doors down from another candidate. Let's say that candidate's name is "Billary." Here's a little compare and contrast. Our office was a mess. People were sleeping on the floor in the back room and freshening up in the showerless bathroom. Working, lierally, around the clock. Almost no one in the office was actually paid anything. We were all volunteers who came on our own, and used and gave of our own resources, without complaint and with total commitment. We were told to run a clean, pleasant, professional, courteous ground operation. To NEVER speak badly about anyone else's campaign or person. To never answer a question if we didn't know the answer, but to be sure and get the proper information to the person asking it by calling the office, where someone was available to us at all times. There were volunteers from CA, IA, IN, NY, MA, ME, MD, DC, as well as dozens from the town of Rochester itself.

Billary's office was often empty. There were few volunteers from the area, but many paid operatives from DC. They sat at desks. Their office was neat as a pin. We never ran into them canvassing. We hardly ever came across her literature. Her people seemed largely absent from the area, which was strange. One of the aforementioned paid operatives disclosed that Billary outsourced all the phone calls to a service. Contrast that with our Obama office where we were using our own cell phones to make calls from call lists until the polls closed on Tuesday, because we had more vounteers than phones, and a desire to work until the very last minute. We were told by one of the Billary people that they'd love to come work for Obama if he won the nomination - but we should know that the Billary people would NEVER allow anyone who'd worked the Obama campaign to work for them. As she said, "the Obama people take all comers, the Billaries are very vindictive."

I ran across a lot of misinformation as I canvassed as well. I wondered where it was coming from. Especially since it seemed to be the same two issues over and over again. "I've heard Senator Obama doesn't support a woman's right to choose - got that in an email..." No ma'am, in fact he has received a 100% rating from both Planned Parenthood and NARAL every year he's been in office, his record is adamantly Pro-Life. "I got an email that says that Senator Obama refused to particpate in the Pledge of Allegiance..." No Sir, that's not accurate. When asked where they got this information, all of them said emails from that Billary candidate. These are the politics of Karl Rove. As Democrats, haven't we prided ourselves, in fact, assuaged ourselves after two horrifying national elections, with the knowledge that at least we didn't stoop to the Republicans' level and campaign in the mud? We may not have won in 2000 and 2004, but at least we didn't lie and drag our opponents down with falsehoods and deviousness. Well, the Democrats seem to have their own Karl Rove in their midst now, and whoever s/he is, s/he is working for Billary. After reading Rove's WSJ oped piece on Obama, I'm beginning to wonder if it isn't Karl Rove HIMSELF who's working for Billary...

I got a chance to see Mr. Obama at a rally in Rochester. He was amazing. Especially in dealing fairly and hearing out a small but very vocal group of anti-abortion protesters who began chanting and disrupting the proceedings about 10 minutes in. Senator Obama kept the crowd from booing the protesters or shouting them down with rhetoric or even "Fired Up, Ready to Go!" chants. He asked the protesters if they had any questions for him, or if they wanted to open up dialogue. He asked the crowd to hear them out. Eventually, after the crowd of 1000 just stared at the 10 protestors for about 2 minutes, they petered out and left, unsure as to what to do next, as I'm sure they were prepared to be challenged and stirred up. Left with nothing but our full attention, and no other agenda but to scream the same three words: "Abortion is abomination" over and over, they realized they weren't going to get any traction that way, and left of their own accord. After they left Mr. Obama, who had been in the middle of praising the organization of ground volunteers when the ruckus started, said "That was good ground organization - that's the right of Americans to have their voice heard." And he's right. Watching him deal with that group gave us all a real insight as to how he would deal with those who disagree with him. It was pretty amazing.

To use the campaign terminology - I am more fired up and ready to go than I was before I left for NH. I'm getting active here in my home state, and considering a trip to SC for the final push before primary. Finding a candidate that actually transcends everything you always hope for when you go to place a vote is a little bit like finally falling in love. You've thought for so long that you'd have to settle... But when you find out you don't have to settle - it's the best feeling in the world.