11.15.2008

eleven days later: thanks and stories

Hi everyone,

I've been meaning to write this for some days now, well, i guess about ten days, but haven't really known what to say. I mean, what is there to say? We just witnessed, and participated in, and helped bring about the historic election of Barack Obama. He's going to be our President. I'm still rather speechless.

(ohhhh, but now that I've finished this, I see that I wasn't speechless at all...sorry it's so long!--Ok, there's three parts: 1) words of thanks, 2) a request for stories about your election day experience and a telling of my experience from that day, and 3) stories from election day from other volunteers...)

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I want to thank you all for everything that you did--for supporting and encouraging me, volunteering, financially supporting the campaign, talking about politics with friends and family when it was uncomfortable to do so, praying...all of these actions made a difference. And thank you especially to Tom, Judi and Diego Ditzler, who housed and fed us those last ten days of the campaign, to Carol, Anne's mom, who flew up to Wisconsin to surprise Anne on her 40th birthday and who then flew back to Florida and campaigned her heart out, and to David and Sarah for making that surprise visit possible. It was a wonderful ten days, and we were so happy to share it with family, especially family who could put up with our incessant campaign talk.

I wanted to share with you one of the emails I got--this from Jeanne Heifetz, a great volunteer organizer from Brooklyn who I met on one of my trips to Philly. Jeanne went to PA every weekend, for months, and trained and encouraged probably hundreds of volunteers to keep coming back. She collected a bunch of stories that people shared with her about their election night experiences, and circulated them--please take a minute to read them, below (make sure you read the last one, written by someone traveling to Thailand on Election Day, especially). They capture, for me, both the quotidian and the global zeitgeist, and I was moved to tears more than once reading them.

I'd love to hear from you all about how you feel about the election now--what you experienced election night, how you felt these last few months.

One thing is clear: I wasn't the only one who was emotionally exhausted by the drama and the trauma of the McCain campaign. I think we were all collectively holding our breath, and when it looked certain that Obama would win...we all began to exhale. So now that we're breathing again, send me your stories, and I'll compile them to share with the group.

Here's what my Election Day was like:

I spent Election Day organizing volunteers in Menasha, Wisconsin, out of a space at the United Steelworkers office. We awoke at 4 in the morning, got to the office by 5 am, expecting a rush of 6 am volunteers who'd been scheduled and confirmed--we had to blanket all of our neighborhoods with literature (doorhangers) that gave the voting location. But only one person showed at 6, and we started worrying, hard. We juggled tasks, and reset expectations for the day--we had wanted to canvass all our neighborhoods at least twice, but then we thought we should focus on getting all of the done at least once, and see if we could do more. But happily, things picked up between seven and eight, and we had many teams out there in the field, running from door to door, dropping off literature and racing on to the next house.

The hours flew, and I took a break around 11 am to center myself...and took a look at some of the blog postings...the conservative pro-Obama blogger Andrew Sullivan was posting emails he was receiving from people around the country who wrote in with their voting experiences, and some of the stories brought me to tears. Some were about long lines, others captured the experience of immigrant and second-generation voters, others depicted the excitement and energy in the polling places, and others were about first time voters. Reading them, quickly, one after another, gave me goosebumps...there I was sitting in a parking lot in small-town Wisconsin, in unseasonably warm weather, and all across the country people were standing up and making their voices heard. I was crying a little when a man named Terry, who'd gone out canvassing that morning, came over and started talking to me--he was with the union, and we talked about Labor, the Democratic party, identity politics and the environment, and what an opportunity this is, now, to come together and get right with one another. I am amazed at how many wonderful conversations, deep conversations, I had with people throughout my ten days in Wisconsin--people opened up to one another, spoke about their motivation for getting involved, and banded together to reach our goals.

We'd covered all the turf by 12, and were on to a second round of canvassing, identifying who had already voted and who might need a ride to the polls. At the same time, we had some folks in the office who were making phone calls to other lists of prospective supporters, and making sure they knew all the details about where to vote. The day just flew by, all the turf got covered again...and late in the day we got a few extra super-volunteers (actually, pro organizers) from the Fond du Lac office, because they were above targets there. So they swooped in around 6 pm and ran out with neighborhood maps and voter lists within minutes, with fire in the belly, to try to reach those last voters who hadn't yet made it to the polls.

At around 7:30, half an hour before the polls closed, we were getting ready to go hand out water and cookies in case there were lines at the polls...and then the report came in...someone had driven to all the polls and there weren't any lines anywhere.

We sat there, taking in this news. What did it mean? After a second, we realized that it could only mean two things--either people stayed home and didn't turn out in the numbers we expected, or...we had organized the stuffing out of the area, and people had voted earlier in the week and earlier in the day. We'd have to wait until the state was called to find out which it was.

And then, while Anne was still coming back from the field with Roger, a 40-something Iraq war vet who was one of our most solid volunteers, the clock struck 8 pm, and the polls closed. And immediately, the networks called Wisconsin for Obama! It was thrilling. Even more thrilling was the analysis that followed, with maps that showed that Wisconsin was almost completely "blue" in 2008, after being almost completely "red" in 2004. We turned our little county blue, by approximately 10,000 votes, which was great! Kerry and Gore won Wisconsin by less than one percent each, and WI was won by Obama by around 13 percent. Woot!

Anne and I got back to her brother's house, and I literally walked in the door and burst into tears. All the emotion and happiness and exhaustion kind of jumped out of my face and I knew that I was d-u-n done. Anne and her brother Tommy went down to the victory party in Oshkosh, and though I would have loved to go, and though I missed saying goodbye to our kickass team: intern Peter and deputy organizer Danielle, Charis an experienced hand who'd come to help GTD in the last few days, and our fearless leader, our organizer, Les...I had to just curl up on the couch and cry for a little while. (And the tears kept coming, off and on, over the next couple of days!)

And then all of a sudden it was 10 pm and they called it for Obama! I just couldn't believe, after the last two election nights, that we knew it, it was over, and we won. I was just overwhelmed, and watched all the news crews trying to capture this moment with footage of Jesse Jackson, crying, of students at Spellman College, crying, of joyous jubilation in Ebenezer Baptist Church...And it hit me: I had been so engaged with Obama's campaign, his ideas, the new politics he espouses, the larger grassroots organizing movement, the massive numbers of volunteers and donors...that I had not really focused for some time on the fact that Obama is African-American. I mean, I knew it, of course, and I was afraid of some of the racism that played out during the campaign, but I was invested in his candidacy for so many additional reasons beyond the opportunity to change history and the chance to symbolically right our wrongs.

So I have to admit that the election night coverage was at first a bit strange to me, because it focused almost exclusively on the racial aspect of Obama's election...I was caught up in other aspects of his candidacy and his message--his attempt to dismantle the whole red state/blue state dichotomy, his attempt to articulate a larger, broader, better vision of America, his goal of a civil politics, his attempt to include more people at every stage of the campaign, including his victory speech--to build a real grassroots organization that mobilized literally millions of volunteers--the way his candidacy captured the yearning of our country to move beyond the hyperpartisan Rovian crap of the last years...I felt like the election was our country gearing up to collectively claim that this better America is who we are, who we want to be. But of course, our racial history is part of the America we wish we weren't, the America we're ashamed of, it is so deep, it is our American story....
On election night, I saw how so many people were relieved and were rejoicing that Americans could and did elect an African American, and I realized anew how much collective sadness and guilt and discomfort white Americans carry around with them, and how much the racial aspect of Obama's election meant to them, as well. Just a few days after the election, Anne and I went to her church in Harlem, where we heard from some of the parishioners about what the election meant to them--one elderly woman, who'd grown up in Mississippi, talked about how she had to trace her feet on pieces of paper to get new shoes, since she wasn't allowed in the store. And I was struck yet again with how much this election means, that there's a surfeit of meaning--that we bring to this moment our individual and collective histories, our individual and collective aspirations for America, and that it's all too big for words. My heart overflows with love for this country, which is a feeling I don't think I've ever had before. I'm proud that we have changed enough to elect an African-American to the Presidency, and I'm proud that American citizens are (re)awakening to democracy, to our power to choose and make the world we want to live in. As Congressman John Lewis stated during the Democratic National Convention, "Democracy is not a state, it is an act, it is actions." It does, indeed, feel like a new day, and one with a plenitude of actions before us.

At any rate, it has been an historic time, and one that I feel so blessed to have been part of. Looking at the headlines from across the country and the world is just overwhelming. Now comes the task of governing, and it's not going to be easy. The cynics and the wingnuts alike will make this complex situation even more difficult. And people are wondering: how do we keep this organization alive, this grassroots energy? I'm open to ideas, and I'll circulate what I learn with all of you.

One thing you can do, right now, is submit your ideas and suggestions to the Obama transition team at www.change.gov

You can also give a shout-out to Howard Dean, who first promoted the 50-state strategy. Obama has decided to update the weekly Presidential radio address by putting it on YouTube and radio, which should be interesting. Do you have other ideas about how Obama can continue to be in conversation with the larger public? Do you want to start a local meet-up group to get involved in your community? Share your ideas and let's see what we can build.

With love,
Erin

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jeanne Heifetz <jeanne@brooklynforbarack.org>
Date: Sat, Nov 8, 2008 at 3:53 PM
Subject: Just When I Thought I'd Stopped Crying

Dear Volunteers,
I've been compiling all of your thoughts and suggestions about how we go forward, and will send out an email about them soon, but in the meantime, so many of you have sent your stories of the last few days that I wanted to share them all. So grab your box of Kleenex.
Jeanne
* * *
We arrived back in Fort Greene just after Florida was called and our block just erupted. There was this one livery car that some drunk white guy got on top of and began dancing on. People tried to pull him off when they realized the driver was beginning to get upset and because there was a huge dent in the roof. The guy finally jumped off and everyone piled into the car to bang the roof back up while the driver watched stunned. The white guy came back just as the final dent was popped out and the livery driver went up to him and....
hugged him.

We went to bed at 3 with the windows open so that we could fall asleep to that joyful noise.
* * *
Some excerpts from a wonderful canvassing diary (full diary here)
We were maybe 50 strong, all psyched about canvassing in behalf of Obama. By canvassing we mean, of course, trying to persuade dozens of strangers in Wilkes-Barre of the importance of voting for Obama. It's chutzpah to do this I thought, and so out of character for me, I thought, but we were a busload of chutzpah, prepped for knocking on dozens of strangers' doors that gray and damp day to persuade, listen, engage our neighbors. What was it that emboldened us to do this? It was our fervent enthusiastic support for Obama, of course. But what it also signified was that we felt some kinship with our "fellow Americans" (a phrase I realize that's been co-opted by the Republican campaign) but here it was , proof that we were all neighbors, able to tap on each others' doors and say, 'hey, I live in the next door state, and I gotto talk to you. I'm in trouble! And I think you're in trouble too!'
We had traveled far, given up a day, endured nasty, rainy weather, and in the process, we believe we added two votes for Obama, But aside from this small accomplishment, we established something far more intangible – I believe for all of us -- about being American, and what our citizenship is really about. We really are all in it together. And we can knock on our neighbor's door in an emergency.
* * *
After Barack Obama spoke and Joe Biden greeted him on the stage, many of us were moved to tears. Our new leaders would transcend racial and generational boundaries that seemed impenetrable over the last eight years. We emerged out into the street, feeling invigorated enough to walk our way back across town. I have never, in my life, felt this kind of excitement. People were out driving in their cars and proudly honking their horns in honor of the victory. African-Americans hollered to me, a Jewish woman, that we did it. I held up signs and they held out their hands. Perhaps the most memorable moment of the night for me was when I noticed two white, male students walking down the sidewalk with the American flag draped across their shoulders. We have given them the country we told them they should believe in. We are The United States of America.
* * *
Last night at the Cleveland victory party, the crowd was as mixed in every way as any you could imagine. "Welcome to the real America!" called out the MC, & that summed up the night.
* * *
I was a child in the late 60s and early 70s.

I didn't quite understand politics or world affairs yet but I felt the turmoil of those times -- the war, the street riots, the assassinations, the young people trying to change things. But most of all, I also felt their dreams and their hopes -- of stopping the killing of war, of putting an end to the hatred of racial divide, of stemming the rise of a political system that was us against them -- and, more importantly, of creating a truly inclusive society, a better America for all the people and a braver, newer world.

Somehow, it never happened; the people gave up or were thwarted, the dream was deferred and that hope faded away.

Lately, I have felt that same hope in regards to this election, for this presidential candidate, and because of the many people I have met, talked to, debated with, and worked beside in this giant, united effort to eliminate those same problems and to realize a shared dream and a common hope for this society, this country and this world.

Yesterday, somehow, it did happen; the people came together and persevered, the dream was revitalized and that child's hope I felt all those years ago shone bright again, right on the other side of a door that has now swung open just a little wider.
* * *
Last night, right after the election was called, folks took to screaming and shouting and celebrating on my Brooklyn street. I leaned out my window watching, smiling, and crying. there's one person in particular I cannot get out of my mind. he was a young black man, running and jumping, crying out again and again: "MY vote counted! it was MY vote! MY vote counted! it was MY vote!"
* * *
Everyone I know offered what they could, from money to prayers to time, and it worked! Today, I am proud to be an American in the widest and most complex and wonderful sense of the term. Something shifted in me and us. This country is ours again. Even I am a patriot. We have yet to know all the ways that we will be grow, stretch, and learn over the next few years, but I feel faith and trust in the choice we made together -- a delicious feeling after 8 years in the darkest political wilderness.
* * *
Yesterday I was walking home with my 4-year-old who was having one of those public temper tantrums that make people stare at you like you've got 3 heads (this in Park Slope; you'd think everyone would've been in my shoes) and these kinds of meltdowns usually aggravate me beyond words, but I was pushing her stroller as she howled and thinking "Obama is president" and then I just smiled and smiled and smiled.
* * *
From an email sent out Tuesday morning:
We will be celebrating not just for ourselves, but for the generations to come as well as those who came before us, for those known and unknown without whom an Obama would never have been possible. His ascendancy will not solve the deep rooted problems of our day; racism won't be gone, the criminal injustice system will still exist tomorrow, innocent people will still be killed by our government, the parasitic military-industrial complex will still be feeding, the poor and less wealthy will still be disenfranchised, gays and lesbians, workers and minorities blatantly harassed and denied civil rights and women will still be the largest discriminated and abused group for years to come. However this does feel like the last few strokes to reach the surface, after we have all collectively been drowning, sinking in despair without air, not just for the last 8 years, but for over 30 years when Reaganomics first started unraveling the gains made here in the 60's and 70's. We have to hold our breaths just a little bit longer, we can see the sun-light flickering on the surface, and then, when we reach the surface (TONIGHT!), we can draw fresh air and start moving forward again.
* * *
Here are a few of my campaign memories:
  • An elderly African-American woman, on hearing that I was going to Pennsylvania for Obama each weekend, took my hand in hers and called me "sister."
  • While canvassing with a partner in the suburbs near Bethlehem, three White kids jumping on a trampoline saw our Obama gear and started chanting "O-bam-a," timing it so that the syllables coincided with the top of their jumps (when we could see them over the fence). It turned out that their mom was an Obama supporter.
  • Calling to get directions after getting lost on the way back from seeing a polling place close as a poll watcher and hearing an excited 18-year-old say "Did you hear that we won Pennsylvania?!"
* * *
I wept as I walked out of the polls on Tuesday, not to mention during his acceptance speech. Tuesday morning after voting I boarded a train up to Boston to be with my grandmother who unfortunately suffered a massive stroke late Sunday night. She's 95 and been very happy and positive until this particular reality of being 95 violently arrived. She's now paralyzed on her right side and without the capacity to speak but able to acknowledge some of what we are saying. I showed her the newspaper Wednesday morning and spoke to her. The smiling half of her face does still glow. Last week, when she could still walk, she voted early for Obama in MA. Here with her now, despite her condition, we are all overjoyed about the election, overjoyed about Barack Obama.
* * *
Change has come. Yesterday, as I campaigned in Philadelphia for Barack Obama, I had the honor and joy of a special experience. In a small concrete island at an intersection in South West Philadelphia in the rain, a group of children held up signs and cheered for Barack Obama. Adults joined them and someone pulled their car over and played Sam Cooke's "Change Gon' Come" on their stereo. Passing cars honked, passersby smiled, my heart expanded and tears came to my eyes.

This is a moment in history when the Universe has shifted, making transformational change possible, and it is happening right before our eyes. Hope was stronger than fear. Calls for community were stronger than calls for division. Calls to our better selves were answered.

This is an America that I can be proud of.
* * *

When the results were announced I was collapsed on the couch with my friends Keisha and Doug in Philly after a 12 hour day of canvassing around the neighborhoods I'd been in for the past six Sundays working on voter registration and turnout. Keisha, who is African American, is married to my old friend Doug and I'd talked to Keisha over the past few months about what it would mean to raise their biracial daughter Clellan - now 5 months old - in this world. While we waited for the results Keisha talked about her father who was the first black student at an elite white East Coast school and always said 'never in my lifetime;' I talked about my grandparents who had spent summers in the early sixties doing voter registration in the South with Stokely Charmichael. When we heard, we sat stunned, not quite ready to believe. It wasn't until the Yes We Can speech that the tears were shed.

On Tuesday I started canvassing at 8:30 am in neighborhoods of Northwest Philly which have traditional voter turnout rates of 30% at best. During our first shift - from 8:30 to about 11 am, about 75% of the people we spoke to had already voted (many as soon as the poles had opened at 6 am), and the rest were either on their way their or planning to go ceremoniously with family later in the day. By the time we walked around a nearby neighborhood around noon, about 98% had voted, and proudly proclaimed it ("You LATE!" a few said with proud smiles). Having canvassed in the last presidential election it was truly incredible (although not astounding) that the personal drive and broad peer pressure dictated that every single person in these communities voted - early! - not taking any chances.

I only found a few people who were not completely committed to voting, but they all came around and cast their ballots. One 83 year old woman named Miss Harriett was not answering her door, so one of her neighbors took it upon herself to come bang on the door yelling "Miss Harriett! You got to come out and VOTE!" While I was walking her to the polls we ran into another old lady on her way to come and visit Miss Harriett. I assumed she was an old friend. It turned out to be Miss Harriett's step-mother. The conversation quickly turned to funerals, and how expensive they've become, and how expensive even cremation had become - besides food prices, their main issue. They asked me to explain what Mr. Obama's message and platform was all about, and I did in basics, and they started to get excited about voting. It was a sober contrast to the enthusiasm and priorities of the younger generation, but just as important.
There was another woman we came upon at about 7 pm during the last GOTV round in a mixed black and Latino neighborhood spent 20 minutes explaining to us the frantic decision making process which led her to decide on Obama. She also confided in us that her husband, who is actually employed by the McCain campaign, voted for Obama as well!
Tuesday was a buildup of the last month and a half for me. Throughout the day in these mostly black neighborhoods, people who had voted first thing in the morning expressed gratitude that we were out there making sure every single vote was cast - one woman said in reference to the early days of the civil rights movement: "This is how it USED to be." Kids throughout the neighborhood who had expressed disbelief over the past month that this white woman was out there pushing for this black man ("YOU voting for Obama???") recognized me from previous canvassing rounds and treated me like one of the community. I thought about some of the people I'd spoken to over the past several weeks: a man who told us he couldn't vote because he'd originally registered as a Republican because he's got 6 kids over in Iraq and thought the GOP would take better care of them, but then saw that he was wrong and wanted to support Obama but thought he couldn't vote against his party. He cried when we told him that he absolutely could. And the white Jewish woman in NE Philly on my first trip out who started telling us about her distinctly racist upbringing and how she didn't go to her high school prom because she was asked by a Black kid and her father never would have let her go, but how this election campaign had finally forced her to reconsider and move past this racism and embrace the candidate who to her was obviously better suited to the job and better represented her values.
So, to echo John McCain, it was the great privilege of my life to be involved in this incredible election. And as my friend Naya said when I met her for dinner Thursday night: WELCOME TO MY BRAND NEW WORLD!!
* * *
(written on Election Day from a traveler going from Malaysia to Thailand)
.
Today, in honor of the election, I am wearing an Obama '08 button on my lapel. If the treatment and reaction throughout my day is any indication of what our world might become....I am overwhelmed with optimism. First, every single place I went, someone noticed the button and called out, "OBAMA!". There were international administrators from across the region at the Hotel. Many of them nodded and smiled, and even the non-Americans who reacted with huge enthusiasm. One man from Australia stopped me to talk politics for 10 minutes. The crew working behind the desk all gave a thumbs up...the taxi driver did not charge me for taking me to the airport.

I must explain that, once at the airport, I am one of very few Americans among Asians from all over this region. I might possibly be the only blond in either airport I have been in so far today, and won't see many if any Americans until Bangkok. I do not speak the language...thank goodness they speak English.

Upon seeing my button, everyone, without exception, smiles. I have received preferential treatment all day long. They didn't make me pay extra for a heavy bag, they treated me in short, like royalty. The stewardess told the pilot, who stood up in the cock pit to give me a thumbs up. Even the immigration official barely looked at my passport. He was much more interested in knowing an Obama supporter and what I thought would happen today.

When I was buying dinner at a very American McDonalds (the only place to get something to eat), the entire crew behind the counter (not one American) came to say kind words to me. The man who exchanged my money asked how I could do anything so far away from the USA. I told him, with some amount of pride, that I had voted by absentee ballot. He took my hand and said, "thank you so much for voting for Mr. Obama." There were actual tears in his eyes.

While waiting at the airport in Kota Kinabalu and girl about 9 years old saw my button. She smiled broadly. I said hello and she asked if I wanted Obama to win because she did and her whole family did and that that morning they said a prayer that he would. I told her that I thought Barack would like that a girl all the way in Kota Kinabalu said a prayer for him. She asked could I tell him that they were praying for him and I said I would send an email to his headquarters. She was so excited that she ran to tell her parents. Her father came over and asked me if I knew Obama. I told him I had seen him speak, but never met him. He said that his whole community was praying for Obama and that he appreciated that I would write an email to tell him. He took my hand and said, we are praying for all of the American people too. This was the second stranger to take my hand today. It was my turn to have tears in my eyes, because this man, who I didn't know, was completely sincere. I thanked him. He said, "all of us, together...do you understand?" I said, "All of us together." We parted...smiling!

I write this as I sit in the airport at Kuala Lumpur waiting for hours for the plane. The women who guard the doors have on Muslim headdresses, orange pants outfits and lime green jerseys. They are shy and reserved, yet they give me the thumbs up, and quietly whisper, "Obama" as I walk by. There are Thai and Chinese, and Indonesians and Indians surrounding me...The languages, dress, foods are all interesting. And sitting right next to me is a Buddhist monk, in just his orangish/yellow robes and shaved head. He smiles broadly when I look at him. He says frankly, "I like Obama."

The man behind the counter is Malaysian. He asks if I voted and when I confirm I have he laughs really loud and says something to the other official sitting next to him. This man laughs too. They both look at me intently. The one, fighting to find the right english begins, "This is (something in Malay). I smile saying I don't understand. He looks at his colleague and rattles something in Malay...The man says just a minute. He gets out a book. It is an english translation book. He says something to the man and hands him the book...pointing to a line on the page. The 1st man turns back to me and says..."this is fan/tas/a/tic...fan-tas-aahhh-tic...how do you say?" I tell him, yes, he is right "Fantastic". They laugh again at their attempts. I laugh too. He stamps everything forcefully, "wham! wham! wham!" And then he says something none of these officials ever take time to say, "We hope you will come back and visit our country!" "Of course, I say, of course." I don't quite know how to explain the full meaning of his invitation. Americans haven't been at the top of the list for quite awhile and traveling around, it isn't hard to sense.

Our leaders reflect who we are as a country/nation. I have always been proud of my family and Oregon. I have not always been proud of our leaders and the choices they make. Today I am proud...I am proud of our country and I was tearful watching a top French official trying to explain to the BBC reporter why the whole world is watching this election and praying that Obama will become our president.

Well, thank you for letting me share. Tomorrow at 7am we head to the American Embassy gathering to watch the election results come in. We are attending with world leaders and diplomats. We are to dress "smart casual". It should be quite the experience...one I hope brings new hope to our country and the world.

10.31.2008

gearing up for the final four days

The days are getting longer, so these email updates are getting shorter.

Tuesday through Thursday we did 14-hour days helping our full-time organizers (who get in earlier and leave later than we do). But Tom and Judi have keep the fridge full so we can grab breakfast, pack lunches, and eat really yummy leftovers whenever we roll in at 1 am. The coffee shop down the street keeps us all fueled on caffine.

Ahhhh....the life of an organizer. For a week, the last week, it's energizing, but there is a reason most of these organizers are still in their twenties! And the local volunteers are great - retirees who come in the morning, our 17 yr-old high-school student, Jessie, who has missed her curfew two nights in a row because she is staying late to organize all the "door hangers" (a flyer that hangs on the door with the address of the local voting poll) by precinct for four different cities. The college students, like Peter, who only leave when they just can't skip another class. The working folks who come before or after their day job, or the parents who juggle kids between volunteer shifts (or bring them with them--Erin got to help Kiersten, a four year old, find some markers to make Obama signs while her mom stuffed literature packs). Yesterday a new volunteer, Barb, who stayed for more than six hours, said "I've got some bratwurst in the freezer since the summer, do you think there would be a problem if I cooked them and brought them in in?" No problem! I've been trying to convince our organizer from Brooklyn "when in WI, eat like the Wisconsinites do - brats and cheese." (The take-out thai food last night was actually just like bad Chinese food and he wasn't happy.)

Yesterday Erin organized a slew of volunteers, at least 35, many of whom stayed five hours or more, to collate all the literature packets that will get dropped for GOTV (get out the vote) for Sat/Sun for our four cities. I worked with others to collate all the "turf", or packets with neighborhood maps and lists of specific voter households that volunteers will contact as they walk through the assigned neighborhood. Yesterday and today our other huge task is sorting and counting door hangers for Monday and Tuesday. These are pre-printed fliers that say the specific ward, polling place, voting hours, etc. Because they are specific to each polling place - and a different flier on Monday vs Tuesday - they needed to be sorted by specific ward/turf. And, a lot of ours weren't pre-printed, so we are printing mailing labels and sticking them on....

This is not glamorous campaign work, this is spending all day in a dim, cold, musty basement with crap all over the floor and piles of door hangers everywhere. But it is essential work - we want canvassers in every town, in every ward, in every turf hanging this voting information on doors and urging people to vote.

There's fun moments, too--last night was downtown trick or treating and there were HUNDREDS of little kids and their parents coming by...we rushed out and got candy and gave out treats...and Obama stickers! The little kids love Obama, and they always love stickers, so it was really fun...at the same time, we got to say "vote for change" over and over again, and give people info about where and when to vote. We even gave away some posters and signs to happy parents! At 11pm last night our little group for Neenah/Menasha area met to plan our staging for the weekend. We've got some space in the Steelworkers building in Menasha from 9 am Sat through end of election day. It will be cramped, with volunteers coming and going. It will be fun, but today is the last day to get everything organized for GOTV. Here we go!

Oh, one more thing: we got to watch the Obama infomercial on Wed night with the Steelworkers--we were moved by the content of the special program, but more than that, we were moved and inspired by the local Steelworkers organizers who spoke afterwards, explaining to their membership the importance of this election and what a more progressive administration and a new direction in the economy could mean for laborers.

And that night, we met two star volunteers, Kent and Deb, who have been working tirelessly on the campaign. They threw their first houseparty for Obama (and made this video about it), to talk about the election with their friends and neighbors, on the day that the New Page paper plant closed down. They had also lived in CT for a little while, before the Kimberly Clarke plant there, near Danbury, closed down as well. What Obama's video did that night is make stories like Kent's and Deb's real for the larger public.

Working on this campaign, it's clear that it's never been about "empty words", and that "change" is not just a slogan. It's a necessity--we've got to rebuild this economy so it can work for the 21st century, so that working people have a chance to build a solid life for themselves. We forgot to mention just how many "for sale" signs we saw when we canvassed on Sunday--we talked to one realtor we met about that, and she said that a lot of people have had to move because of job loss, and are struggling to sell their homes--especially from out of state... Anyway, enough talk! It's time to go to the office.

There's still time to get involved, and to make this election deliver a resounding, huge, victory for Obama! sign up to volunteer at www.barackobama.com

10.29.2008

dispatch from the (corn)field

Hi all!

As many of you know, Anne and I have taken a week of vacation to work on the campaign, and spent a lot of time this September and early October trying to figure out where to go--with friends and family in Florida, Wisconsin, and Indiana, we had our choice of swing states...

Well, we chose Wisconsin, and are staying with her brother Tom and his wife Judi and their son Diego in Neenah. Anne has campaigned in Wisconsin a good deal in the past, and just longed to be in this longitude. She was motivated to get her homeland peeps to vote democratic (and to see our nephew dressed up on Halloween!). Neenah is a pretty conservative area, but it has quite a bit of support for Obama, and we're working to get all those people to the polls in SIX SHORT DAYS (can you believe it!!!).

We got here on Saturday evening, so our first activities were on Sunday, when we went canvassing from 11-5 (with a lunch break). We first stopped by the campaign's temporary space at the Labor Temple at 10 am, to get meet our organizer, Les, who is from Brooklyn! Les has been assigned to Alaska, West Virginia, South Dakota, and maybe more...Anyway, Sunday morning we got oriented to the campaign, the local races, typical responses from people at the door, and so forth. Anne's brother Tom lent us their GPS, which was super helpful in actually getting us to the neighborhood where we canvassed.

I have to admit, we were nervous. There were quite a few McCain signs posted around the neighborhood, and we'd heard from Tom and Judi that a lot of the people they know around here are conservative. So, with a little trepidation, we began knocking on doors. And we found a lot of supporters, and Wisconsinites largely living up to the high standards of "Minnesota Nice".

At this point in the campaign, we're still identifying supporters, by knocking on doors and phonecalling lists of potential supporters. We're also focused on recruiting new volunteers to help us when we switch to Getting Out the Vote (GOTV), which is Sat-Tues. On Sunday we knocked on 59 doors and found 12 supporters--there were a lot of people who weren't home, and a few undecideds. We left pamphlets for everyone who wasn't home and with the undecided voters.

And we found a volunteer! One of our last doors of the day--after it started raining and the wind picked up!!--was a volunteer named Sally, who had volunteered during the primaries and for John Kerry, and she was excited to learn that we'd set up an office down the road from her house. Wisconsin has early voting, so we were encouraging people to go to their city halls this week and vote; the state also has same-day voter registration, so we can still get new registrants on the voter rolls.

Monday we went down to the Oshkosh office, which is a big space with six or seven organizers working from there, including organizers for local races and the actual candidate running for State Assembly, Gordon Hintz. Five organizers are dedicated to the Obama campaign. We'll take some pictures and send them with our next update, but there are lots of posters for Obama and charts for the campaign, a phonebank, a group of computers for data entry, a canvass launch area, and a reception area. It's a good setup. There's a bunch of volunteers coming in to work throughout the day--retirees, students, former college professors, blue collar manual laborers...those who come in two hours a week every week and have been doing so for the last three months, some who just got involved and are coming three or four times a week this week alone, and some who come just once...the whole gamut.

Erin spent most of Monday cleaning up/sorting out after the weekend canvasses and entering volunteer contacts in the database. Anne did a bit of that, and also made calls to identify more volunteers. It was Erin's birthday on Monday, so we took the evening off to have dinner and celebrate with Tom, Judi and Diego. Then, on Tuesday Erin did more data entry, and organized the campaign literature for the all the local districts (about 20 boxes) which is collated into packets so canvassers have the right pamphlets for their area. She also acted as "greeter" to welcome volunteers, make sure they had stuff to do, and answer questions for people who walk in wanting to register to vote, get lawn signs, etc. This was happening a bit before we arrived, but having run campaigns offices in the past and trained lots of volunteers, we knew how important these first impressions were.

So Erin was able to get a good vibe going up front and recruited at least 4 volunteers during the day from those walk-ins. One guy said he had never voted before, wanted to register, and in addition to giving him directions to city hall, Erin signed him up for the Saturday canvass! Also a blogger from the WI Obama website came by and interviewed Erin and another volunteer--we'll send you the link if he posts the interview.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Anne helped Les "pull lists" and "cut turf." Again, a job she used to do as an organizer - before we had Google maps, internet, and really cool computer databases! For everyone canvassing in our four towns on Saturday through Tuesday, we needed to create the list of people and maps of the area. So Anne spent all day looking up people in every ward (precint), and "cutting turfs" the size of about 50 homes each. There is more to do today!

Anne is having a fun time keeping stats (old organizer habits die hard). Here they are:
  • Sunday - canvassed: 59 doors, 12 supporters, 1 volunteer
  • Monday - phone calls for volunteer recruitment: 96 calls, 14 contacts, 3 volunteers (lots of people not home when calling in the middle of the day....); about 40 pages of data entry
  • Tuesday - create walk lists and turf maps for canvassing: 53 lists, 42 turfs; about 40 pages of data entry
It's been a fun couple of day so far, and we're so excited to be here and focused on the campaign! We'll send more updates later this week, with some pics.

We know the polls look like everything is going well for Obama, but we have to win this thing big--which means that there's work for everyone to do.

And we believe that it's not just about Nov 4, it's about activating the public to get involved, and forming a network to keep them involved after election day.

It's like we're coming out of a long sleep, those eight years of Bush/Cheney that made you just want to hibernate and crawl underneath the covers...But it's time to wake everyone up, let them know that they can be involved, that we're all connected to one another...and that we can shape the future.

Please, if you are not already, sign up to volunteer this weekend or on Election Day.
If you've got questions or hesitations about volunteering, let us know, and we'll be happy to talk you through what's involved.

Gobama!

10.28.2008

the eyes on the prize edition

I've been meaning to send out a bunch of links for more than a week, since Palin began really hitting out at Obama, and the rallies started to turn ugly...the fact that people were yelling things like "traitor" and worse was making me fearful and angry, and I started realizing just how hard an Obama presidency is going to be for some people. I guess I knew it at one level before, but I started to get a better emotional understanding of how much an Obama presidency was going to upend some people's worlds, and how scared they are of having an African-American in the White House.
And I realized that, although times have changed so much, that this election is partly a continuation of the civil rights battles of the 50s and 60s...that the ugly racism and violent rhetoric about anti-Americanness is a reaction that is threaded through to those struggles, those birthing pains, that deep conflict. I realized that someone might get hurt, someone could even die. And I had a glimpse of how brave those civil rights activists were, and how brave the Obamas are today.
So I've been singing in my head, off and on for the last week or so, that civil rights era song:
Ain't gonna let nobody, Lordy, turn me round,
Turn me round, turn me round,
Ain't gonna let nobody, Lordy, turn me round,
I'm gonna keep on a-walkin', Lord, keep on a-talkin', Lord,
Marching up to freedom land.
I had started collecting stories and links of all the violence and threats, but then switched to collecting links to those stories that showed how many people are ready. I've decided not to focus on the fear and the hatred. It's a good thing, because yesterday brought the news that a plot to kill African-American high schoolers and to assassinate Obama was thwarted. I think Obama's response, yesterday, says it all:

"I think what has been striking in this campaign is the the degree to which these kind of hate groups have been marginalized. That's not who America is. That's not who our future is. What I've found is people here [in w. Pennsylvania] don't care what color you are. What they're trying to figure out is who can deliver. It's just like the Pttisburgh Steelers: they don't care what color you are, they just want to figure out, can you make the plays?"

Obama's right, and this year, I think we've got a good portion of the American people who are willing to stand with him and not be deterred: Responding to Palin's meanness, he said: "We're not going to be distracted. We're not going to be diverted. Not this time. Not this year. Our challenges are too great for a politics that's so small."
That's what America looks like. People are coming out and doing the right thing. Just look:
We've got people walking off the job, refusing to participate in McCain's nastiness. Yesterday, around 40 people in Indiana walked off the job--when they were assigned to call people for the McCain campaign, and leave nasty messages. Indiana forbids robocalling with pre-recorded messages, so such messages have to be delivered by people individually.
We've got ex-Dept of Justice officials who are speaking out about the still-existing partisanship within the DOJ
We've got 5000 lawyers committed to monitor the polls on election day--we still need more!
We've got McCain supporters confronting the ugliness at McCain rallies--challing the anti-Muslim rhetoric
We've got the fact that Obama has historical, record-high favorability ratings for a Presidential candidate. Those who would spew ugliness are the minority.
We've got the fact that at least 26 newspapers that backed Bush have now endorsed Obama--including the Hartford Courant, which has only backed one other democrat in 244 years.
And we've got the fact that 100,000 people turned out in Denver a few days ago, when only 4,000 turned out for McCain; last week, 100,000 in St Louis, and 75000 in Kansas City. The majority enthusiastically supports Obama... now we just have to get everyone to get out there and vote!
The bat signal is on, even in North Carolina.
All we've got to do is keep working and keep our eyes on the prize...
Volunteer. There's seven days left. Help make this historic election happen. If we all stand up, together, we will not be moved...

10.23.2008

Yes We Carve!


Great photos and inspiration for making your pumpkin Obamariffic--make it a "Glowbama!"

Yes We Carve!

10.15.2008

the "keep your eye on the ball" edition

Hi everyone,

It's going to be a quick one tonight. The final (mercifully) debate is tonight, but first I've got to just get a couple notes to you.

It's Not Voter Fraud:
The right-wing, voiced mostly through Fox, is making a lot of hoopla about "voter fraud."
Check it out: it's a ruse and a distraction, and a way to racialize McCain's seemingly impending loss, should it come to pass just 20 days from now.

What they are so exercised about is "voter registration fraud." There are no cases of people voting illegally in this election (and in the last five years, only a very few)...only of some fake voter registration forms (numbering in the hundreds, at most) being turned in, and then rejected. No "precious right" is at stake here, although lots of Repubs would have you believe that the very health of our democracy is on the line.

Here's how it happens. Some groups, like ACORN (who seem to all of a sudden be the devil, according to Repubs, more on that below), pay people to go out and register voters. To make money, some people have defrauded ACORN by getting paid and turning in phony voter registration forms. ACORN is legally obligated to turn in all forms--only state offices that process voter registration forms are allowed to discard forms. (Because believe it or not, some people actually ARE named Mickey Mouse and Han Solo.) So ACORN sometimes flags forms that look suspicious. These forms are then discarded. There's no way that fake people are actually going to cast ballots. You can disagree with ACORN for paying people to register voters, but this still doesn't add up to voter fraud.

So the Repubs are hoping to stir up a shitstorm and confuse the media and electorate about the legitimacy of this election. Then they can claim that it was stolen from them or that there was massive widespread fraud. And because they steered many states to buy paperless voting machines, there won't be a record to contradict them. What's even richer is that McCain apparently has a bunch of people on his "Clean Elections Committee" who have questionable histories when it comes to voter rights.

Racializing a McCain Loss
More disgustingly, though, this smokescreen is about race. You see, ACORN is a poor-people's organization, one that's been around for 30 years doing the hard work of community organizing--one that McCain, when he was the keynote speaker for them a couple years ago, praised effusively. But this time around, the Repubs are so desperate to tear down Obama, that ACORN is now being used to paint him as a radical, black leftist...What you've got here is the operationalizing of a racially motivated resentment and resistance to a future Obama presidency.

Remember when Sarah Palin started dissing community organizers in her acceptance speech? And remember, just a few weeks ago, when the financial meltdown all of a sudden was being pinned on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac alone, and all the poor minorities who took out loans they couldn't pay back? ACORN was invoked as part of that, as well. I have to imagine that ACORN is now operating as a kind of racial code, to divide the electorate among racial lines.

What the Repubs want to do is say that McCain lost because there was fraud, the socialists took over the ballots, people were duped... They want to be able to contest anyplace where it might be close. Remember, this is the party that tried to get voters kicked off the rolls in Michigan because they were in foreclosure, even though they were still living in their homes. This is the party that in NH jammed all the Democratic office phone lines, basically paralyzing the communications hub for getting out the vote, on Election Day--and were found guilty of it.

The Purge is beginning--they're trying to kick people off the rolls all around the country. The Repubs don't like it when a lot of people vote--and a lot of people are voting this time. We should expect a lot more of this crap from them, and we have to fight it. They also want to distract from the real issues, especially the economy--McCain's own staffers said that "if we keep talking about the economic crisis, we're going to lose"--and by manufacturing a scandal, they can get the media to focus not on the 700 point loss in the stock market today, but on ACORN. Don't believe that it works? Media Matters does the math:

*Number of times CNN has mentioned ACORN since Friday: 67

*Number of times Fox News has mentioned Joe Biden since Friday: 130

*Number of times Fox News has mentioned Sarah Palin since Friday: 541

*Number of times Fox News has mentioned ACORN since Friday: 556

Finally, this issue is classic Karl Rove--hit your opponent on what you are actually weak on. It's kind of jaw-dropping that the Repubs are the ones accusing Dems of voter fraud--take a look at the "US Attorneys Scandal" at the dept of Justice a few years back--remember when all those attorneys were fired without cause? And then it came out that the DOJ had become totally politicized, and attorneys who didn't do the political bidding of the President and Justice Dept were cast out? Guess what...many of those attorneys refused to pursue bogus "voter fraud" cases in close elections where Repubs were trying to keep their seats...

This is a pattern. This is an outrage. And that's why we have to win by a landslide.


We might be up in the polls, and that lead might even last (though it would be very unusual) through Election Day...but we cannot become complacent. We have to win BIG. It has to be a rout. With the way these bozos rig elections, scare off voters, challenge voters at the polls...we have to win bigger than ever just to win at all.
Thanks!

10.09.2008

the defense against the dark arts edition

If you're like me, you might be feeling a little like you're on a rollercoaster(never mind what's going on the markets, I can't even go there), as you look at the great poll numbers in all the swing states, the fact that we're closing in on a number of Senate races (which we need to actually get things done!), the ass-kicking Obama delivered in the last debate, and then look at the crap McCain/Palin is flinging. So I've pulled together a few links to help you focus on the light...and help you defend against the Dark Arts.

Remember: There's solid ground under these poll numbers
1) We've changed the map in terms of party identification in Pennsylvania--look how blue it is!
2) We've made amazing gains in voter registration in the battleground states
3) Early voting shows that new voter and African American turnout might be higher than even expected. Take a look at Georgia~!

Remember: This is not your father's Democratic Party--we're fighting back!
1) We know the Repubs will stoop very, very low to suppress the vote. But so far, we've battled them back in Michigan, and now we just won again in Montana. But today's NYTimes shows there's much more to be done. Want to get involved? Volunteer to be a help out in Obama's Voter Protection Program.
2) Obama and Biden are showing McCain to be a coward, criticizing McCain for talking about Ayers on the stump, but "not saying it to [Obama's] face."
3) No swiftboating here! Robert Gibbs, one of Obama's campaign spokespeople, takes it to Sean Hannity, and show's how ridiculous the whole "association politics" is. Anyone hear Tom Petty? "No, I won't back down..."

Be prepared for stomach-turning sleaze, and know that it's not a winning tactic.
McCain will be snide and mean, and hypocritical, "going along to get along" with the paranoid racist xenophobia of the Republican base, and Palin will incite her crowds (stirring it up til' they yell "treason" and "kill him," and yell racial slurs at African American camera crew staffers). And they're going to do this in a big way--with %100 negative ad buys...not a single positive ad running, at all. But remember that these tactics are just driving independents away, driving McCain and Palin's unfavorables up, and turning off the press and even the conservative commentariat.

The Truth Will Out.

But until it does, we get grounded, get inspired, and get to work...
Some good advice about getting grounded:
Be like Barack. Brush the bullshit off your shoulder, and soldier on. Be cool. Look like you know something nobody else knows. Don't break your stride. And don't do hysterical stupid shit. That's [the Republican wingnuts'] job.

Some inspirational words: Donna Brazile tells it! "I'm not going to the back of the bus." (Very, very worth a look)

And some words to keep you working hard--it's only 26 more days!

[We need to] deliver a defeat worse than they ever imagined. We do that by winning states that have no business turning Blue -- like North Carolina, Georgia, Indiana, and so on -- states that were easy Bush victories in 2004. We do that by electing a 60-seat supermajority in the Senate. We do that by defeating their leadership, like Mitch McConnell in the Senate. We do that by defeating their heroes, like wingnut go-to hero John Shadegg. We do that by making sure a record number of Americans reject conservative ideology, leaving it utterly discredited.

The day after the election, I want to see an electoral battlefield littered with defeated Republicans, their ranks demoralized, their treasury in heavy debt, and no real leadership to take the helm. I want a vacuum so complete, that a bloody leadership battle between the neocons, theocons, and corporate cons shakes the GOP to its core, and leaves it fractured and ill-equipped to stymie the progressive agenda, much less ramp up for an even bleaker (for them) 2010.

...We're not out to win this thing. We're out to crush them. And that's going to require a level of engagement beyond anything you've ever done before. It'll mean more phone banking, more canvassing, more donating.

Phonebank. Canvass. Volunteer to protect the vote. I'm happy to talk with you about what volunteering is like, and what you can expect.

And please, we're almost there...donate, once more.

Let's join hands, take a deep breath, work even harder, and crush them...