for those that are sick of election talk, specifically from a leftwing nut like myself, feel free to skip this post. this is really for me to get my thoughts down about the last 4 day so that i have it written down somewhere (and to let people who are actually interested a chance to know what ive been up to)
saturday, nov 1: my alarm was set for 8am to catch the chinatown bus to philly. that doesnt seem too bad until you add in the fact that the night before was halloween, and the dude was out and about till about 2ish. so im on my way to philly to volunteer with the obama campaign. since new york was pretty much a lock for obama, and mccain had talked about making headway in pennsylvania(a state where obama had a 10pt lead? i smell shenanigans...), philly was my best bet to actually make a difference in a weekend. im really nervous since i dont really like talking to strangers about anything, let alone be the one to start the conversation, but i start to feel better as more and more people who get on the bus have obama pins and shirts and talk about their volunteer plans.
we arrive at philly a little after 11am. i drop off my stuff at an old friend, lh's house, chat for a bit, grab a sandwich and im off to the volunteer staging location in north philly, which turned out to be a funeral home. happy. i volunteered for two shifts from 1pm - 7pm, but i get there a little early, so i inhale my sandwich and check in. i get paired with veronica, a very outgoing and friendly flight attendant that lives in the neighborhood. we head out to canvass a specific list of addresses in the neighborhood. veronica, having done this the day before, fills me in on the game plan. we go individually door to door (within eyesight of each other for safety) and make sure people know their polling location, time, etc. being that this was a predominantly black neighborhood (read:100%) and that the list we had were of people who were at least leaning obama, we should be in good shape. except i hate talking to strangers. not too many people are home. maybe its because its a beautiful saturday afternoon. i finally get a few people, but my brain doesnt seem to work very well since i didnt really have much time to prepare what i wanted to say. luckily veronica was knocking on the door next to mine and kind of knew the people i was talking to. she kind of took over, while i shrank away. after a few more conversations, i start to find my groove, although, since veronica seemed to know alot of people in the area, she would butt in occasionally, but i dont mind. we wrap up at around 330, and head back to the funeral home. after giving my feet a few minutes to rest, im back out, this time with helyse (sp?), a middle aged white woman from westchester. helyse is just as friendly as veronica, but not as outgoing, so this time i dont have my safety net so i had to man up, which i surprisingly manage to do for the most part.
a few thoughts on canvassing - its amazing how responsive people are when you support the same thing. i only ran into a handful of people who were mad that i knocked on their door, the rest were happy to talk to me. i cant imagine how difficult canvassing was for volunteers weeks and months earlier, when they were supposed to try to convince people rather than just give information. even though i thought what i did was hard, i dont know if i couldve done it back then.
630ish: helyse is kind enough to give me a ride back downtown. lh and her husband, gf, are off to see coldplay for the night, so i dont have much to do except read blogs and watch tv, so i decide to go to the downtown obama hq to see if i could help with anything. they need people to make calls. shit. more talking to strangers. alright, here goes nothing. at least i can read straight from the script this time since they can see me! most are not home. on a saturday night. wow! i get a few responsive people, most are pretty ambivalent. and then i got a mccain supporter on the phone, at which point, i was supposed to say 'ok, thank you and have a good day'. it came out a bit more like 'oh... ... ... thats, uh,... thats, thats great... i guess. thank you. bye' oops. but a few calls later, i spoke to ave, a middle age woman, who was actually at an obama fundraiser event when i called. after talking with her for a few minutes, i only had to mention that she could volunteer for the campaign, and she was in. she couldnt sunday, but had all monday free. that definitely made my night. at 9pm we have to stop calling, so i slowly head back to lh's apt. it was a really mild night out, and the walk through rittenhouse square was nice. turn on the tv, and crack out on politics, watch mccain's surprisingly funny appearance on snl, and call it a night.
sunday, nov 2: up at 8. lh is joining me today, which is awesome (although she's been pulling her weight in this campaign, and has been volunteering way before i started) the morning shift consisted of the same game plan, knocking on doors, giving info, although it seems like a lot more addresses in this group. it took me a few times to get back into the swing of it. we wrap up and grab some lunch. in the afternoon shift we just leave door hangers with polling info, so it goes pretty quickly. we get back to the staging area around 330. lh's pooped and so am i, so we call it a day. i manage to get to the bus stop just before 4, which is when the next one was to leave for nyc... but apparently there was no 4pm bus. dammit, had i had known, i couldve probably done one more round of door hangers. so of course the 'line' (i.e. the mob of people) trying to get on the 5pm bus is ridiculous, but luckily im one of hte last ones allowed on. im back home by 8. eat dinner and pass out.
monday, nov 3: work is work. blah. since i didnt seem to fuck up phonebanking in philly, i decided to go to one a few blocks from my apt. its at someones loft, which is amazing. i called a bunch of people in virginia. some in NOVA, some further south, but all (most) are enthusiastic and ready to go for election day. i get home around 9. eat dinner and pass out.
tuesday, nov 4: i set my alarm for 630 to go and vote. when it goes off, i practically jump out of bed and get ready to go. it wasnt until i was in the shower that i realized that i didnt groan or curse when the alarm rang. now, i usually vote right after work, and in the past, had no trouble getting in and out of the voting centers in under 20 mins. since i had no idea what it would be like this time, i braced myself with the possibility of being stuck in line for hours and being late for work. i get to the polling center and its kind of crowded. crap. oh wait, this seems to be the polling location for many districts, and a volunteer points me to my districts polling booth. theres one person in the booth, and one person in line. score. im in and out in under 15 mins. but now what do i do? its only 730 and i dont even leave for work usually until 830... i guess its time to crack out on news on tv. work is unbearably slow. sneaking the occasional peek at blogs i subscribe to, my heart jumps and sinks every other post. there would be a post sent from someone somewhere in america talking about their experience voting today, wonderfully touching. the following post would talk about broken voting machines and long lines in urban areas in pennsylvania, florida, and ohio.
after work, i go to a phonebank at the bowery hotel. its a decent set up with open space, chairs, and a projector playing cnn on a large screen, muted of course, but we can take glances in between calls to see whats going on. i get a stack of florida numbers, where polls close at 7. i get through about halfway through my second pass when we're told that the polls have closed. i only got to talk to a few people, and all of them voted already, but at least i took those numbers off other people's hand so that they could maybe get out the vote. we're waiting to see if hq will send us numbers in new mexico since the polls dont close there for a few hours, but alas, there arent any left. organizers tell us that we can go to the teamsters hq where they need help. it takes me a little while to get there but by 730, im making calls to iowa. the teamsters office does not have a tv. no one knows whats going on. im losing my mind. after getting through about 3 pages, its 830, im calling it quits.
9pm: i get to bananna's place to watch the results with her and her roommate/friends. i basically ignore everyone and pull up bananna's laptop and tune into msnbc. nothing surprising has been called, although pennsylvania goes to obama, and id like to think that i had some part in that.
927pm: msnbc has call ohio for obama. that makes it 195 EVs. cali, oregon, washington, and hawaii are 77 EVs. we did it! didnt we? why will no one on tv say anything?
935pm: cnn calls ohio for obama. hello? anyone there have a calculator?
940ish: keith olbermann asks the panel to check his math. he sees what i see. he's being a bit smug, but im fine with that. no one will definitively call the race. dammit!
10pm: daily show/colbert report special. they know its over. theyre just goofing around to kill time. some funny, some not so much.
1059pm: ok, they are wrapping up the show. entertaining, but not much new info.
1101pm: theyre still on... weird...
1102pm: jon stewart calls the race for obama! switch to 'real' news networks. they all call it for obama! fox is a little behind, but also calls it for obama!
1130ish: mccain concedes in what is the best speech ive ever heard him give, and not just because he's conceding. he sounds earnest, talks about what the country needs to do next, and tries to quell the anger in the crowd. where was
this guy the last few months?
midnight: barack walks on stage with his wife and kids. the girls around me are weeping. keep your shit together, man! if you remove the stuff he's been saying on the campaign trail already, it was a moving speech, aside from the oscar-style thanking everyone individually.
130am: as the adrenaline died down, i finally fall asleep.
today: i almost lost it a few times writing this. during the primary i wouldve been happy with any of the frontrunners, but i now believe, from first hand experience, that the machien known as the obama campaign was the best way to go.
and so i leave you with what m said to me last night on gchat when they called the race:
change, bitches!
