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October 17, 2008
Friday PM
As I sit here staring at my duffle bag - packed as it is with an external hard drive, two Bills jerseys, a Bills ski mask, Bills gloves, a Bills fitted, a Bills Bart Simpson shirt, and a toothbrush - I realize that I am very ready for this week to end. At 5, I'm off to my hometown for the weekend, making my third trip this season to the Temple of the Charging Buffalo. Go Bills; let victory be ours.
Also: just finished listening to Obama give a speech in Roanoke. He's on his game - like David Brooks observes today, he's a cool customer, and he's closing the deal. It's a joy to watch. Same as yesterday, Obama is reminding the exuberant crowd that now is not the time to get cocky. Rather, he implores, now is the time to double down and go all out.
Faithful stencil correspondent Dusk did just that last weekend, travelling to Philly for a day of canvassing. He had an extraordinary time down in the PA sunshine. He writes:
here's my long, certainly convoluted, perhaps somewhat corny and potentially confusing run-down of saturday:
i slept on my sister's couch friday and woke up at 430, took a quick shower and got the dog's stuff together. we went downstairs to meet our friends (there was a drug deal on the opposite corner, a greenpoint hipster and a fat guy in a sweatshirt). the car arrived around 515 and everyone was in a surprisingly good mood. we dropped the dog off at a friends place and hit the road. no traffic, so we were in philly around 7ish. driving around north philly (way way northeast philly), barack was speaking in front of mayfair diner, which is some kind of popular campaign stop. the neighborhood is white working class (archie bunker?) and there were a lot of mccain/palin signs, a little off-puting. the area was completely packed with people, the line to get into the event was down and around the block, like footage of a dylan concert in the 60s. after we finally found a lparking spot (took almost a half hour), the girl who organized the trip called the volunteer coordinator, and we met her near the press entrance, got our press passes. our jobs at the event was to make sure no one stormed the barricades into the press section and to help the press out if they needed anything (which meant that one of us went on a soft pretzel run once, pretty easy stuff). so we had this very comfortable vantage to watch the event. the unions had a big showing, paraded in around 800/830 so there was a huge overflow down the surrounding streets. the union guys spoke first, can't remember if this was 930 or earlier, they were great. the first prefaced his speech with a caveat, "i don't usually speak to mixed crowds like this because i have a tendency to curse." then he gave a pretty even-tempered speech that built up until near the end he said "we can't take this shit no more" everyone went crazy. then another union guy got up and addressed the ayers thing: "you hear all this talk about who he hung out with at some time, you ain't lived in philly if you ain't met at least one gangster" the crowd loved that, also talk of "running [mccain]". when obama arrived close to 930, the press area filled up. i didn't know it then but he was giving 4 speeches around philly that day, pretty amazing, so most of the press didn't arrive until right before the speech. he spoke for about a half hour, mostly his stump with some local color thrown in, amazing to finally see him in action, really really incredible, and a great setting. after the speech we picked up our packet for canvassing. we got a neighborhood up there in north east philly, a very ghetto section. we were a little apprehensive about just knocking on people's doors, but once you start, it's surprisingly easy. at the minimum you're just making sure people vote, trying to press them to vote for obama, offering to answer any questions. it was cool when kids would answer the door; they were pretty enthusiastic about obama and happy that people were traveling out to their neighborhood to knock on doors for him (my sister and her friend got big hugs around their legs from these little girls while their moms chanted obama, obama). a wife would answer the door and say that she was keeping her preference quiet, then her husband would walk up the steps and be like, oh yeah, obama of course. some people were straight crazy, like this guy who kept talking about how it was really up to god if someone got elected and if they lasted in office, i said just make sure you vote. another big fat white guy (yellow grin) in his twenties, with a big fat white girlfriend who sat there mute, mumbled about being the third man on the grassy knoll (killed jfk) and said he could use our pamplet as toilet paper, but it wasn't hostile, just an attempt at being cynically jocular. there was this sort of cracked out lady with crumbs spilling out of her mouth. the strangest house might have been the one with a securty camera pointed at the door, which i thought meant it was a drug house, and when a voice answered without opening the door, i looked up as i replied to find an old white guy leaning out of his second floor window with five or six additional security cameras--he was voting for obama. the shirtless white guy drinking beer on his couch with a teamster hat, obama, thank god for unions. the only mccain supporter was an older white man who was a vet, and he wasn't even a firm supporter. it felt surprisingly effective. also, it was cool walking around a neighborhood i'd probably never visit meeting strange people for a cause i believe in, it was very rewarding. so we dropped our paperwork at headquarters, the guy who ran the canvassing effort was this effusively outgoing hispanic man with a brown eye and a white eye, his right eye was literally white, it was cool. then we hung out in philly, sunny day, had a big lunch and just kicked it, then drove home around 600. it was an awesome experience, and i highly recommend it. of course, the fact that our friend had a car, so we just had to pitch in for gas, and that we had a big enough group to split the list and work in pairs, and that we got to see him speak that morning helped a lot.
We are so close. 18 days away from history. Because of our efforts here and your incredibly generous support, I am one of thousands of members of Obama's Grassroots Finance Committee, which means I get to sit in on conference calls once in a while and I get twice as much campaign e-mail. (Ha!) The theme in recent days from the campaign has been closing strong and not letting up. I know they can still use every dime we can spare, so I'm putting up the now-shattered thermometer one more time. No pressure, no goals, just putting it out there. Thank you again for everything you all have done! I am quietly confident.
Posted by caps at October 17, 2008 01:23 PM