GAME DAY!

Ok just to fill you in from the past 2 days:





1. I woke up Sunday morning shocked and delighted at the sprawling view from Sherri's home. (Sherri, head of the Harrison County Dems hosted all of us out-of-town volunteers at her place about 15 minutes out of town.) We pulled ourselves out of bed, and I threw on (the same) clothes as the day before and we hit the road, heading to Vickie's Place, the only other non-hospital-cafeteria option for breakfast.














It wasn't all that surprising that when we walked into Vickie's,


all heads swiveled (some in disgust) to check out team Obama cruising into their local establishment. Luckily, Jared was already on a first-name basis with the cute-for-a-small-town-I'm 22-with 2-kids waitress, so he knew we weren't likely to run into any trouble during breakfast. And, we were able to score omelette's, toast, bacon and potatoes for $4. No lie, including coffee. Amazing, coming from uber-yuppie Northern California, I didn't think these places existed. oh, and it was decent food too!




Post breakfast it was time to roll out campaign strategy for the day. We were still to knock doors and discuss policy and politics with local residents to try and gage support for Obama. While my first day canvassing was spent solo, Sunday, I was assigned a partner..."Crow". Crow is a 68 year old retired minor, former Vietnam Vet and fervent Obama supporter. Having grown up and spent his whole life (minus his stint in the jungle) in Cadiz township, Crow was personally affronted by the recklessness of the Bush administration. Interestingly enough, Crow was disgusted by their complete disregard for the Geneva Convention, having spent time in 'Nam he felt personally disrespected by the administration's endorsement of torture. Before we set off, Jared simply told me Crow had been a big supporter and canvasser for them, and that he and I would be covering some of the more remote parts of Harrison County.



So it goes, I grabbed my bag of Obama lit and Crow and I set-off in his pick-up.



We careened across town, stopping according to our lists; at each house Crow knew either the current inhabitants, their parents, the former owners and/or their mother/brother/grandfather. Needless to say, had I tried to go out on my own, I would not have been nearly as well received, Crow's presence pretty much legitimized mine. He would launch into his shtick asking people if they were happy with what had happened to America these past 8 years and more often than not, people would listen to his arguments for Obama. (And the few people who didn't listen made it clear immediately that we were not welcome.) We went door-to-door and even headed down to the County Home, where a 96-year-old resident informed us she had in fact already voted...for Ronald Regan. Oops!







Crow and I had gone to two houses when he asked if I minded if he had a lil' drink, I said of course I didn't mind and with that he immediately cracked a camo-covered (the entire can is camouflage) Busch beer and took the entire thing down in less than 20 seconds. No joke. As the day wore on (I was now driving his truck), Crow's stories got a little wilder. A particular favorite was when he pointed out a house in downtown Jewett and informed me that when he was 17 he and his girlfriend used to have "get crazy" outside on "that porch right there. Dang it!" But he was far and away the best dang Obama man we had in Cadiz!

My Day with Crow felt like a whirl on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, so the next day I was paired with a mellower canvasser, one of Jared's Dartmouth buddies, Mark, who was as unfamiliar with the landscape as I. we cruised out to these towns listening to some solid jams and in disbelief at the total devastation of some of these little towns. I think the highlight of that day was helping this tiny, blue-haired old lady with her groceries and having her inform me that she was proud of us kids for coming all the way out to see her, and that she was voting for Obama; she liked his big ears. Amazing!


Ok so to get up-to-speed, and I really do wish I had more time to "real-time" blog today, but the team's been up and out canvassing since early this morning. Today's strategy is to simply get out and ask people whether or not they've voted today. Those people we're contacting were previously identified by our system as people who are most likely voting for Obama, so our job will be to make sure those people actually get to the polls.


Over and out until later....

Later it is...polls are closing down, we just drove an 87 year old woman to the polls to get her vote! There's no where public (ie a bar) in Cadiz where we'll be able to comfortably watch the elections so all of us are piling into cars and driving to a watch party in Zanesville to meet up with fellow Obama folk - that's all for now- my heart's in my throat. All we can do is wait for Hope and Change!