o brave new world

Well, this is certainly a ride at the regional election central I've set up at my place. It was hard to judge how many people would show up for day-of canvassing, phonebanking, and sign-waving. 30+ or more have been in and out all day for the three shifts we've got for canvassing and phonebanking; seems my house is almost literally littered with people. Folks on the stairs, co-opting the bathroom, standing here and there, using whatever space they could find. The spirit of the day reminds me not a little of the precinct caucuses: with all the anticipation back in early February, neither was it clear how many volunteer captains would show up nor how many caucus-goers finally. The turnout today is as impressive as it was then, to my mind, at least where it concerned the volunteers who were motivated to make a difference.

Earlier in the day I stopped off at the Fremont Bridge to see how our sign-waving visibility crew was doing, and they seemed to be having a great time. My girlfriend supplied some custom blue, Obama-logo'd ponchos and created some signs using some extra Shepherd Ferry Obama posters (you know, the iconic one that's been all over the place).

At the coffee stand nearby, we encountered two guys, whose reactions to our presence told two very different tales. The first guy was a youngish, rough-and-tumble sort, who was affable enough. He half-complained that "we" had been so persistent in contacting him to remind him to vote. Apparently he had been almost harassed into submission with all the phone and house calls. Despite this, he said he'd vote a little later today, even though, he said, he knew it really didn't matter (all these politicians and elections are always the same). I thought his cynicism was interesting, in the sense that despite his disaffection with the political process, he was still motivated to vote. I have little doubt that all the hyperbolic persistence had some effect on him; in any event, it was clear he'd vote for Obama.

The second guy was, well, the kind who fits a certain stereotype. Bob, who helped coordinate the visibility team, had his blue poncho on, the one with the Obama logo on it. This guy pulled up to the coffee shack's window in his 3- or 5-series BMW, and said from his open window, "Make sure that blue doesn't touch my car." It wasn't immediately clear whether he was kidding or what. I noticed his expression then said to him, fingering the red jacket Bob had on underneath the poncho, "I suppose this color would be ok..?" He indicated it would be, and then said something else I don't recall that suggested his level of disgust with the whole thing. Just perfect: 30-40 year old guy in a BMW, born to be obnoxious, and most certainly a McCain supporter. Whatever.

- dave //

Quick post--been busy w/ other things, including organizing WA-36 grassroots canvasses, etc.; my apologies for my lapses. If I had my druthers, I might do this sort of thing full time, but hey, that's a hard row to hoe.

First, some inspiration I came across today:

Second, one of the funniest damn Palin-themed vids I've been sent, this with Vlad and Boris from "45454 Russia Avenue":

Be well--and remember to VOTE EARLY!

- dave //

Too useful not to post this.

- dave //

The McCain campaign seems to have thrown away any pretense of campaigning on the issues and are doing a Rove turn to the negative and mendacious. This shouldn't be much of a surprise, I suppose, but nonetheless I had hoped for something different this year. They know they can't win on the issues or the record, so they're doing everything they can to throw up a smoke screen on the Rovian theory that the American public is easily duped, especially by a compliant and lazy main stream media. To them, the truth is irrelevant or simply relative and subject to convenient revision, objective reality be damned.

I fear they may be right, given the shift in the polls, this frenzied swoon over this unlikely arriviste Palin, and the way things just "feel." Palin is quite a phenomenon, and I get the sense that the Obama campaign is still struggling to find its tactical footing in her regard. She seems to have simultaneously attracted white women, mothers in particular, per a recent ABC poll (but there is some question about the accuracy and meaning of the data, of course)--who seem to respond to Palin's first-degree identity as a scrappy woman gov from the sticks and just-folks mother of five with a knack for reading a TelePrompTer--and galvanized the evangelical Republican base enough to shake up the dynamic of the race at least for the time being. We'll certainly see very soon whether this is really more than just a flash in the pan and ends up going down as the most brilliantly cynical move in the history of presidential politics.

My guess is that things will boil down to the usual tight margins of red v. blue, the usual suspects in terms of swing states (like Florida and Ohio), and whatever additional energy the Obama campaign can bring to bear from its considerable, largely below-the-radar efforts at grassroots organizing. And we still have the debates, and that may shift things somewhat again, but I'm not confident they'll create any clear breakthroughs. We're headed for another very close election, I think. The American public remains polarized between those who care what's happened to this country these past 8+ years, and those who either don’t give a damn as long as they get theirs or are simply too ignorant to make informed choices in their best interests.

Then again, maybe I'm just over-indulging in hand-wringing and useless fretting. This just arrived in my email, and reminds me to take a page from the oft-forgotten but always worthy Obama playbook:

- dave //

<UPDATED w/ numerous edits and links for further reading>

Obama's speech was electric--it was like a thunderstorm from Mile High Stadium. And I think I can say that even though I was way back in the cheap seats at home, hosting a convention watch party in a room full of Democrats ready to get charged up again and go back into the fray.

There I was, listening to him going through the opening paragraphs, hoping he'd deliver something somehow more than "workmanlike," as it was billed prior, in a deliberate attempt to deflate expectations. I was a bit drowsy and distracted, not necessarily from the Convention itself and the endless chatter coming from it during the week, but really from a 2-3 month hiatus from political activity, after I hit serious burnout from the seemingly endless primaries. It feels like that was a long, long time ago.

And then, suddenly, like a peal of thunder, Obama laid into it:

Tonight, I say to the American people, to Democrats and Republicans and Independents across this great land - enough! This moment - this election - is our chance to keep, in the 21st century, the American promise alive. Because next week, in Minnesota, the same party that brought you two terms of George Bush and Dick Cheney will ask this country for a third. And we are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look like the last eight. On November 4th, we must stand up and say: "Eight is enough."

He just about barked that first "enough!" and it made me snap to, bubbles of drowsiness popping around my head... "huh? what? Oh, I see. I see how it's going to be!"

It was the opening salvo of a speech that was punctuated with multiple, strong broadsides against the Bush-McCain record and the utter bankruptcy of the Republican agenda.  To put it another way, his speech rolled forth over 43 minutes, built up, receded, and built again to the peroration, punctuated as if by lightning bolts or the powerful crescendos of a Beethoven symphony, yet never losing the soaringly lyrical touch for which his speeches are often known. (The only way to describe it, I think, is to reach for metaphor, and I find myself looking for the right metaphor to help me say what I mean... Forgive me if my language is a jumble of metapors, from meteorological to martial, back to meteorological and now musical.) Amazing effort, very different than any other speech I've seen or heard him give.

Full speech:

Like a warm, summer rain drenching a parched field, his speech gave the grassroots just the charge it needed.

And it was good.

- dave //