Still 35 days to go before the election. In this last stretch of the campaign what counts is going around and talking to people, convincing them not only of the fact that your candidate is the Good Guy but, more important, that they should take the trouble of going to the polls and pull the lever.
In this all-important ground operation, Obama's right-hand David Plouffe has built a very efficient political machine, capable of knocking to the doors even en the most republicans of Republicans neighborhoods. Here is an example of two volunteers' experiences in Florida (courtesy of DailyKos).
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This weekend I decided to spend canvassing for the campaign for the first time. Me and my girlfriend went and canvassed together in South Tampa. The neighborhood was littered with McCain/Palin signs, one house seemed to be the campaign headquarters with how many signs they had. With that said, there were definitely gonna be some hostility to us.
It was a cool day the high was 79 with low humidity the perfect weather to be out in. The first 3 houses no one was home and we were a bit frustrated seeing as it was our first time. Then we encountered a woman who had just pulled in her driveway. She told us her husband was a staunch Obama supporter but she was distressed that her income bracket fell into the 250k+ category and she didn't want more taxes. I didn't say much more and we left. Soon after we had the door slammed in our faces a few time with the line "I'm Republican". To me I didn't care if they were republican or not I just wanted to know why they were and what issues they cared about.
So after a pretty bad start we knocked on an older home to no avail. We knocked again and then a window opened up and an old lady appeared and asked us what we wanted. We told her we were with the Obama campaign and wanted to ask her a few questions. She told us to come around to the back to talk to her. Her name was Florence. We asked her who she was supporting and she said with such passion Obama. She started about how she thought McCain was liar. She used the L word so effortlessly and convincingly. We then went on to ask about what issues effected her the most. She went on to tell us about the war and how many young lives are lost and that we need to be in Afghanistan.
Soon after discussing the issues she invited us in for some soda and water. I was surprised to hear she was 93 years old. It astounded me how she had such a grasp of the issues. We talked for an hour about her family and her life. She was such an interesting woman who had worked in D.C. during World War II. I was shocked to learn how she was the University of Tampa class of 1940 given the university was established in 1931 and I am in the class 2012. Florence has been living in the same house for over 50 years and has had the same oven for over 66 years and it looked surprisingly new. This was a women who has lived American history and even she knows we need change in this country.
We eventually got onto the subject of Palin and how inexperienced Palin is and Florence even poked fun at the whole Russia affair. Florence definitely knew the issues and the candidates. We eventually had to leave but me and my girlfriend were so happy to have met someone so interesting and just such a sweet old lady. She was truly of the greatest generation.
Even with the doors slammed in our faces and the dirty looks, talking to her made our day. Even if we didn't really meet our goal of persuading and swing voters we still got to meet someone special and remind us of why we were canvassing. It wasn't just for politics but to get out into the community and meet new people we would never would have met otherwise. I can gladly say I will be doing more canvassing until election day and helping the campaign any way I can.
Alex
