[Vision2020] My wife made me canvas for Obama

[lfalen]

I'll give Obama an A as a salesman, but his product stinks.
Roger
-----Original message-----
From: Chasuk chasuk at gmail.com
Date: Sun, 02 Nov 2008 16:30:56 -0800
To: Vision2020 vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: [Vision2020] My wife made me canvas for Obama

> http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1103/p09s02-coop.html
> 
> By Jonathan Curley
> 
> from the November 3, 2008 edition of The Christian Science Monitor
> 
> Charlotte, N.C. - There has been a lot of speculation that Barack
> Obama might win the election due to his better "ground game" and
> superior campaign organization.
> 
> I had the chance to view that organization up close this month when I
> canvassed for him. I'm not sure I learned much about his chances, but
> I learned a lot about myself and about this election.
> 
> Let me make it clear: I'm pretty conservative. I grew up in the
> suburbs. I voted for George H.W. Bush twice, and his son once. I was
> disappointed when Bill Clinton won, and disappointed he couldn't run
> again.
> 
> I encouraged my son to join the military. I was proud of him in
> Afghanistan, and happy when he came home, and angry when he was
> recalled because of the invasion of Iraq. I'm white, 55, I live in the
> South and I'm definitely going to get a bigger tax bill if Obama wins.
> 
> I am the dreaded swing voter.
> 
> So you can imagine my surprise when my wife suggested we spend a
> Saturday morning canvassing for Obama. I have never canvassed for any
> candidate. But I did, of course, what most middle-aged married men do:
> what I was told.
> 
> At the Obama headquarters, we stood in a group to receive our
> instructions. I wasn't the oldest, but close, and the youngest was
> maybe in high school. I watched a campaign organizer match up a young
> black man who looked to be college age with a white guy about my age
> to canvas together. It should not have been a big thing, but the
> beauty of the image did not escape me.
> 
> Instead of walking the tree-lined streets near our home, my wife and I
> were instructed to canvass a housing project. A middle-aged white
> couple with clipboards could not look more out of place in this
> predominantly black neighborhood.
> 
> We knocked on doors and voices from behind carefully locked doors
> shouted, "Who is it?"
> 
> "We're from the Obama campaign," we'd answer. And just like that doors
> opened and folks with wide smiles came out on the porch to talk.
> 
> Grandmothers kept one hand on their grandchildren and made sure they
> had all the information they needed for their son or daughter to vote
> for the first time.
> 
> Young people came to the door rubbing sleep from their eyes to find
> out where they could vote early, to make sure their vote got counted.
> 
> We knocked on every door we could find and checked off every name on
> our list. We did our job, but Obama may not have been the one who got
> the most out of the day's work.
> 
> I learned in just those three hours that this election is not about
> what we think of as the "big things."
> 
> It's not about taxes. I'm pretty sure mine are going to go up no
> matter who is elected.
> 
> It's not about foreign policy. I think we'll figure out a way to get
> out of Iraq and Afghanistan no matter which party controls the White
> House, mostly because the people who live there don't want us there
> anymore.
> 
> I don't see either of the candidates as having all the answers.
> 
> I've learned that this election is about the heart of America. It's
> about the young people who are losing hope and the old people who have
> been forgotten. It's about those who have worked all their lives and
> never fully realized the promise of America, but see that promise for
> their grandchildren in Barack Obama. The poor see a chance, when they
> often have few. I saw hope in the eyes and faces in those doorways.
> 
> My wife and I went out last weekend to knock on more doors. But this
> time, not because it was her idea. I don't know what it's going to do
> for the Obama campaign, but it's doing a lot for me.
> 
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