Planting signs!When I was at the Vice Presidential debate at ESPN Zone in DC, I was introduced to several people. One of these was Marc Lampkin, who was assembling a team from DC to go to Ohio to campaign the week before the election. I got the ok with my boss and headed out to Columbus, Ohio, which I think is the most important battle ground state in this election and normally a must in order to win the presidency. Random fact, JFK is the only President who has ever won without Ohio. I flew out on Halloween night, so I wasn’t able to dress up. However, I had my hair pulled back and someone said “Hey guys look that girl over there is dressed up as Cindy McCain!” So YES I did have a costume and I didn’t even know it. She is a beautiful woman, but 30 years my senior--not exactly a compliment! It was far from a wild night because we had to be up early to begin intensive campaigning for a candidate we all knew needed a miracle.
This was my first campaign so I didn’t know exactly what to expect. When I arrived, I met Team Lampkin, and it was everyone from Senior Bush Appointees to military officers, lobbyists, and college students--a very diverse group of people. I was pretty nervous just because I know how frustrating it is having strangers calling and knocking all day before an election! We started out in Westerville, a cute quaint neighborhood that had street names like walnut and birch. It was a great first day for me because I knew a lot of doors were not going to be slammed in my face because it was suburban America, which is predominantly Republican. After going door to door, the positive reactions from the constituents there made me start to get awkwardly optimistic about the election, and as we said we “started drinking the kool-aid.” The next day we went to a Republican area, but they had low voter turnout, again signs in every yard and they came to the door with open arms. Interesting.
Door to door trying to win Ohio!
We spent the next several days canvassing until it got dark out and then we did phone banks. It’s amazing how pleasant people are to you when they can put a face to a message, but on the phone it is a different story. I had my life threatened several times! As much as people say they hate the calls and will not vote because they are annoyed, statistically they still vote. So even if they threaten your first born you have to keep on keepin on!
Phone banking's finest
What made me even more optimistic was standing outside by voter precincts and holding McCain/Palin signs. I didn’t get flipped off once, so you know campaigning that’s a good day! The worst I heard was “UGH you’re voting for Mclane?! OBAMA!” Yeah, she probably shouldn’t vote if she doesn’t know who is running against Obama. Also, the 8-12 year olds on buses were rather ruthless too, but again not our target audience and their bus driver gave us the thumbs up so that’s all that matters. We spent election night calling the West coast after the Ohio polls closed and listening to updates on the news (Fox of course, which is drinking the kool-aid even more!). The first update we heard was the Virginia exit polls, where McCain took the first lead, and that Republican voter turn-out in Pennsylvania was at 200%. It was game on from there and I’ve never gone through phone lists so fast!
Of course, we all know how the night ended up. God bless Obama and Axelrod, they ran one of the best campaigns this nation has ever seen and the historical significance of his victory is incredible. To think only four decades ago the Civil Rights Act was passed. Now, do I think this country is better off electing him? No. The people yelling “Yes we can” at Obama’s victory party still make me nervous, as I'm not sure what they're talking about. To be honest, I don’t think they even know exactly, but change is definitely going to come in the next four years with a Democratic supermajority and no checks; I can only pray it’s positive change. The election was a Bush referendum in the midst of a collapsing economy; an uphill battle would be an understatement, but there was no way I would have been able to sleep at night if I knew I didn’t do everything in my power to get McCain elected. We did what we could, but in the end it didn’t go our way. So is life. Back to work!
Of course, we all know how the night ended up. God bless Obama and Axelrod, they ran one of the best campaigns this nation has ever seen and the historical significance of his victory is incredible. To think only four decades ago the Civil Rights Act was passed. Now, do I think this country is better off electing him? No. The people yelling “Yes we can” at Obama’s victory party still make me nervous, as I'm not sure what they're talking about. To be honest, I don’t think they even know exactly, but change is definitely going to come in the next four years with a Democratic supermajority and no checks; I can only pray it’s positive change. The election was a Bush referendum in the midst of a collapsing economy; an uphill battle would be an understatement, but there was no way I would have been able to sleep at night if I knew I didn’t do everything in my power to get McCain elected. We did what we could, but in the end it didn’t go our way. So is life. Back to work!
No comments:
Post a Comment