Leaving Cleveland

You've been good to me, Ohio. I have to say I'm sorry to say goodbye. The delicious autumn produce, the cozy supporter housing, and, most of all, the excitement of working towards something amazing with a fabulous group of people--these things are hard to leave.

Our week of glorious Indian summer finally over, Cleveland sent me off with the kind of gray, blustery day that reminds me it is November, and that all good things must come to an end. On to the next adventure...

Aftermath

Now we clean the office.

I've NEVER BEEN SO TIRED in all my life. I think the last few weeks finally caught up with me all at once now that the adrenalin is gone. My solid twelve hours of sleep last night didn't even make a dent. We finish cleaning up tomorrow, then I'm headed up to Michigan to visit my grandpa and hopefully recover fully. I want to thank everyone who helped send me here to Ohio, who supported me with kind words and texts and emails and fantastic care packages and ecstatic phone calls on election night. You should all feel like a little of you went to Ohio, too.

See you all back in Boston! Or California, DC, New York, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Michigan, Washington, Florida, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Pakistan, Virginia, North Carolina, Indiana, Oregon, Arizona, and any other place you, my wonderful friends, are living that I plan to visit before too long...

Is it True?

CNN just called Ohio for Obama. I didn't believe it until then. Fox said it, then MSNBC, then NBC. I only believed it after I saw the blue state and the checkmark myself. I'm so happy. Thank you everyone, for getting me here.

Only the Waiting is Left...

Polls close in 1 minute.

We have done all we can here. That's a good feeling to have, no matter how this race turns out. Come on though, Ohio--I want you to be ours!!!!

One Last Time

Going out for my last canvass ever--due to losing so many of my people to Cleveland, we're short in Berea! So I'm headed out and very much looking forward to the fresh air. I hope I get to talk to some voters one more time...

The Craziness Begins

Well, all of my 12:30 shift volunteers just got pulled to downtown Cleveland. The bad news is that means our regions are only going to get hit with literature and canvassers once (we were hoping to hit them twice); the good news is that my topnotch, prepared volunteers are en route now to get out of the vote in the city. In 2004 disenfranchisement was rampant downtown; let's see how it goes this time around.

Into it

My 9:30 am shift went out without a hitch--25 volunteers fired up and ready to go, canvassing all over the towns of Berea and Middleburg Heights to make sure Obama supporters know how, when, and where to vote. The woman who is hosting this staging location cried a little talking about how important today's election is, and then I got to get everyone excited about being involved in this historic campaign. The coffee is working.

Here!

Despite the time change, turns out it's still pitch black outside when you wake up at 5:15 am. I'm pretty beat before this day has even started, having taken only a short nap last night in lieu of what could be called a night's sleep. But the polls are open, the coffee is on its way, and there are already 60 people waiting in line at the polling place nearest to where I am now. Let's vote!

Almost There

Monday night: sheer exhaustion, sore throat, blanketing suburban neighborhoods after dark with door hangers that say "Vote Obama!" on them until 10:00 at night. Reporting to my staging location tomorrow at 5:30 am. Latest poll shows Ohio in a dead heat at 49% Obama, 49% McCain. Finally voted myself today, via absentee ballot in a grimy post office in Cleveland. Almost missed the deadline. Thinking about how to fire up my 100 volunteers tomorrow with a voice that sounds like a tired hooker because of my cold. I'm sure it will all work out.

Polls open in a few hours...

Headquarters

We are officially in "GOTV," one of a hundred ground campaign lingo terms I have absorbed this month along with "SLD," "sporadics," "universe," "BO" (as in Barack Obama, not the way the back boys' office smells), "turf," "slotting sheets," "canvas tally," "walk packets," and too many others to list in my sleep-deprived state.

GOTV stands for "Get Out the Vote," and it just means that it's crunch time. Our canvassing operations have swung into high gear, and this weekend we are each working out of our own staging locations, mine being a family home in Berea, Ohio--a place that seems like a lovely zen oasis compared to the frenetic daily chaos of the office. My job here is to train volunteers to canvass their neighborhoods, persuade undecided voters, and get them fired up and out the door. This morning I sent out a group of 18 at 9:30 am, a group of 12 at 12:30, and I'm waiting for my final group of the day to show up at 3:30. Today was made possible by an extremely large cup of gas station coffee. That gas station will be sponsoring my day tomorrow as well.

Last night I heard Howard Fineman of Newsweek say on "Hardball" that if Obama wins this presidential election, it will be historic not only because he is African-American but also because of his unprecedented ground campaign. Fineman actually called it "a new way to campaign" and mentioned that every fifty years or so this type of paradigm shift happens. When I look around our busy office, papers flying everywhere, the phone ringing off the hook, canvassers asking questions, wondering how on earth we keep track of anything, it is hard to believe that we are the most organized and determined presidential ground campaign ever put together. But hey, they said it on "Hardball." And, to tell the truth, despite these local moments of chaos, I think they are probably just the sticky fingers on the long arms of a seriously streamlined operation.

Speaking of streamlined, I have been continually impressed out here by the old people and the middle-aged. College kids are supposed to have all the ideals and vigor, and certainly some of our best volunteers fall into this group, but those time-tested, battleworn older folks are the real go-tos, in my opinion. I'm referring to the retired teacher with the knee replacement who nonetheless knocks 90 doors in one afternoon and mentions her grandkids as the reason she's voting for Barack Obama. And the Vietnam vet who comes into the office every single night to eat pie and enter endless mounds of data into our system into the wee hours. (We don't know what we would do without Bruce.) Or the minister who hasn't written tomorrow's sermon yet but knows she needs to finish her canvass shift today anyway. It's like that all the time around here, and it's seriously impressive.

Less impressive is my mental aptitude at present, so I'll sign off now just in time to send out Shift Three. I'm crossing my fingers that the over-40 crowd shows up in full force.