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.