I grew up in the Philadelphia area and went to high school in Montgomery County, right outside the city. So I came up for the weekend to help the Obama campaign register new voters and help people who wanted to switch their registration to Democrat to vote in the primary.
Some background on the area: Montgomery County is an upper-income area with a large Jewish population, particularly in the part closest to Philadelphia. It used to be a Republican stronghold, and registered Republicans still outnumber registered Democrats, in part because most of the local government is still Republican. But Kerry carried the county by 12 points in 2004, and there are a lot of people who have voted Democrat for at least the last 2 presidential elections and voted for Rendell for governor both times but never changed their registration. So in addition to signing up new voters (most people in areas like this are already registered), one of the main objectives was to get these people to register as Democrats so they could vote for Obama in the primary.
I will give a more detailed recount below, but bottom line impression: the Wright "scandal" (I prefer to call it a character assassination) has definitely hurt Obama, but it hasn't killed him. He still has plenty of support, but it didn't feel like as much of an Obama stronghold as I thought it would be, though someone on DailyKos pointed out that this particular Acme attracts a lot of religious Jews and is not the place to meet tons of progressives.
They sent me to a supermarket in Narberth, PA to do registration. This is a heavily Jewish area, and they picked that location for me because it has a large kosher section and I told them that I had gone to a Jewish high school and knew how to talk to people who were worried about whether Obama would be pro-Israel enough as president.
At first it was pretty discouraging. Several people gave me dirty looks and said things like "don't even talk to me." One man essentially called me a traitor to my religion and said that Obama was "no friend to us", and one woman said that she was a Democrat but might vote for McCain if Obama was the nominee, because she was disturbed about the Wright sermons and what Michelle Obama had said about being proud of her country.
Several people expressed doubts about Obama that I could kind of tell were related to Israel, even if they did not say it until I asked. I gave out sheets the Obama campaign had prepared detailing his positions on Israel, and told them that I was Jewish myself and would never support someone I did not trust to be supportive of Israel, but I trust Barack Obama. Hopefully that, plus the information I gave out will help to reassure people. I should have also pointed out that Jewish leaders in Chicago are very comfortable with Obama, and he had a lot of Jewish support when he ran for the Senate four years ago.
At first, the only people who seemed to be for Obama were the people who worked in the store, most of whom were African American. I got a few of them registered for the first time, so that felt good. But just about every white person I met at first seemed to have a negative impression of him, and I was pretty demoralized.
I went back to the headquarters after I ran out of registration forms. I called my mom and said "I think it's over. His support among rich white liberals seems to have collapsed, and they're one of his core constituencies. If he can't win white voters here he can't win them anywhere in the state." But she yelled at me for being defeatist, and I forced myself to go back out there and do some more registration. Somehow, the second round was a lot more encouraging. I met a lot more people (mostly white) who supported Obama or were leaning that way.
This is a highly educated, upper-income area, so most people were already registered, but several people asked to take forms home for their kids who had recently turned 18 or were in college and on spring break. I also got a lot of people who wanted to change their registration from Republican or independent to Democrat. I am not sure if they were all planning to vote for Obama, but I was decked out in Obama gear, so I would think most people who agreed to fill out forms for me were Obama supporters if they trusted me to handle their registration form (except for one woman who admitted she planned to vote for Clinton).
I met several enthusiastic supporters, including a couple who were already volunteering and a couple more who were willing to. Several people asked for yard signs or bumper stickers, which I asked them to sign up for, though I found out later the campaign did not have any. It seemed like many of the people who were liberal Democrats supported Obama, while more of the Clinton supporters were the type who called themselves Democrats but would consider voting for McCain if Obama were not the nominee.
A lot of people who were already registered thanked me for what I was doing and said it was a good public service. I don't know if all of them were for Obama, but I would imagine some of them were.
Among the more interesting encounters I had were:
- A mother who was there with her college-age son, who I think was on spring break from Temple. He said that he had seen people on campus from the Obama campaign doing voter registration. I asked if he was going to vote for Obama, and he said he wasn't sure, but his mother said sharply "no, you're not!" Hopefully he'll make up his own mind. Later on I wished I had said "hey, don't tell your Mama you're for Obama."
- The Joe-six-pack type who had been for Richardson then Edwards, but is now voting for Obama, mainly because he dislikes Hillary. He was very pleased about the Richardson endorsement.
- A woman who did not want to change her registration because it meant having to choose between Clinton and Obama, when she really liked them both. I told her I like Hillary but I work in politics and I know enough about politicians behind the scenes to know that Obama is really something special. I encouraged her to take a form, and pointed out that if she registered as a Democrat, she'd have 30 days to make up her mind, and if she still could not decide she did not have to vote in the primary, but that way she'd have the option. She took a form and hopefully she will fill it out and send it.
- The woman who has been a staunch Republican all her life and hates Hillary, though she would like to see a woman president. She said she would have more respect for Hillary if she had left Bill after he cheated on her. She won't vote for Obama but she really likes him. She told me a story about a time when she got to go to the governor's mansion in Arkansas when Bill was governor. (she had been involved with this group for women in construction and got to go to some political events as a result). She said that when she was there, they overheard Hillary screaming at Bill with all kinds of expletives, complaining that he had been away for three days and accusing him of screwing around. She could have been making this up, but it did not sound terribly implausible.
All in all, I would say Obama definitely had a substantial and diverse base of support in the area, but perhaps not as high as it should be in an upper-income suburb. Although when I thought about the fact that not everyone there was a Democrat to begin with (45% of the county voted for Bush, though I would guess that number was lower in the particular area I was in), it did not seem so bad.
At the end of the day, I was moderately encouraged. Obama has definitely lost some support in the last week, but his support among white voters has not collapsed as I had initially feared.
I'm doing door to door tomorrow, so I will post another update tomorrow night or Sunday.
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