Volunteering in Indiana today. Some interesting observations.

[Buzz Clik]

At 10 am, I went to Obama headquarters in our midsized town (roughtly 70,000). Out of curiosity, I decided to cruise by GOP headquarters to see what they had going on. They were closed.

I parked my car in a sea of Obama-stickered cars, and walked the two blocks toward my destination. I was surprised to see that they had a new location. I was fourth in line in a busy place. We were told that we were in the wrong place -- volunteers for canvassing and calling were collecting down the street. I went down about three doors and found yet another store front that Obama was occupying; this was for canvassers. So, off I went to the THIRD Obama headquarters building. This was the same place I did calling a couple of weeks ago, so I knew my way around. One of the staff gave me my phone list and marching orders, and off I went.

After about 90 minutes (and tons of in-store traffic!), one of the staff hustled us down the street for a talk from Indiana's former first lady, Judy O'Bannon. She was quite the sparkplug and charged up the volunteers. She told us how she was a big Hillary fan, but was a total convert to Obama. She'd met Obama and has been campaigning for him nonstop. We met other Dem candidates for state legislature, and went back to work.

After I my 100th call, I ran out of gas. I looked up for the first time in about an hour to realize I was surrounded by dozens of volunteers. I was aware that three shifts of canvassers had deployed while I was there, but the place was alive with excited bodies. Unlike my first shift a couple of weeks ago, there were plenty of yard signs available, and the staff was giving them away to any who wanted one.

As I walked back to my car, the other two Obama offices were crawling with people. Students, retirees, moms, dads, dogs, kids, nerds, professionals. A total cross section.

Again out of curiosity, I decided to drive by the GOP headquarters for another peek. I was stopped at the light about 50 feet away and noticed two women approaching the door. They pulled on the door, but it was locked. They peeked in the window, but nobody was there. It was 1 pm on the Saturday before the election. :shrug:

I'll leave you with this: "Hi, I'm calling on behalf of the Obama for President campaign. Have you voted yet? Are you planning to vote early? Please do vote early. Doing so will help keep the lines short on November 4 and allow time to correct for any problems. Don't forget to take your government-issued picture identification. Would you be willing to volunteer? We still need lots of help."

[Indiana_Dem]

1. Awesome Buzz Click! I'm doing what you're doing SUN-TUES!

I had to go to a wedding and am in the process of going to the reception now, so I couldn't go today. We are in a county of about 50k, I think. We're more small town/rural. We have one office we just located to. They will have loud speakers with Obama's words out on the street!

[Buzz Clik]

3. Calling is the least sexy of all the volunteer jobs.

Is that what you're doing?

[Indiana_Dem]

9. Actually, my organizer is putting me in charge of the operations!

I'm supposed to direct traffic and assign people to jobs. I have to keep track of the walk packs out, receive them and give them to the data entry people. Then I'm supposed to send runners to the polls for sending food and getting lists of people who've voted. I'm also supposed to deploy people to give rides. I think that's what I'm doing!? That's how she described it. :shrug: I've been canvassing and phone banking up until now. I don't like to phone bank at all but I do whatever they ask me to do. I just want to help!

[madaboutharry]

2. Indiana has been moved to "toss up."

The McCain campaign has no money for GOTV. It is a testimony to how terrible a campaign McCaim ran.

[Buzz Clik]

4. It will take a minor miracle for Obama to win in Indiana.

McCain (according to pollster.com) has a 1.4 point lead. That's up just a hair.

Judy O'Bannon was saying that they are expecting a total of 50,000 Obama volunteers starting from this past Thursday through election day. We're working for that miracle.

[gratuitous]

11. 1.4 is almost certainly within the margin of error

And if the ground game makes any difference at all, it sounds like Obama's campaign has it over McCain's, at least in your corner of Indiana. Not surprising, though; McCain doesn't have any money, and what he does have he's spending on stuff like robocalls in his home state.

[Buzz Clik]

13. Indiana is hard to call, but it also has a nasty, ugly underbelly

I've lived here for 10 years, and I've seen things here that I've never seen anywhere else. I saw a man wearing a KKK jacket to a university basketball game. He moved in and out of the crowd as if he were wearing a plain, white sweatshirt. I was seething, but no one else even flinched.

I've seen more Confederate battle flags here than anywhere I've been. Some knuckledragger had his pickup decorated with two huge battleflags on Sept 12, 2001; I guess he thought he was being patriotic.

Northwestern Indiana is about as segregated an area as I've ever seen. Gary has areas that are nearly all African-American with essentially all-white areas all around. If southern Indiana formed a new state, it would be politically and philosophically aligned with the states like West Virginia and South Carolina.

Indiana hasn't voted for a Democratic presidential nominee since 1964.

The local paper here endorsed Obama for some odd reason, but they have yet to publish a flattering article about him, they carry anti-Obama political cartoons almost exclusively, they ran a letter to the editor today that called Obama a traitor, and they had a half-page article today expressing total shock that Obama apparently inferred that agriculture has had some connection with health problems (and the locals are going nuts).

If the Bradley effect lives anywhere, it lives in Indiana.

I want to be wrong, and I'm hoping the ground troops will build an insurmountable lead.

[mary195149]

5. What part of Indiana were you at? n/t

[Buzz Clik]

7. Our headquarters are downtown Lafayette, IN.

[Indiana_Dem]

10. Okay--our organizer is out of Lafayette. We are 45min.-1hr away from you! nt

[Indiana_Dem]

12. We had 10,000 voters in 2004 total. 6,000 have already voted so far this year yesterday.

The polls are open all day at voting centers throughout the county 10am until 7pm. I hope that gives people an indication of what is going on in my little town!

[Buzz Clik]

14. You guys are awesome!!!

:thumbsup:

[Azlady]

6. Thanks for getting out and helping Obama!!

Thanks for posting your experience! Will being the same over the next couple of days! How exciting!

[Buzz Clik]

8. Good luck! It's great that Arizona is in play.

[dhpgetsit]

15. What a ground game!

Very inspiring! Thank you for your work!
:yourock:

[Buzz Clik]

16. I was very, very impressed!

My first volunteering was on Columbus Day, and the place was active but not busy. I was a bit nervous that our little blue collar community would be unable to cough up enough volunteers to meet needs and expectations. Three distinct offices? Hundreds of volunteers? :woohoo:

My calling list was entirely for other parts of the state. Apparently, we've completed our local lists and are helping out in GOP strongholds where Dems are scarce.