Canvassing for Obama: pt. 2

Last time, I wrote about my incessant reading of polls and political blogs, and how I decided to trade the anxiety of that for some motivation and action by knocking on doors for Obama in New Hampshire.   Today I want to talk about what it's like to canvas for the Obama campaign.

I signed up at mybarackobama.com, and wanted to say a few words about the website.  Whoever set up their campaign knows quite a bit about social media.  When you first get there, you create a profile.  Then you're off and running.  Basically people can post events and their details (location, time etc..) and when you log in, it gives you a list of events to choose from in your area.  You get your own blog, where you can presumably post information about the campaign, issues you're concerned about, or whatever, and can share that with contacts that you make, through fundraising, events, etc... Finally, everyone has an "activity index", which is a number indicating how much you've been involved in the campaign.  Lots of stuff, which I didn't have much interest in exploring, but which seems to have high traffic, based on the main feed area.

I signed up to go to Keene, New Hampshire each weekend until the election, and election day.   I wasn't sure I could do all of that, but I figured I'd sign up for anything I possibly could.  Immediately I received four emails, confirming my participation, and giving me a contact phone number, an address (and a time), and a link to edit my events.  A few days later, I got a call from someone at the Obama organization, confirming my participation on the 12th of October for a canvassing event in Keene, New Hampshire, a small city in the southern part of the state.  The guy on the phone (who sounded to be in his early 20s) also told me to email the person listed on my event if I needed a ride (which I did).  He thanked me, and with that, I was part of the Obama campaign.

That Sunday, I woke up and printed off Obama and Biden's "Blueprint for Change" and skimmed it over coffee.  Alanna drove me over to Sheldon field in Northampton, where I found a crowd of about 20 or 25 people.  They ranged from teenagers to older folks, with clustering more towards the latter...I counted 5 people or so younger than me.  The guy in charge, whose name was Joe, asked us to give our names, and then hit us with a bit of a right-turn--we weren't going to Keene, we were going to the rural village of Ashuelot, to the south of Keene, in the Modnadnock mountain region.

I met up with Elaine, Bonnie, and Kaitlin.  They were all older than me (between 40s and 60s), and were all from Northampton or the surrounding area.  We hopped in Elaine's car and were off.  The conversation up in the car was interesting, consisting mostly of the usual Bush bashing that I'm used to from "happy valley" liberals.  Not really my cup of tea...

After a certain point, the Bush bashing lost its steam, and we pulled out the Blueprint.  We read through Health Care, Economy, and Energy policies, to try and learn some specific things to say to people.  I tried to pick up a few policies that I could regurgitate on command, and latched onto the Energy Tax credit, choice in Health care plans, and renewable energy infrastructure improvements. I have to say that I didn't find much in the Blueprint to really get behind.  Most of the policies seemed like pretty mild prescriptions.  For example, I'm not particularly impressed with Obama's continued support of  more private insurance (I'm a single payer guy).  Even his National Health Insurance Exchange will be a clearing house for private insurance, and he has yet to outline what his "New Public Health Plan" will look like--most of his Health Care policy statement consists of promises to cut waste in current health care, which seems to me like a ridiculously easy promise to make, and a harder one to force insurance companies to keep.  Under Energy, Obama continues to support nuclear power, and clean coal, which is a joke wrapped in the authority that Obama is giving it.  Still, we'll see what he actually pushes for once he gets in.

We got to Ashuelot about an hour later.  Ashuelot is a village situated between Winchester and Hinsdale. Just as an aside, this was New England at the height of the fall, and I was in prime leaf country.  Throughout the day, we would all stop and look around, stunned by how beautiful the whole thing was.  The day was warm and sunny, and the light added that much more brilliance.

The Obama headquarters in Ashuelot was in a print shop owned by Dan Carr.  Dan was the local campaign coordinator, a printer, and a candidate for state senate from the area.  He's also a really cool guy, who I would link to if he had a website--though I don't think it would do him much good, as I suspect face-to-face campaign is probably a lot more effective in a place like Ashuelot.  Dan told us that this area had been basically democratic since 2000, and old North republican prior to that, though there were definitely lots of independents and more than a few conservatives.  He asked us to confirm Obama supporters, push leaners and undecideds, and leave literature if no one was home.  He also told us to ask about whether they were supporting Jean Shaheen, the democratic candidate for Senate, and, if we got around to it, Paul Hodes for congress.  Obviously, being Massachusetts residents, we wouldn't have much to say about those races, but Dan wanted us just to record what folks said about that, and give them literature if we could.  If we did encounter any undecideds, we were told that our best strategy would be to tell why we, personally, were voting for Obama--it was a compelling story, and sounded better than trying to memorize policy points or anything like that.  Finally, if they were supporting, we were told to ask if they'd volunteer (which I almost universally forgot to do).

He had a stack of packets, with lists of names, addresses, and google maps of locations. The name lists had ages, addresses, party affiliations, and then columns where we could circle Support/lean/undecided for Obama/McCain, Shaheen/Sununu, Hodes/Hom.  Finally, there were boxes we could check for Refused, Moved, Not Home, and other things.  Our job was essentially come back with those forms filled out.

Elaine, Bonnie, and I took the most rural area we could find, and started driving. I met a lot of interesting people that day.  Elaine and I came up the driveway of one house...well, more like a shack, to find a woman with fiery red hair cleaning out a woodshed, in the company of the largest dog I've ever seen.

--"hi, we're from the Obama campaign, and we..."

--"You can relax, he's got my vote"

She then proceeded to tell us how this was the first time she'd voted straight democrat, because "this country has gotten crazy".  Lots of people said the same thing.  New Hampshire really prides itself on independence--for those of you who don't know, it's state motto is "Live free or Die!", and being very cautious of political affiliation is something of a team sport up there..  So it's pretty dramatic when, to a T, they almost all said the same thing as this woman--straight dem, to pull the country back on track.

I met a man in another cabin on the same mountain who drove a home-heating oil truck.  He told me that it broke his heart to hand out increasingly higher bills every month to the people he delivered to.  He had voted for Perot, and Ralph Nader, and wasn't sure if he trusted Obama.  He sure as hell wasn't going to vote for McCain, with Palin on the ticket, but he thought he might sit this one out.  I had a long chat with him, and at the end, I got him to give Obama a second look.

A general observation--There were no Obama signs anywhere we saw, and there were lots of McCain signs.  What Dan told me was that the republican strategy in this area is to send TONS of yard signs, but little in the way of ground support, where Obama was exactly the opposite--very little in the way of advertising and signage, but lots of ground game coordination...hence, my being there.

One of the moments that I've thought about the most occurred right at the beginning of my day.  I wandered into a family gathering, where I was clearly not welcome.  Men and women of all ages were sitting around a porch, drinking beer, and chatting, as families chat.  I asked for the person on my list, and said I was knocking on doors for Obama.  One of them cracked a joke about not knowing who he was, and we all laughed.  But after that, they all indicated that they weren't voting because "all politicians are liars".  I said a few weak things about Obama not being a liar, but they weren't having any, and wouldn't commit to anything.  I didn't press the issue because they were having a gathering and I was wandering into it un-invited.  It bummed me out at first, but then it struck me that, far from being ignorant rednecks or hicks, they actually had a pretty clear sense of how the world would (or, actually, would not) change no matter who was sitting at the top of the hill.  Something for all of us to think about as we try to make the world a better place.

In the end, I'm not sure if I changed anyone's mind, but I want to conclude with a story, which I suppose is kind of prophetic--maybe it means something or not.

Dan told me that when he first started his campaign for state senate, he decided to knock on every door within his district.  This included some pretty out-of-the-way places up in the mountains.  One day, he came to a house, and met a man who had moved to Winchester in 1950.  He had been registered as a republican since that time, and had always voted for whoever the republican was on the ballot.  He and Dan got to talking, just chatting away about living in the mountains, and he told Dan that in his 56 years of living in New Hampshire, not a single politician had ever been in contact with him, or asked him for his vote.

This makes me think a few things.  First, that's a fucking sorry commentary on American democracy, such as it is.  Secondly, it put my experience in perspective--was my simple act of knocking on doors in rural New Hampshire all it took to convince people to vote for Obama?  What about issues?  Character?  Policy?  It boggled my mind, and made me feel really cynical--the idea that people are so alone, and alienated, that just human contact will sway them politically.

Dan did get the guys vote, but to me, that's almost immaterial.  The thing I liked the best about that story, the thing that gives me some hope, and some real perspective on what I did, was that Dan and this mountain man had a conversation.  Dan said that just talking to him was enough to get his vote, but that's point--they talked.  They talked, and listened, and heard each others perspective on the world.   In a country like ours, so often cold and barren with isolation, it's moments like those that I hope for, and give me a hint that maybe, with just a conversation, a better world is possible.