Sign of the Times

Tom and I spent a few hours yesterday making a new sign for the office, 1 East Main Street incidentally. A brief history of our signage:

• First attempt stolen within two weeks
• Second attempt, homemade, stolen within a week
• Third attempt, 4'x8' too large for commercial zoning
• See photos. Hopefully this one will be around for a while

It was up for about a minute when an older gentlemen from next door advised me that "we," meaning the church, were violating our not for profit status by endorsing a political candidate. The church is actually zoned as a commercial space, but I'm sure we'll be hearing from someone about that in the next few days.

I had a notion that this guy might be the one who stole the original two signs. We've been bringing it inside when we close at night, but I'm trying to rally support for a good old-fashioned stakeout. Anyone who's known me for a while already knows of my childhood dream of being a private investigator. Signs have been disappearing all over town. It's probably the same guy! What's one sleepless week compared to a lifelong dream? Forget it Jake; It's Chinatown.

Canvassing, Barlow Rd.

I went out by myself today with two walk packets for the Saturday canvass. The weather was amazing... warm, sunny and there was just a little bit of fall color.

I knocked on ninety-five doors. Ninety-five, and only made nineteen contacts. That would not be considered a very high contact percentage. Considering that at least half of those were either solid or leaning McCain, it was a somewhat demoralizing day.

That being said, I did speak to quite a few solid Obama supporters, including one who worked on his primary campaign last year. He even gave me a little intelligence on his neighbors. "That guy works for the FBI so... He's in the union so... I'm almost sure they're going democratic this year..." etc. I gave him an Obama button.

I spoke to an older, undecided voter... and an Indians fan no less. I've heard this before, but there's this sense that Obama is "too good to be true." I mentioned the blurb for my Obama homepage about why I support him... "Because his farts smell like flowers." He got a kick out of that. We talked for a while, about politics and then about the Tribe.

We will win this election, if I have to talk to every Indians fan in Northeast Ohio.

Call of the Day

A little context may be helpful here. I'm calling people who have already expressed an interest in volunteering to see when they can come in and what types of things they'd like to do. The names have been changed to protect the unceremoniously blunt.

Eric: Hello, is Jill home?
Mrs Doe: No, who's calling?
Eric: I'm a volunteer for the Obama Campaign here in Hudson...
Mrs Doe: Well that's your problem *click*

A Little Background

Zach Exley, with a great article on what I've been up to this last week.

The "New Organizers" have succeeded in building what many netroots-oriented campaigners have been dreaming about for a decade. Other recent attempts have failed because they were either so "top-down" and/or poorly-managed that they choked volunteer leadership and enthusiasm; or because they were so dogmatically fixated on pure peer-to-peer or "bottom-up" organizing that they rejected basic management, accountability and planning. The architects and builders of the Obama field campaign, on the other hand, have undogmatically mixed timeless traditions and discipline of good organizing with new technologies of decentralization and self-organization.

Definitely worth the read.

My First Canvass

I get paired up with this nice, older guy named Robert and we proceed to our designated neighborhood to knock on some doors. He had done it once before and was nice enough to give me some tips. The idea is to target undecided voters and do a little persuasion, but also to identify the people who we're going to call or knock on Election Day for Get-Out-The-Vote.

After about five doors, I see a car in the driveway of my next house. The name on my list is a woman's, but a man is driving the car. He pulls up to me and rolls down his window. I've changed the names to protect the antagonistic.

Eric: Hi, is Jane home?
Mr. Smith: No, she's not.
Eric: Oh, okay. I'm just a volunteer for the
Obama campaign and...
Mr. Smith: No! You kids don't know what you're
doing! That guy is a communist! He's a socialist! You kids
need to get your heads straight! He's a closet Muslim anyway!

This is actually a paraphrased version. The real conversation took about ten minutes, contained some stronger language and was spotted with platitudes from me: Yes sir... Okay sir... Thank you sir... I respect your opinion sir.

Mr. Smith: It's not my opinion!
Eric: Okay sir, sorry to bother you. Have a good day.
Mr. Smith: You're not even allowed to do this. You can't solicit in Hudson. You need a permit. Do you have a permit?
Eric: No sir, I don't have a permit. Have a nice day.
Mr. Smith: I'm calling the police.
Eric: Okay sir, take care.

Incidentally, there is a no soliciting law in Hudson, but political speech is protected by the First Amendment. You're just not allowed to sell anything or put literature in people's mailboxes. He drove by just to let us know the cops were called and they'd be stopping by in a few minutes. We thanked him politely and he went on his way. After a few more houses, a squad car stopped us and asked us what we were doing. The officer was very nice and she was quick to conclude that we were free to go. My colleague Robert chatted with her about her vest and siren lights as she filed her report. He works for a company that sells law enforcement supplies, (she didn't use his vests).

The only thing that sucked was that she stopped us in front of a house I had just knocked on and they were solid McCain supporters. They all watched from their door while we got the shakedown. I bet that made their day.

We finished up and headed back to the office. I recounted my story and Kim, our canvass leader, said that was a first for her. "Me too," I said. Apparently the guy owns a couple of McDonald's Restaurants in the area, so just in case you needed another reason to cut back on the fast food you can add this to the list.

In summation, my first canvass was interrupted by a McDonald's owner who is not too fond of the Junior Senator from Illinois... or socialists, or communists, or Muslims, or young people.

Am I forgetting anyone?

Oh yeah. He's not too fond of me.

Matthew Lesko!

This might be a midwestern thing, but you might recognize this guy from his television commercials around 3:00AM. Free Government Money! Ringing any bells? Anyhow, he's helping out out campaign.

As Promised

I've deluded myself into thinking that I will write a blog about my political activities here in Ohio. In reality, I've been here for eleven days, or roughly one third of my entire trip, and only just now got around to creating one... (I'm post-dating it though, so you'll never know.) In all seriousness, things are going great. I've met some truly amazing people, helpful too, and it's a good thing because I'm way out of my comfort zone! The deadline for voter registration in Ohio was Monday, October 6th, hence the delay in my posting. More on that later. Pictures and stories to follow.