Only 2 days left

Yesterday was the official kick-off of "Election Day" for the campaign here; even though there is no voting until Tuesday, we're running the same volunteer operation for these 4 days now. The biggest changes: we have a massive increase in volunteer shifts (canvassing and phone banking) and we are now running all volunteer operations out of 4 staging locations around town and not the Democratic/Obama headquarters. This makes sense to us: gives the staging locations a chance to work out some kinks and gets volunteers used to going elsewhere to begin their work.

The headquarters is still open, of course; Josh and I worked there yesterday to field questions and point volunteers in the right direction (plus, the internet was working and all our work is online). We extended our day yesterday by arriving at 8:30 am, which totally threw Topher off his schedule. You can no doubt guess the price we paid for this. So this morning we are taking shifts; I just drove Josh downtown and and am now home giving Topher a more normal morning. We will hang out here reading the New York Times for a bit, then go for a 45-minute hike in nearby Horse Gulch. Once he's been walked and given some lunch, I'll be able to head downtown for a good 6-7 hour stretch. Josh may get an early release if he wants one; we'll see how the day goes.

I reached minor celebrity status in Durango yesterday with a small profile in the local paper. The whole experience makes me feel uncomfortable, but Josh says I just need to "embrace it." There is of course a story behind the story, which is too long to go into here, but the short of it is that the paper wanted to run the story, the campaign was concerned it would send the wrong message (that there aren't enough supporters and volunteers in Colorado so the campaign has to import them - which isn't true at all), the two went back and forth for 24 hours, then they agreed on terms and I was given the green light to talk with the reporter. Friday the photographer came to the office; I wanted the whole thing over with as quickly as possible. Many people who came by the office yesterday said, "Hey, you were in the paper today!" and one guy even jokingly asked if I would sign his copy of the Herald... I'm hoping that by now it's all been forgotten.

I had one of the more interesting phone conversations with a new volunteer yesterday; a woman who told me she is a "lifelong Republican" who is not only voting for Obama but was calling to sign up for volunteer shifts every day for these three days. I asked her what it was that had convinced her to vote for Obama and she told me that in 2000 McCain was "my man," but this time around she finds his campaign to be "sleazy" and she hardly recognizes the man she so admired 8 years ago. She is also deeply disappointed with the Bush presidency and has decided she will register as a Democrat after this election. She joked that her son keeps threatening to write a letter to George Bush thanking him for doing what he himself was never able to: get his mom to register Democrat!

By far the highlight yesterday was the chance to dial into the volunteer pep-talk by Senator Obama. It was a conference call open to all the "top" leader volunteers at each field office; we dialed in and put the call on speakerphone. While we waited for Obama to get on the line, John Carson, National Field Director, shared some early vote and new voter registration numbers. After a few minutes, Obama came on the line and spoke for maybe 5 minutes both thanking everyone for creating such a groundbreaking campaign as well as asking for us to "double down on your time" and reminding us that "we can sleep after we win." "Don't let history slip through our fingers" resonated with me and really brought home how thousands of people across the country are all working to get this man elected. He's counting on us - it's inspiring and daunting.