From the belly of the beastFollow

Flea & I just got home from a long-*** day of canvassing in Indianapolis. I guess that every square inch of the northwestern part of the state had already been covered so they were asking people to head on down south.

An impressive GOTV effort is going on down there. We were sent to a satellite office in the general area we were covering in northern Indy. A lot of people buzzing in and out, people bringing in food in preperation for a long couple of days. Another section where they were training about 12 people for canvassing. Another group of tables where they were handing out assignments. We were actually sent to a... ummm.... sub-satellite office which was someone's home so they could hit each region on a neighborhood by neighborhood basis. When we got there, there, the lady said that they only had two canvassing packets left for that section and gave us one. We were primarily going early voting efforts -- letting people know that the Indiana early voting offices were still open, where they were and making sure they knew of their regular Nov 4th polling location in case they weren't early voting.

Of course, our particular neighborhood was in the suburban region in northern Indianapolis where the wealthier Republican neighborhoods lie. McCain signs a-plenty! A few initial "You're wasting your times" later, we hit our first gentleman who was in fact planning to vote for Obama and wanted to early vote yet. After him came a few others and we started seeing more Obama signs. I'll say that, although some people were a bit curt, we didn't encounter any open hostility. The places we were doing were probably the toughest neighborhoods to win over in the Indianapolis area and a place where each vote would definately count. Judging from the maps in the canvassing offices, the Obama effort is hitting those neighborhoods hard and no stone is going unturned. After completing our packet, we headed back to the house and were greeted with a free home-cooked meal and some chit-chat with the local staffers. Flea managed to pick up some Obama swag to make her feel better about not owning a t-shirt like me. Someone came in and reported that the satellite early voting office (there's a lot of satellite stuff going on because the main offices are swamped) currently had a line of about 300 people waiting to vote; almost entirely Obama supporters. It was getting late and they already had lawyers there to ensure that everyone who was in line by 7:00pm was afforded their chance to cast a ballot as required by law.

I have no idea if Obama will take Indiana. Like I said, we were in the hardest neighborhoods of Indianapolis and it was about 3:1 in both McCain signs and front door rejections. But if he loses Indiana, it won't be for a lack of effort from the Obama campaign and its volunteers. If he wins it, I'll definately know why.

As a final cap to the day and cosmic reward for my efforts, I came home to this e-mail:Woohoo!

Edited, Nov 2nd 2008 11:04pm by Jophiel

My perception is tinted coming from Illinois. As Nate Silver of Fivethirtyeight put it, it's the most boring state to be in this election season.

I was going to needle you about it probably sleeting on the outdoor rally, but checking weather.com it's supposed to be 68 degrees and sunny.

Good on ya for canvassing, Joph and Flea.

Now, get your drink on Tuesday night!

Grats on the ticket to the party Joph.

I harassed my employee to vote this year, she hates politics and has never voted. Her husband is more or less the same way. After talking to her a bit here and there, I convinced her it was important to vote this year, mainly because the state of things as they are right now.

Unfortunately, both she and her husband decided to vote for McCain, so I guess that kind of backfired on me.

It's not too late to convince them of the futility of voting! After all, nothing ever really changes, and politicians are pretty corrupt, and it's probably gonna rain that day, so all in all, staying at home that day sounds like a good plan.

Alternatively, you could always send them on a "work seminar" in Ecuador.

You just described Flea and Jophiel in 40 years when one of Obama's daughters is running for office.

Grats on the tickets, and good on both of you for getting involved.



I'm quite sure that "toughest neighborhoods" has a completely different meaning to folks canvassing for McCain/Palin...

I'm quite sure that "toughest neighborhoods" has a completely different meaning to folks canvassing for McCain/Palin...

Those three guys haven't made it to Lake County, yet, anyway.

That said, the chances of the outcome in Indiana having any significance beyond adding to Obama's political capital in a 350+ EV win are pretty slim. New Hampshire, on the other hand, could be critical. I expect my four hours of GOTV there tomorrow to be the difference.

To Grant Park? No way, Jose. I am going to do this live. I took the next day off work, though, so I can comment ad nauseum.

Well me being in the southeastern part of Indiana, it doesn't look too good for Obama in Indiana, at least from what I see. I also don't know much about how the rest of Indiana looks, but around where I live I've only seen about 5-10 Obama signs total. The rest are all McCain/Palin. It disheartens me, but I'm still voting tomorrow definitely.

I'll be ecstatic if Indiana goes blue tomorrow.

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Part of that ticket looks a little fuzzy there Joph. It might be a fake. ;)