He meant to (not) do that

Remember this horrifying graphic from Mitt Romney’s transition webpage?

Given his complete lack of qualifications for being president and the fact that he was so completely out of touch with most Americans, the very idea of Romney as “president elect” was enough give Democrats heart palpitations.

As it turns out, at least according to the story that’s being spun by Romney’s family and campaign officials, he didn’t really want to run for president anyway. It was something he did because he got talked into it by his son Tagg and his wife Ann.

Just another trophy to add to the shelf. Another item for his curriculum vitae. But not something he really wanted to do.

“He wanted to be president less than anyone I’ve met in my life. He had no desire to . . . run,” said Tagg, who worked with his mother, Ann, to persuade his father to seek the presidency. “If he could have found someone else to take his place . . . he would have been ecstatic to step aside. He is a very private person who loves his family deeply and wants to be with them, but he has deep faith in God and he loves his country, but he doesn’t love the attention.”

My first reaction to this was, “Bullshit.” I watched Romney on the campaign trail as closely as anyone who wasn’t actually traveling with him. Mitt Romney is not such a good actor that he could pretend to have a hunger for the presidency that he displayed during the summer and fall of 2012. This dumb statement by Tagg is just their way of saying, “I meant to (not) do that.”

But the more I thought about it and the more Anne I talked about it, the more incensed I became about it. This guy wasn’t in the race to be the President of the United States because he had a heartfelt desire to do it. He was in the race because he got talked into it. He didn’t even see the presidency as ultimate in public service. He saw it as a something akin to being a celebrity. It’s insulting that he would put so much money and effort into to something something this critically important to our country; something he didn’t really want to do in the first place. And, once talked into it, it appears that he saw it mainly as a way to benefit his corporate colleagues at the expense of America’s least fortunate citizens.

In his book The Republic, Plato outlines the perfect society and says that we must choose our leaders from the most talented and gifted and that those people will not want to be leaders. “[T]he State in which the rulers are most reluctant to govern is always the best and most quietly governed,” writes Plato, “And the State in which they are most eager, the worst.”

But Plato also suggested that it was the philosophers — the wisdom-lovers — who should be kings or guardians of society. A faux reluctance like that of Mitt Romney isn’t enough, particularly when his ultimate goal was to enrich those in the upper class that he is a member of.

Ironically, it was Romney’s detachment from the common folks and President Obama’s acute awareness of the importance of talking to everyday Americans that lead to Romney’s embarrassing defeat. This bit from the Boston Globe piece sums it up succinctly:

Tagg Romney could not figure it out. Why had Obama spent so heavily during the primaries when he had no primary opponent? Only later did Tagg realize this was a key to Obama’s victory.

“We were looking at all the money they were spending in the primary and we were thinking ‘what are they spending all their money on? They’re wasting a lot of money.’ They weren’t. They were paying staffers in Florida” and elsewhere.

If Romney’s Manhattan Project had been debate preparation, then Obama’s was the ground game.

Building on its 2008 field organ­ization, Obama’s campaign had far more people on the ground, for longer periods, and backed by better data. In Florida, for example, the ­Romney campaign said it had fewer than 200 staff members on the ground, a huge commitment of its total of 500 nationwide. But the Obama campaign had 770 staff in Florida out of 3,000 or so nationwide.

“They had more staff in Florida than we had in the country, and for longer,” said Romney adviser Ron Kaufman.

The Obama campaign spent nearly identically to the Romney campaign in the end. But the money they spent was much more often spent on increasing direct, one-to-one voter contact rather than on attack ads and mailers. I spoke to Jeremy Bird, the National Field Director for the Obama, and asked him about the fact that, at least in my local area, the Obama campaign seemed to be doing so much more with fewer people, largely because they had much more involvement by local volunteers. I asked him if they had more or fewer staff people in 2012 compared to 2008.

“We actually have more this year,” Bird told me. “But it’s more accurate to look at it in terms of staff person days rather than the actual numbers of staffers. We put people in place much earlier and got our organization up and running so that we didn’t need as many paid staff people.”

No decision was made about where to put resources that wasn’t firmly backed by data; hard numbers that showed where the need existed and where the best return on an investment of funds could be had. The use of data and metrics by the Obama campaign will go down in history and will be the yardstick by which all future campaigns are measured.

It was the focus on direct, person-to-person contact that was the key to the success of the Obama campaign in both 2008 and 2012. In 2008 it was revolutionary. But, detached from real people and an understanding of what it takes to reach them and convince them, the Romney campaign appeared to learn nothing from the 2008 Obama effort. So, in 2012, they got run over by the Obama voter outreach machine as Jeremy Bird and his staff took it to even higher levels.

In the end, Mitt Romney lost, it appears, because he simply didn’t care enough to win. The fact that someone like that could potentially have been the leader of our country is a bit frightening. But, most importantly, it’s a sad statement about the kind of man Mitt Romney is.

The time for ACTION is NOW!

Last week, I wrote about the new website TheAction.org, a new organizing tool to help pass President Obama’s second term agenda. This weekend marks the first Day of Action using this organizing tool. The activities are designed to ensure that Congress passes a repeal of the Bush tax cuts on the wealthiest 2% of Americans while preserving the middle class tax cuts that actually help stimulate our economy by keeping money in the hands of those who will immediately put it back into the economy.

In Michigan, we have three events:

4th Congressional District
Rally outside of Congressman David Camp’s Midland office. This rally will be in support of the Middle Class, asking Dave Camp, “Who pays?” the middle class or millionaires. The address for his office is

Location:135 Ashman Street Midland, Michigan 48640, Kalamazoo Mall, Suite 180
Time: 3:00 p.m.
RSVP: http://find.theaction.org/events/rsvp/346

6th Congressional District
Rally outside of Congressman Fred Upton’s Kalamazoo office. Same theme as above.

Location: 157 S. Kalamazoo Mall Ste. 180, Kalamazoo, MI 49007.
Time: 3:00 p.m.
RSVP: http://find.theaction.org/events/rsvp/356

7th Congressional District
Congressman Tim Walberg’s Jackson Office- We will be calling Congressman Walberg’s office and leaving voicemails asking him to support ending the Bush tax cuts for Millionaires. The theme for the entire day is Middle Class vs. Millionaires and each event will reflect that. We will have a few speakers doing a short presentation but the main focus will be on taking action by calling Rep. Walberg. No experience is necessary we will have scripts and instructions ready.

Location: 800 W. Ganson St., Jackson, MI 49202
Time: Noon
RSVP: http://find.theaction.org/events/rsvp/366

There are similar events planned all around the country. Go to TheAction.org and click on the “Events” link to find one in your area. The events are all sponsored by the Action. In Michigan, they are working with many other organizations including Working America, Michigan Citizen Action, and the Americans for Tax Fairness coalition.

Respect, empower, and include. Repeat.

With another successful Obama election behind us, those who were involved with Obama for America (OFA) at the grassroots level are likely wondering, “What’s next?” After his first election, it wasn’t until the summer of 2009 that OFA 2.0, aka “Organizing for America” came into being. I was privileged to be chosen to attend a 300-person debriefing conference about a month after election, dubbed “The Legacy Conference” where those of us who were deeply involved in the campaign got together to discuss OFA’s future. Within 9 months, we knew what that was going to look like.

There was a stark contrast between the 2008 and 2012 Obama campaigns. In my area, Washtenaw County, we had around a dozen staff people in 2008. Even after the McCain campaign bailed on Michigan, we still had around six paid people working in our area.

This year, we had two. These two people accomplished what it took upwards of 12 to do in 2008. Why? It was the continuance of the grassroots organization that allowed the Obama campaign to be more efficient and to rely more on local volunteer leaders who had been trained over the previous four years. I’ve written about Alaina, the young woman who ran the downtown Ann Arbor Kerrytown GOTV operation. She worked full time for several months for OFA and was never paid a dime. She did it because she was committed and empowered.

During the time between elections, the OFA volunteer organization helped put pressure on Congress to pass the Affordable Care Act, to pass the Stimulus, and to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. All of the same organizing techniques we used during the election were brought to bear on these issues: canvassing, phonebanking and face-to-face conversations with our friends, neighbors and co-workers.

The same process for shaping the future of OFA is again underway. If you haven’t already, be sure to take the OFA survey which you can find HERE.

This survey will help guide OFA’s decision process. Obama campaign manager Jim Messina describes what they are doing here in this interview with Politico:

Another way to get involved is to hook up with TheAction.org. After the election, President Obama held a conference call with volunteers across the country. During that call, we learned that we can all stay involved NOW (unlike in 2008 when things went quiet for 9-10 months) by connecting with this site. Their current focus is on repealing the Bush tax cuts for millionaires.

If you missed the call, you can listen to it HERE:

Barack Obama is not done yet but already he has left a legacy behind him: tens of thousands of people all across the country, trained in community organizing skills, motivated by success and fueled by a thirst for real change in which they have a significant role to play.

I’m in. How about you?

We’re not getting Obama on the ballot until Malia is ready

2012 was extraordinarily important election because it decided whether ObamaCare would be maimed before it could even go into effect. However, whether the law gets funded and properly will be a constant question because of an election too many Americans just skipped—2010.

Republicans got about 500,000 fewer votes for the House of Representatives than Democrats but they kept their huge majority and they’ll likely keep it until 2020 for one reason: Republicans came out in massive numbers in 2010. This gave them the power to gerrymander districts so they can’t lose—creating an electoral map that virtually guarantees Republican control of the House for a decade.

Slate’s Dave Weigel points out that the President won Pennsylvania by 5 percent, but Republicans still held 8 of the 13 congressional seats.

This means the president will never fully be able to implement his agenda—unless 2014 turns out to be an even bigger landslide for Democrats. It also means the only people that most of the Republicans in the House ever have to answer to will be primary voters.

Todd Akin, for instance, couldn’t win a Senate seat but he was elected to the House ten times. So what we’ll see if Republicans dare to compromise are even more extreme candidates coming out of contested primaries.

In Michigan, Democrats picked up 5 seats in the state House but, with only 4,000 more votes, the House would be tied 55-55.

The margins in 2014 will be tiny compared to 2012 and the GOP knows that the few groups they haven’t alienated—white people in their 50s, 60s AND 70s—are the ones that are most likely to show up at the polls. And while Citizens United and outside didn’t affect this election much, dark money groups like Americans For Prosperity dominated in 2010.

OFA is likely going away. Unless we start organizing now with a positive agenda—public option, anyone?—we’re guaranteeing that Republicans will dominate state and local politics in most states while being encouraged to obstruct the president every chance they get.

If we let that happen, what have we won?

Every little bit helps

In our Obama campaign office in downtown Ann Arbor, we have the fairly typical crew of folks. There’s me, the Canvass Captain, and my Deputy Canvass Captain Jennifer who does as much or more than I do.

We have Kate who somehow manages to keep all of our canvass packets and canvassers organized so that she can report the numbers and so we can make sure everyone gets back safely.

There’s Randy, our Phonebank Captain, who is assisted by Kathy and keeps our steady flow of phonebankers trained and busy, and who manages to stay sane and calm when the predictive dialers are fussy. Thankfully, he’s also an expert in laser printer surgery.

We have Jeanette who is our gatekeeper at the front desk, making sure nobody gets by without being welcomed and then asked if they are volunteering for canvassing or phonebanking.

There’s Etta, our intrepid Comfort Captain, who keeps the coffee fresh and all of our volunteer staff fed along with our volunteers.

And then, of course, we have Alaina, our Staging Location Director. Alaina is doing the work of a staff person and gets paid only in smiles, headaches and the deep satisfaction that she has made a huge contribution to something she believes in strongly. She keeps us all focused and calm and determined and she does it with a big smile. All the time.

This is the normal contingent of volunteers that you’ll see at pretty much any Obama Get Out The Vote (GOTV) Staging Location across the country today. But our office has one more person that not every location is blessed to have.

We have Bette.

Bette is in her 70s, an African American woman who grew up in Washington, D.C. She wasn’t involved in the 2008 election but, this year, she comes down to the office every day during GOTV. Sometimes she brings us some snacks or other food. Sometimes she does small jobs around the office like highlighting our shift times on the volunteer sign-up sheets.

And sometimes Bette just sits quietly in chair near the middle of the room, out of the way but clearly present, doing “nothing”.

But Bette isn’t doing “nothing”. Bette is praying. Bette comes to our office every day of GOTV and prays for us. She prays that our volunteers are successful and safe. She prays that things go smoothly. She prays that we prevail and reelect Barack Obama.

Bette is our self-appointed Prayer Captain.

Got some extra time today after you vote? Then DO SOMETHING! Don’t know what to do? Go to http://barackobama.com/do-something and we’ll get you started. Every little bit helps.

Just ask Bette.

P.S. If you need to confirm WHERE you’re voting (and you should), click HERE.

Feed and supply the troops!

In my piece yesterday “Get Out the Vote (GOTV) – Ann Arbor-style“, I mentioned how a couple stopped by our Obama campaign office with a box of Bunny Grahams and thanked us for what we were doing. It was a small gesture but it really perked us up and put smiles on everyone’s faces.

My wife has had some trouble with her back that has kept her from knocking doors. But, she wanted to do something so she packaged up a bunch of her Obama photomosaic posters and sent them to Obama offices all around Ohio to sell to raise funds for their office or to give to volunteers that are going above and beyond the call of duty.

It’s completely in line with the title of the poster “Forward Together” and for Anne’s motivation for creating the image in the first place.

What she didn’t expect was to get an email like this:

Anne,

Today we received your poster made up of all the rally faces for President Obama. I’ll say that being from MI myself, it gave me the uplift I needed today. I’m a Field Organizer in Montgomery County which is one of the counties that decided Ohio in 2008 and in turn will decide Ohio in 8 days. We work hard down here and when things happen like this…it really is uplifting to all of the staff in this office and me especially since I feel like someone from home appreciates what we are doing down here. I can’t think you enough for this gift for the office it’s definitely an amazing work and would love to commend you what you’ve done. We will continue to work hard down here to make sure that we have another 4 years of surging forward!!!

Thank you so much!

So, are you someone who can’t do the door-to-door thing? Hate talking on phones? How about finding a local office or two and bringing down some food or drinks this weekend? Most office have “Comfort Captains” who are in charge of the food and drink but, to be honest with you, most GOTV teams are so focused on getting their turfs cut, their walk lists created, their call lists in order, their data entered, the volunteers recruited and their shifts filled that the role of Comfort Captain is often over looked.

What do folks want? A variety of things. A crockpot of soup. Some quick healthy snacks you can stick in your pocket. A veggie plate, maybe some hummus. Make it compact and not complicated to eat. Make it self-contained (for example, if you bring soup, make sure to provide bowls and spoons, too.) Make it healthy and nutritious. Make it fun! I’ve seen photos of Obama cakes and cookies and fruit trays decorated with Obama pins. Use your imagination.

You can coordinate your donation with the office ahead of time to see what they need or you can just drop by and surprise them. If you don’t know where your local office is and how to contact them, you can find that information by clicking HERE.

Not everyone can go out and knock doors or make calls (though we’ll try to encourage you to do that.) But most of us can do a little something to fortify those who can. To feed them. To make sure they have something nice to drink. Or something to lift their spirits.

That’s how we get it done: Forward Together.

That’s the way it’s done, kids

In downtown Ann Arbor, tucked into Braun Court in Kerrytown, sits one of two area offices for the Obama campaign. We’re right across from the Farmer’s Market and surrounded by some of the coolest stores and eateries in the city, so we get a lot of foot traffic going by while we do our work to get out the vote (GOTV) for President Obama, Democrats in general and the variety of ballot proposals that Michiganders have to vote on this year.

The Kerrytown office is one of several GOTV staging locations in Washtenaw County and we are surpassing our goals on all fronts.

As folks come into our office, they are immediately greeted by one of our intrepid volunteers. “Are you here to canvass or phonebank?” they are quickly asked.

Often the response is, “Neither, actually. I was just walking by and thought I stop in to see what was going on. Can I get a yard sign?”

“Yes, you can!” is the standard response. “All you have to do is volunteer for a two-hour shift making calls or knocking on doors. Would you like to do it now or come back later?”

Yeah, we have signs. But you have to earn them!

How effective is our little office? This past weekend, for our second dry run before the final GOTV weekend, we had over 70 people canvassing, knocked close to 2,000 doors and made even more phone calls.

That’s just one of three staging locations in our area and that’s just practicing. Next weekend, we get serious.

Here’s what our phonebanking area looks like.

President Obama keeps an eye on Kerrytown phonebankers

While we were working yesterday, Dean of the House Congressman John Dingell and his wife Debbie stopped by to cheer on our volunteers.

l-r, Office Manager Jeanette, Phonebank Captain Randy, Congressman Dingell, Deputy Canvass Coordinator Jennifer and two Ann Arbor volunteers

We’ve had some fun stories over the past couple of weeks. One person our office manager Jeanette talked to during a volunteer recruitment call said, “Hmmm… let me check my schedule. I’m pretty sure I have some free time after Thanksgiving.” [facepalm]

Saturday night we were finishing up cleaning up our canvass packs and getting ready for Sunday morning when a young couple stopped by. “Can we help you?” they were asked? “Would you like to sign up to volunteer?”

“No,” they said. “But we saw you working late so we brought you Bunny Grahams. Thanks for all you are doing.” And, with that, they left us a box of tasty snacks, waved and walked off into the night, leaving us all grinning and laughing (and snacking.)

This is how it is done. This is how you fight back against money and negative ads and lies and lies and lies. Person-to-person contact with your neighbors, making sure they are planning to vote and that they have the facts on President Obama’s accomplishments and about Democrats up and down the ticket.

From now until Election Day, we’re going to contact as many Democrats as we can identify to urge them to vote. On Election Day itself, we will chase down each and every one of those votes, even if we have to knock on people’s doors twice or even three times. Democrats have the numbers but sometimes they just need that extra nudge to get to the polls and OFA is providing that nudge like you’ve never seen.

Next weekend is it, folks. It’s time to stop talking about the polls and the lies. It’s time to GOTV. Contact your local OFA office and find out how YOU can get involved. Vote early, take a vacation day on November 6th, and help us crank up Democratic turnout to “11″. Need to find your local office? Click HERE.

Fired up and ready to go!

P.S. If you are in Michigan, don’t forget to share the Eclectablog 2012 Voters Guide with everyone you know. You can find it HERE.

UPDATE: The importance of our volunteer GOTV effort grew this morning with this announcement from the White House Press Secretary Jay Carney:

Statement by the Press Secretary on Additional Changes to the President’s Travel Today
Due to deteriorating weather conditions in the Washington, DC area, the President will not attend today’s campaign event in Orlando, Florida. The President will return to the White House to monitor the preparations for and early response to Hurricane Sandy.

And then, just a short time ago, this one, as well:

Statement from the Press Secretary on the President’s Tuesday Schedule
The President will no longer travel to Green Bay, WI tomorrow for a campaign event, so that he can stay in Washington, DC on Tuesday and closely monitor the impact of and response to Hurricane Sandy. As he said at FEMA HQ yesterday, the President has instructed his team to make sure that needed federal resources are in place to support state and local recovery efforts. Additional details about the President’s schedule will be announced as soon as they are available.

President Obama is going to be a bit busy this week, doing his job and making sure that our East Coast friends are getting all the support they need as Hurricane Sandy batters them. While he’s busy and kept from campaigning, we need to take up the slack.

Fired up! Ready to go!

We’ve spent a LOT of time talking about this election but now it’s time to take our conversation to the streets and Get Out The Vote (GOTV)!

A recent Gallup poll showed that President Obama is UP over Mitt Romney among registered voters. But, here’s the thing: he’s DOWN by several points among likely voters. That’s where YOU come in. The fact is, if we get our Democratic-supporting voters to the polls, we win. Period. And we don’t just re-elect President Obama. We ensure our Democratic candidates up and down the ticket a victory, too.

The best bang for your buck in terms of GOTV is the Obama for America (OFA) campaign. Starting this weekend, all across the country, OFA is doing “dry runs” for their final four-day GOTV push. There are shifts the next two Saturdays and Sundays, most starting at 10:00 a.m. with the last shift at 6:00 p.m. (this may vary from place to place, of course.)

They will be doing both phonebanking and the more impactful canvassing (door knocking.) What we need from you is to sign up for as many shifts over the next two weekends to ensure this is a success. The OFA GOTV ground game is unparalleled and is what will ensure our success on November 6th. It’s how we overcome massive expenditures by corporate interests that are trying to influence our elections.

Contact your local OFA office TODAY and get involved. If you don’t know how to reach them, try contacting your local county Democratic Party. Or, click HERE and sign up to volunteer.

Please don’t wait. Our future is at stake.

Thanks.

UPDATE: You can also just “walk in” at OFA offices across the county. If you need to know where the one nearest you is, click HERE. Simply enter your zip code and, viola!, you’ll get the information that you need!

OFA: grassroots organizing powerhouse. Again.

The Obama campaign released numbers today about how effective their ground game in swing states has been in two specific areas: voter registration and early voting. How effective have they been?

In a word: VERY.

The campaign held a call for media to discuss the numbers. On the call were Jim Messina, Campaign Manager, Jeremy Bird, National Field, and Ben LaBolt, National Press Secretary. Messina is a data-driven guy. Every morning, the first thing he does is look at numbers. “Not poll numbers but voter registration numbers and early voting numbers,” he said.” Those are the numbers that matter to me.”

What those numbers show for the swing states that will be the deciding factor in this year’s election is that Obama for America (OFA), the Obama campaign’s grassroots organizing effort is shooting the lights out when compared to the Republicans. In fact, they are doing even better this year than they did in 2008. They have more registered voters in every swing state except Colorado and New Hampshire and have registered more voters than the Republicans in every swing state that reports party affiliation.

Here is the data for the number of registered voters:

[Not included: OH, VA, and WI where voters do not register with a party affiliation]

The number of new voters registered in the past three months is equally impressive:

[NH does not publish this data]

Some interesting stats from a memo put out today by Jeremy Bird (pdf):

• Iowa: We lead in vote-by-mail ballots cast, in-person early voting, total voting and total ballots requested. We also lead by a wider margin than we did at this point in 2008 in both ballots requested and ballots cast.
• Ohio: We lead in ballots requested and ballots cast and are ahead of where we were at this time against John McCain.
• Florida: At this point in 2008, Republicans outnumbered Democrats among absentee mail voters by more than 245,000. This year, Democrats have cut that margin to just 70,000 – an improvement of 175,000.
• Nevada: At this point in 2008, Republicans outnumbered Democrats in absentee ballot requests by more than 8,000. This year, Democrats are in the lead.
• North Carolina: At this point in 2008, Republicans outnumbered Democrats in absentee ballot requests by more than 39,000. Today, that margin is down to less than 34,000.
• At this point in 2008, Republicans had an absentee ballot request advantage of 259,000 ballot requests in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina and Nevada. In 2012, Democrats have cut that margin by 75 percent to just 64,000.

OFA has also been highly effective at registering Latinos in the swing states, a demographic that leans heavily Democratic. They’ve been especially effective registering young Latinos. In fact, in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin, 79% or more of the new registrations since August 1st have been under age 30, women, African American or Latino.

With regard to early voting, nearly twice as many Democrats requested early voting ballots than Republicans in Iowa and they are ahead of where they were in 2008. In Ohio, the lead in ballots requested and in number of ballots already cast, too.

Finally, by this point in 2008, Republican requests for early ballots had outpaced Democrats by 259,000. The gap this year? Only 64,000.

Messina told a story about a Neighborhood Team Leader in Ohio who told him she had been working for OFA in her community for so long that she knows who the new voters are, where the reliable Dem voters are and which Democrats need to be reminded to vote. Her counterpart in the Romney campaign just arrived on the scene a few weeks ago.

Mitt Romney is counting on blanketing the airwaves with millions of dollars’ worth of anti-Obama ads between now and November 6th. None of that will matter however, if OFA is as effective this year as they were in 2008. They have the advantage in terms of registered voters as well as those who vote early. Don’t forget: an early voter isn’t susceptible to last-ditch efforts to smear the President.

Want to be part of this massive volunteer effort? It’s fun and exhilarating and you actually can make a very big difference. If you want to be part of that, and I hope you do, click HERE.

Don’t boo, vote! Don’t cry, GOTV!

What a difference a week makes, eh? Suddenly, after an entire summer of leading Mitt Romney, President Obama is suddenly down in the polls. A recent Pew Poll shows him getting clobbered by Romney. Even the Gallup tracking poll has President Obama down by two points among likely voters.

All because Mitt Romney had once decent debate performance.

Freaked out? You should be. Here’s the good news: there is something you can do about it.

Get. Out. The. Vote. GOTV.

GOTV is why President Obama wins elections. It’s, without question, why he won in 2008. Starting this weekend, all across the country, the Obama campaign is starting their training for “GOTV Weekend” — Saturday, November 3rd through Tuesday, November 6th. During those four days, Obama for America (OFA) will contact each voter that they have identified as a supporter once. Twice. Sometimes THREE TIMES! They’ll call to make sure the person is going to vote. They’ll call to make sure the person has a plan as to when they will vote and how they will get there. They will call on election day to make sure they HAVE voted. In 2008, I knocked on my last door at 7:40 p.m., 20 minutes before the polls closed.

I have, once again, volunteered to run a GOTV location. That means that my first training will be four hours this Sunday. And then we’ll do dry runs each weekend leading up to GOTV Weekend to make sure we have our system down pat.

You can be part of that. What is most needed is canvassers and phonebankers. People to walk the turfs and make the calls. In the offices, they need people to cut the turf and assemble the walk packs. To print out the call sheets. There’s almost no end to what OFA needs in terms of volunteer man and woman power.

Polls go you down? GOOD! Maybe this turnaround is EXACTLY what the campaign needed to get people motivated and activated. Harness that feeling and turn it into something productive. Join a GOTV team near you. Sign up at your local OFA office or contact them at BarackObama.com. Do it today.

Oh, and two more things:

First, you know how things have changed around in just one week? Well we still have three more weeks left in this campaign so anything can happen.

Second, this is Barack Obama we are talking about here. The guy who beat the Clintons. Just think about that for a minute. He beat the Clintons.

GOTV, my friends. Gee. Oh. Tee. Vee.