Change In Plans

This short post is about my day volunteering for the Obama campaign in Nashville.

We took Tallulah home at 4pm yesterday, after about 5 hours in the surgi-center and more than two hours of actual oral surgery. She was fine, and good spirited, if a little puffy-cheeked, throughout the entire ordeal. Kids are amazing.

After we arrived home, late yesterday afternoon, I called the Obama campaign headquarters in Nashville, and asked what I needed to do in order to volunteer. The answer was simple: show up, and we will put you to work. They didn’t even take my name.

This morning, I hitched a ride into the center of Nashville (Rosa Parks Boulevard) with my father-in-law, L.C. I was a little early for the campaign world, I guess, arriving at about 8:45. The cavernous Nashville HQ was pretty much empty. Not an auspicious start.

Before 9am, however, a team of volunteer co-ordinators had arrived, registered me, and gotten me working the phones. There were no land lines, only a huge table full of cell phones on chargers. Today’s big get-out-the-vote task in the phone bank was to contact elderly Democratic voters (80-95 years old!), encourage them to vote, and find out whether they wanted an absentee ballot. This was (at least) the second pass through these phone lists, because my pages were already heavily annotated, and I was instructed to just call the ones coded “No Answer” and “Busy”.

Calling the old people was more fun than I would have imagined: “Since you are recovering from the triple-bypass surgery, Ma’am, can we help you get an absentee ballot and vote from the comfort of your home?” At about 11am, though, I was flattered to be selected for door-to-door canvassing.

With a very smooth young African-American guy as my partner (he on the left side of the street, I on the right), we knocked on doors in a Nashville neighborhood called The Bordeaux. It had been described to me as “demographically friendly.” This turned out to mean “mostly African American.” The purpose of the canvassing was to get voters to go to the polls early - today if possible.

About two minutes after I started, a young guy yelled out the window of his car as he drove by: “This is the ‘hood, bro. Don’t get shot!” That was a little dramatic for what was an entirely pleasant experience. Of the 50 doors I knocked on, maybe 20 had people at home. 19 were planning to vote (or had already voted) for Obama/Biden. One woman told me she was undecided, but would enter the voting booth on election day, and would pray “until Jesus tells me who to choose.” Hmmmm. My big accomplishment was calling in an “immediate ride” request, and having a nice elderly woman taken for early voting within 15 minutes. Impact!

When I returned to the HQ, I was served lunch, got back on the phone (now alongside dozens of other volunteers), and started calling the elderly voters once again. Throughout the day, the place got more crowded and more lively.

Overall, this was a fun and worthwhile day. It is too limited an experience (in time and in geographic scope) to draw any conclusions about the race, about the campaign, or about much of anything. That said, I was surprised by a couple of things that I observed:

1- The campaign seemed extremely well organized. As new volunteers wandered in (or returned), they were made immediately productive. Detailed plans for the day, and for the next 12 days were printed and hanging on the walls. There was enormous capacity in phones and computers and literature and paraphernalia. There was good guidance and oversight, and clear task orientation, all in a completely fluid environment. Very impressive.

2- Even though Obama/Biden is trailing by 8 points in Tennessee, the turnout and energy of volunteers was amazing. It seems unlikely that a concerted get-out-the-vote effort amongst the 80-95 year-old demographic, or really anything else that a group of volunteers can do at this point, will close the 8-point gap. That said, the commitment and seriousness and passion of the volunteer effort is truly inspiring. This is the democratic process at its finest.

India and I view this period of me not working -this “year off”- as a precious gift. I had some fleeting remorse today that we are expending this gift time on our trip, rather than on a political campaign or on non-profit work. The trip still seems like the best thing for us as a family, and probably also the most fun. That said, I became more aware of the opportunity cost with my one-day visit to Campaignland.