Grassroots Activities Still Pay Dividends

Last night Cynthia and I worked a couple of hours at the San Mateo County Fair, and immediately I was reminded why being in the trenches is the way to go. Within five minutes of being there, at least five groups of people walked by and just couldn't resist smiling broadly, displaying a thumbs up and uttering the word "Obama." Although satisfying, this is the low hanging fruit. The true reward is interacting with the undecided voter or the person who likes Obama, but has never voted for a Democrat.

But before I delve into our experience with a couple of ambivalent voters, I would like to talk about the McCain booth. As we walked into the hall where probably a hundred booths are laid out in several rows, among dozens of vendors selling and displaying everything from lighted rollerskates to roofing, we noticed the McCain booth. As you would expect, it was unattended, and the most unusual feature was one of those rubber Halloween style masks in the form of a McCain head. Sitting there on a table in the middle of a flag display and literature, McCain's head sitting there kind of crumpled and wrinkled reminded me of what someone who was beheaded would look like. I couldn't decide whether this was someone's idea of a great backdrop or whether they were scrambling just to get any McCain material out to fill the tables. In any case, it was creepy and maybe apropos.

As we located the Democratic booth, besides being greeted warmly by several smiling and friendly campaign workers, standing near the back of the booth was a life-sized cardboard cutout of Barack Obama, and during the next two hours, at least half a dozen people asked if he was for sale. I bet you no one was offering to take home the creepy McCain head! Bumper stickers, buttons, t-shirts, Obama literature and voter registration forms were a huge feature, but the human element was the star. Probably three large groups of teenagers made a point of slowly walking by and making their way toward our table to let us know that they love Obama and wish they were old enough to vote for him, and I told them what I tell all young people, which is not to rush getting older; it happens faster than they think and they'll get to be as old as me pretty quickly.

One woman that stands out was a woman of about 60 who identified herself as a school teacher, and as she lingered in front of the booth making vague references to her tepid admiration of Barack, she admitted that she hadn't registered to vote for fear of being called for jury duty. Her statement that she couldn't bear to be separated from her class sounded plausible, but as we talked about Barack, it was obvious to me that this woman was perhaps considering supporting a Democratic for the first time in her life.

We spoke to her about reading Barack's book Dreams From My Father, and as she gently mentioned several standard Republican talking points that can only come from Fox News or someone like Sean Hannity -- which I didn't take as a challenge but more as a request to dispel her of the myths -- she listened very thoughtfully and intently to our responses and actually seemed pleased to find out that there is an alternative way of looking at and perceiving Barack Obama and the profound impact that he'll have on the issues that are important to her.

Although this woman said that she had a voter registration form at home, it seemed that if that were true, it was probably yellowed from old age. She eventually admitted to me that she had retired last year from a long teaching career after thirty years, and upon saying her goodbyes and thank yous, seemed to pause at the display of voter registration forms. She donned a rather wry smile and said, "Well, maybe I'll just take one of these and fill it out at home," and as she walked away, Cynthia, Nadia (a very dedicated Obama office veteran) and I felt like we had made a difference. I have no doubt that this woman will go back to wherever she hangs out and let everyone know what she learned last night.

As we continued on with our evening, this same woman came back to the booth to show my wife a necklace she had purchased from another booth nearby. It seems like she felt that she had made some new friends, and we felt very satisfied that we are spending our time doing something worthwhile.

In every community in every corner of this country, some event like our county fair is taking place. Don't be shy...go see whether you can spend an hour or two hanging out, passing out bumper stickers, greeting potential Obama voters and letting them put a face to this presidential campaign. I promise that you'll feel very good and you will definitely be making a difference.
Oh, by the way, curious people that we are, we just had to pop on by the Republican booth to see whether someone actually showed up to "person" it, and sure enough, there was a woman there. The wrinkled head was still there, too. It was as quiet as a tomb, and the woman was standing there with her paperwork spread in front of her...her work work. This woman had her letters and memos from work in front of her and she was getting her personal work done while she stood there with no one to talk to. We were nice and said hello. After all, we are representatives of Barack Obama every second.

As we turned the corner on the way out of the hall, the lighted rollerskate man called us over and smiling, quietly said, "Did you see the McCain lady there?" We acknowledged that we had, and he said, "Yeah. Nobody goes over there." He added, "I'm voting for Obama, too!" As we exited the building and headed for home, we felt pretty damned good.