I normally resent when telemarkers call me at home, but I’ve received a phone call every day this week from my local Obama office and have been way more impressed than annoyed. First of all the people who have called me have all been **intelligent **and even tho I know they must have a script, none of them sounded canned. Also, I had a campaign worker come to my door several months ago and got into a discussion with him where I disclosed that I was an Obama Republican. I am presuming he must have input that in the Big Obama database because every caller from the campaign seems aware of this. The daily phone callers are trying to get me to join their marketing campaign, but when I declined they were not at all pushy and simply thanked me for my vote. Since that initial call, I’ve had daily messages on my answering machine thanking me for my support and asking for nothing. Now, because of their unconventional attitude, I am actually considering working their phone banks, even tho this is a totally hectic weekend for me.
Shayna, if you see this, let me know if you work at the Sepulveda office. If so I might meet you this weekend.
Yes, I put down on one of my donation sheets that I might be interested in volunteering. However school got tough so I wasn’t sure I really wanted to pick up the phone when they called and have to fight them off. I did anyway and they asked me if I was still interested. “I would like to, but I’m in school and things are tough at the moment.” “OK, well if you change your mind call our local office. Thank you.”
My husband is volunteering at one of their Kansas City offices. He called a while ago. It was almost midnight, on Halloween!, and he said there were still about 30 people there, very bustling, mostly printing out flyers*, writing, doing data entry, and calling people in the Pacific time zone.
*some polling places were moved to alternate locations today (Friday) because they expect bigger crowds than usual (that’s my charitable take) so the flyers were printed up with the address and directions of the new locations, and will be hand-delivered to every voting household in those areas. Wow!
I have also gotten the same encouraging, polite and intelligent phone calls from the Obama campaign. I have had the same favorable impression as the OP.
I’m not sure, but I’ll bet your local office would put you to work phoning people on their list of undecided voters. Your Republican bona fides would be helpful. You can even do calling from your home if you sign up.
One interesting thing - they are encouraging folks who have unlimited cell plans to use their own cells for calling. I believe it is a way to avoid the phone bank jamming described in the book “How To Rig An Election”.
I was printing out “walk packets” for the hundreds of canvassers who will be knocking on the door of every likely voter, trying up to three times to make sure they voted. They have a contract with a cab company, so if any likely voter cannot get to the polls, the canvasser will call a cab for them right as they are standing on their front porch. The walk packs also have the updated polling place information, and they have professionally printed door hangers with updated information.
Tomorrow is a dry run for the real Get Out The Vote effort, to make sure everything goes according to plan.
The Obama campaign has more, and more enthusiastic, volunteers than I have ever seen for any campaign. They have a very impressive Web 2.0 system to track every voter contact and volunteer effort. And in this “swing” state, they are going to have a lawyer at every single polling place! They are leaving nothing to chance.
Wow and wow again! Gosh, it helps when the candidate is a former [fake sneer] community organizer [/fake sneer], isn’t it? A couple of weeks ago I read a McCain operative saying, about JM’s GOTV effort that “Obama won’t know what hit him.” Well, I don’t think McCain will know what hit HIM!
This is what McCain’s people are doing. Not a whole heck of a lot.
Hmmm, that flies in the face of this quote, made during a teleconference between reporters and McCain campaign people.
Makes me kind of wish I lived in a swing state. Obama has given only a real cursory effort here in Oregon, and McCain abandoned it long ago. I’ve seen maybe a couple dozen Presidential political tv ads in the last few months (Although part of that could be due to Tivo) and within the last month all have been Obama.
But other than my texts, I haven’t been called or doorknocked or anything by an Obama volunteer. I actually considered volunteering (I did 4 years ago for Kerry) but my state was in the bag from the beginning.
Geez louise, at least you don’t live in the Bluest city on the planet. It was nice to vote for O/B here in Chicago anyway. I actually got tears in my eyes when I touched the screen and the X appeared by Obama/Biden. This election is historic, and it was a powerful feeling just being part of it, even if my vote itself hardly mattered.
Pretty close though. Portland is nearly the whole reason why the state is blue, but I get your point. I didn’t get tears in my eyes, but I did take a picture of my ballot after I made my mark for Obama.
I live in a HUGE swing state (PA), and have not had a bad experience from the local Obama HQ. In fact, I got a ticket to see Bill Clinton at Harrisburg High School and the only thing they wanted from me is a few hours’ time on Monday afternoon. The mention of a cash contribution never came up at all.
Once I got to Harrisburg High, there wasn’t a huge wait at all. (The ticket helped; those of us who had those really did receive preferential treatment over those who didn’t.) We got excellent, ah, standing, and the volunteers seemed to know where to be and what to do.
I’m in California, which of course was in the bag before the election began, but the Obama camp wants me to call undecided voters in Ohio. So you can still volunteer to help but I suspect they’d have you making out of state phone calls.
After Obama’s speech this week asking for votes and assistance with the campaign, I agreed to volunteer. I emailed the local office and was a bit surprised as to where activities were going on. I’m going to participate in a phone bank in a few hours that uses cell phones at someone’s house! (They’re also the central location for some canvassing teams.)
Considering West Des Moines has its own office separate from the Des Moines office and many others in surrounding communities, I was a bit surprised that they have too many volunteers to house.
I know Iowa’s pretty much in the bag, but we have early voting here, and I’d like to encourage people to try it. It was surprisingly easy and some of the polling places will likely be overwhelmed.
That is to combat the long Republican tradition of calling phone bank numbers to tie them to supress Democratic Get Out The Vote efforts. See Allen Raymond’s confession “How To Rig An Election” about his part in the 2002 New Hampshire jamming effort. He did three months in jail.
As far as I can tell, the volunteers are doing this at their own expense. I know I am. You can’t pay people to work this hard. If the effort doesn’t succeed, it’s not going to be due to any lack of effort on my part.
I am so proud of the turn out at Missouri’s three rallys. 75,000 in Kansas City, 100,000 in Saint Louis. More people than in freaking Portland!
I don’t (I’ve been working out of the DAC’s Torrance office, which we actually donated to them for the campaign), but I’d be more than happy to meet you at the Sepulveda office tomorrow!
Suddenly the democratic party has become competent at politics. Is this mostly Obama’s influence/control?
I’d guess so, I still can’t believe a black guy with a foreign name (with middle name ‘Hussein’) won the nomination, let alone is far ahead in electoral votes according to polls.
The 50-state strategy was originally Howard Dean’s. He’s been working behind the scenes, coordinating with the Obama campaign, and not trying to get in the limelight. I think the success of this campaign primarily lies with Obama, who has chosen an amazing team, has consistently stayed on message throughout and is a brilliant political strategist. But I also think Dean is getting less credit than he deserves.
I actually considered volunteering (I did 4 years ago for Kerry) but my state was in the bag from the beginning.