Scott Harper's campaign (IL-13) organized and caravaned over 30
volunteers yesterday to Lafayette IN. We met at the McDonald's in
Bolingbrook Il at 6am. Despite what the ignorant media says about
Barack's supporters we were overwhelmingly white, at least two thirds
female and except for Scott's staffers all but 2 or 3 of us were way
over 40. Most were older than me and I'm 52.

We had plenty of
people willing to drive their own cars paying for their own gas. I
teamed up with one 68 year old woman who was kind enough to let me ride
along. She was so nice she even paid for dinner. I owe her one.

We
got to the campaign HQ on 4th St. about 10am Indiana time. The office
as expected was bustling with activity. With a minimum of fanfare
we
checked in, lined up for our precinct packets, grabbed stacks of 4
different pieces of lit and headed out the door. They run a very
efficient organization.

Joan has GPS in her car so finding our
two precincts a few miles away was easy enough. We took the advice of a
guy from WI who was parked in front of us and worked them together.
Good thing too as some of these houses were 25 or 30 steps straight up
to the front door and by late afternoon Joan was shivering and couldn't
hike up them anymore. I have long legs and need the exercise so that
was fine with me. Anybody who says the midwest is all flat ought to
canvass Fairfield precincts in Lafayette IN or river towns in IL like
Elgin.

The packets themselves are great, looks like they are
using Bill Foster's (IL-14) software that served him and Patrick Murphy
in PA so well. Makes planning your route a piece of cake.

The
first precinct we did in the morning when the weather was warm and
sunny didn't go so great. A lot of "not homes" so we left the lit. On
that list we seemed to be looking for young people at their parents'
homes, lotta quarter or half acre lots, solid 4 bedroom spreads built
in the 70s. Some kids live there but most weren't around on a bright
sunny spring Saturday.

Talked to one guy my age when looking
for his son and he tried to shut me down right away. Said I came to the
wrong house, he was voting for McCain, originally from Chicago he
smugly "knew all about" Obama. Said Barack should have stayed away from
a guy like Rezko. Like McCain should have stayed away from Charles
Keating I asked?

I told him I was actually looking for his son
and then gave him my succinct economic speech. We had a $1 trillion
dollar debt when Carter left office. It took us over 200 years, 2 world
wars, a civil war, umpteen recessions and depressions to run that up
that tab. Now it's $9 trillion. It's so ugly you have to say it twice.
$9 trillion. In twenty seven short years of trickle down, supply side
economics, with tax cuts for the richest 1% we've ballooned that debt
out of control. John McCain said in 2001 Bush's tax cuts offended his
conscience. Now he wants to make them permanent. Your kids, your
grandkids are going to have to pay that debt. Guilt is a powerful
motivator and it's about time some of these fools started feeling it.
It didn't change his mind but I could tell it gave him something
troubling to think about. He took my lit, said he'd give it to his son
and begged off.

When I have time to expound on that like I did
down the street with an undecided son of a Greek immigrant who couldn't
make up his mind between Hillary and Barack I tell them the
Venezuelans, Iranians, even the Saudis and our "good friends" the
Iraqis don't want to be paid in American dollars for their oil anymore.
Our oil companies have to buy Euros to pay for it and that's one of the
big reasons oil and gas costs so much.

He really identified
with that. His dad left the family some property in Greece, a small
hotel he and his brothers would like to sell. America is so unpopular
there now his brother slaps Canadian maple leafs on his luggage when he
goes back to the old country. They're stuck hanging onto the property
because of the hit they'd take converting the sale into dollars. Said
he's a Greek-American and he'd like the American part to be a positive,
not a negative, not have to hide it when he goes back to Greece again.


That oil company riff makes for a nice segue into why the gas tax
"holiday" is such a bad idea. I told him McCain proposed it with no way
to pay for it and Hillary "me-tooed" it with her windfall profit tax on
the oil companies. There's no better way to get a nod of recognition or
an "ain't that the truth" than to emphatically say George Bush will
never sign a bill that has a windfall profit tax on oil companies. It's
just never gonna happen. If by some miracle she and McCain ginned up
enough popular support in congress to pass such a bill Bush would veto
it and throw it right back in her face. She could either vote for it
again without the tax, gutting the Highway Trust Fund so Indiana will
have to sell off more roads (Governor Mitch Daniels has about wrecked
his career in Indiana by leasing their stretch of I-80 to Australians)
or she can spend the summer telling disappointed drivers she was for
the bill before she was against it. We all know how well that worked
for Kerry. That's dumb policy and even dumber politics she's using
hoping you're dumb enough to buy it. The kicker I use is what it boils
down to is you can vote for someone like Clinton or McCain who promises
you a free lunch and thinks you're too stupid to see through it. Or you
can vote for Obama who tells what you need to hear, doesn't make phony
promises and treats you like an adult.

The second precinct in
the afternoon went much better. It got windy, cloudy and colder. Many
more people home, lotta Obama supporters, fewer undecideds, even fewer
Hillary supporters and all of three McCain voters. We saw three Hillary
signs all day and none of her doorhangers. Did see Obama flyers stuck
in some doors that evidently had been there a few days. Nobody but us
had actually knocked on their doors this cycle and judging by the
reaction of most people nobody had ever canvassed them before.

After
talking to a number of undecideds I'm confident they're voting Obama.
Most people are pleasant, if they're not seriously engaged they know
they should be and are happy to have someone on their doorstep making
the case for their candidate.

We got all but about 5 houses that were "no such addresses". Didn't get back to the office til about
6:30 and didn't get home til about 10.

This
post is book length already so I'll sign off with this. If you're an
Obama supporter who can get to IN or NC, go. Every vote we can get
counts. From what I saw on the ground in Lafayette it looks good.