Today, I worked as a monitor for Obama at an early voting site here in the ol North State.  Last day of early voting, last day to register and business was expected to be good, which it was.   

They state campaign is focusing its efforts on getting its volunteer lawyers properly credentialed (i.e. inside the polling place) on Tuesday, so those of us who also volunteered for extra duty this weekend were told to charge up our cell phones, slather on the sun screen, grab a handful of fliers and, unless something untoward happened, plan on spending most of the day  the legally required distance from the door outside the polling places. 

Nothing like getting off the net and out among some real people--both in the corporeal sense and in the not politcal junkies getting upset over every poll--to restore your perspective. 

Last night, I zinged a few barbs around here, did my post about Hillary's gas tax thing and watched the NC Jefferson Jackson "dinner" (Dinner indeed.  I didn't see no food.) on CSPN.  I had to mute Hillary because I couldn't stop imitating her speaking style every other minute and it scares the bejesus out of the cats when I do that.  Because of that, I also missed the booing at the mention of Easley's name, Hillary being taken aback by chanting for Obama and Hillary's supporters walking out before Obama spoke (and, hell, maybe they were just lining up for the bathrooms--it did drag on a bit).  Obama seemed to have caught Hillary's laryngitis, a common campaign trail malady but he got em wound up by the end. 

So basically, I had a good wallow in the acrimony last night, read my monitor manual and some memos from the state board of elections sent by the campaign and hit the sheets. 

And worried about the acrimony. 

That acrimony's like "sword fighting" with sticks when you were a kid.  All good fun until somebody gets hurt, as someone inevitably does.  And lately, as much fun as I've been having with the acrimony, I have been increasingly worried that the party and, more importantly, that realignment election I'd been hopefully predicting, were going up in smoke.

So today, I got to see some real voters, lots of them, actually, and I think maybe we're still going to be okay. 

My early voting location was a county library extension in one of those communities that likes to think of itself as still being rural and Mayberryish, but has really been a bedroom community for the city for about thirty years. For an Obama supporter, there were lots of things you could see as encouraging.  A long, yet cheerful, line.  A good, strong, enthusiastic turnout by African Americans and a lot more young people than I'm used to seeing. There were also a surprising number of those famous working class white women  who were firmly in the tank for Obama.  Surprising, that is, if you didn't know North Carolina and the endemic antipathy for Hillary among its women.  And, by the by, as a point of interest, if Hillary's got any ground came in North Carolina, I saw no evidence of it in my little microscopic slice of the election today.  

While I was passing out my pamphlets  and answering (often correctly) questions about registration, I had a nice chat with a lady from the teacher's union who was handing out their endorsements in the down-ticket races.  She was a middle aged Republican mom who's switched so she can vote Democratic but is torn between Obama and Hillary.  She asked me to talk about why I was for him and I did.  She's not crazy about Obama's preacher, but she just doesn't feel like Hillary can be trusted.  But on the other hand, she doesn't care a lot about the preacher, she says she disagrees with her own pastor all the time. Later, her relief, an older lady with whom I shared my cooler of drinks--of course I brought one, it's May in North Carolina--allowed as how that she'd voted for Hillary but her husband's vote for Obama had canceled it out. 

I also met several actual Obamaicans today.  Flinty-eyed mustachioed Dale Earnhardt worshiping Republican white guys who like Obama a lot. They weren't changing their registarations, and were there to vote down ticket races in the primary, but thery're in the bag for Obama in the fall..  This is a real phenomenon, not just a PR thing.  Their disgust for Bush was palpable and it has rubbed off on McCain.  The Republicans truly have absolutely no clue regarding the extent to which the ground has shifted beneath their feet.  (Heh heh heh.)  I was worried that they would be the first people we lost, but they're holding fast.  They're not going to get fooled again. 

Above all, though, I was reminded that most people don't have time in their lives for the acrimony between Obama and Clinton supporters online.  If Obama is nominated, the Hillary supporters in the real world will get over it and vote for him. I only met one women who gave the impression of someone who'd be too angry to do so. 

My two best moments were these: 

First, a tough, tough looking short haired lady in a rodeo buckle and cowboy boots wearing a shirt that said "Are you going to COWBOY UP or just lay there and bleed?" took my literature despite looking to be squarely in Hillary's prime demographic.  I told her I want to buy one of those shirts for every damn person in the Democratic Party this year and she understood what I mean. 

Are you going to cowboy up or just lay there and bleed?  Damn right.  

Second, the best moment of all came as closing time approached.  A thirty something African American woman who had just voted came up to me and sincerely thanked me for what I was doing.  I confess I got a little verklempt.  It made me feel like the simple fact that a lot of whites believe, and are capable of believing, that Barack Obama is the best person for the job of president meant a lot to her, and, by extention to a lot of black folk.  It was a reminder to me that come January 20, 2009, we will all look at each other differently if we elect him.  It was a reminder that, if we elect him, a  slender, desparately needed, bridge of trust will be thrown over the abyss of hurt and mutual suspicion that has separated black from white for decades.

It's not the main reason I'm for Barack, but it's no small thing.  Not a small thing at all. 

And, hey, in closing, I just wanted to give a shout out to Billy Glad for his  "Canvassing For Anybody But McCain" blog today.  He may be one of those People's Front for the Liberation of Judea bastards rather than a Judean Popular Liberaton Front hero, but, somehow, reading his blog just added to my feeling that maybe we're going to be okay after all. 

Because when all is said and done, and the pledged delgates are pledged and the supers have supered, the real question, the important question is, after all, whether we're  going to cowboy up, or whether we're just going to lay there and bleed.