Just spent three weeks away from my hometown, traveling all over, mostly on business.  Everywhere I went, Obama was on the minds (and clothing) of people.  Nary a peep about Johnny Mac, and it feels good.  Meanwhile, the state polls are almost all good news.  Obama up 5 in Montana.  Up huge in Rhode Island and Maine, big in Minnesota and Wisconsin, even up in Ohio and Florida.  The good vibe is palpable.  Some Obama notes from my three weeks of travel.
 
June 18:  Vancouver, Canada.  At airport, discussing crappy exchange rate and weakness of American dollar, Canadian guy at currency exchange says America needs to get rid of Bush.  I tell him we're going to put in Obama.  He's skeptical.  En route to hotel in cab (most Vancouver cabs are Priuses -- very cool), cab driver touting chai tea product he seeks to sell to Whole Foods makes kind remarks about Obama.  So far, so good.
 
June 19-20:  American lawyers in Vancouver:  This is a convention of lawyers responsible for their law firms' risk management.  A Republican-leaning independent lawyer from Michigan reports being swept up in Obama fever, having given money, which he says is out of character for him, asks me to send him bumper stickers, buttons.  A solid Republican from Chicago reports not having ruled out voting for Obama.  Equally solid Democrat from his office asks for bumper stickers, buttons.  Dinner with older lawyers from DC, asking who I'm supporting, but they won't say what they think.  Saying good stuff about McCain is so out of style.  He's even in Canada during this trip, and no one mentions him. 
 
June 24:  Portland, Oregon.  Morning run with Obama hat on the Willamette.  Some friendly waves.  More eye contact for the hat than for me.  Four hours later, I'm wearing an Obama T-shirt after a stupid deposition lets out early.  Heading from downtown up to 23rd in the streetcar, polite homeless guy says, "Hey, Obama Man."  Chats me up, asks for money for cigarettes.  Obama Man declines.  After hitting Mio Sushi, Greenpeace canvasser also walks up to solicit:  "Obama Man, can I have a minute?"  Obama Man chats, declines to give.  Maybe that huge Portland rally in May was the Million Obama Man March.  Must be an Oregon thing.  
 
June 26:  Washington, DC.  Up at 4 a.m. Pacific/7 a.m. local to go for a morning run up the national mall, past Lincoln Memorial, to Washington Monument.  In connection with campaign, have been reading up on Presidents, through McCullough's Adams, a shockingly entertaining John Quincy Adams bio, a great book on the 1800 election  (Magnificent Catastrophe), a crappy book on Polk, a great Jackson bio.  So I'm hauling my Obama hat and other Obama T-shirt around the mall at nine minutes a mile, thinking about the history of the swamp, thinking about how much our nation has changed, and what this election means in our evolution as a country.  Get goosebumps going back to Georgetown past Lincoln.  As to the hat and shirt, everyone in DC stares.  They're wondering if I am Somebody.  (Which of course, I am Not.)  But they all look, and you can see their thinking on their faces.  DC is the Hollywood of politics.  Everything is about the town's one industry.  Power is sexy, and everyone wants it, wants to see it, wants to be it.
 
Dinner that night with a close friend well-connected in politics.  Give him a full selection of Obama swag.  He has moved on from the primaries and is very committed to an Obama win.  The energy on our side is crackling on the Hill. 
 
June 27:  In Dulles, at the America store, four people in a row buy Obama stuff in ten minutes.  One middle-aged woman browses McCain.  The cardboard McCain looks eerily lifelike.  No takers.  Remarkable that anyone even tries to sell Bush stuff.  Buy my son a foam Air Force One glider.
 
July 3:  Chicago, Illinois.  At Taste of Chicago, eating too much a few blocks from Obama HQ.  Am the only white guy wearing Obama stuff.  Chicago is such a wonderfully diverse city, and there are so many different Obama t-shirts and hats in view, today all worn by African-Americans.  This run is historic, and there is so much pride on display.  The t-shirts the African-American Chicagoans are wearing have enormous Obama head likenesses, quite the contrast with my little dweeby logoed shirt.  They're wearing a face and a feeling, I'm wearing a slogan and an idea.  Crossing Michigan Avenue that evening, a teenage girl with sharp features trading jokes with her girlfriends, a button on her pursestrap, again a big Obama face. 
 
I used to live in Chicago.  You learn there to feel the weather coming in.  The wind comes up near the lake, the air gets dank and cooler.  You just knew there would be rain before there was rain.  On the Blackberry, polls show Obama up by silly huge margins in safe states, ahead in swing states too.  Portland, DC, Chicago, seeing that girl in the crosswalk, three weeks bouncing around, you can feel the change coming.