I'm from New Jersey, but I worked as a Deputy Field Organizer for the Obama campaign in Ohio. I ended up in Ohio for a few reasons. I was looking for a challenge, New Jersey was already in good shape, and Ohio was the state that broke my heart in the 2004 election. I was assigned to the city of North Olmsted, a municipality that straddled the suburban/rural border of the area. Needless to say the locals leaned conservative, and we did a lot of walking. Our headquarters was based out of a volunteer's house.

I snapped this photo on election day, November 4, 2008, at 6:51a.m. from the front door of that house. Not coincidentally, I timed this post to go up at 6:51a.m. today, exactly one year from when I took it. It was a cool morning, but much warmer than it had been generally. I had gotten just three or four not-very-restful hours of sleep, but we were all pretty energetic and excited. Things seemed to be going our way, which was a far cry from September 2008 when polls showed a statistical tie between the candidates.

In Ohio, I saw first-hand how a good ground game can affect the results of an election. We worked tirelessly, or perhaps tiredly, for 10, 12, even 15 hours a day in the last few weeks leading up to November 4. Looking back, I wonder if all that hard work was worth it. Did we change the country? Are we better off now than we were in 2008, or more broadly, from 2001 through 2008? One year after we elected Barack Obama to be the 44th President of the United States, I think these are valuable questions to ask.

In case you were curious, Obama won Olmsted Township 53-47.