For starters, I am sort of new to this site and generally enjoy it quite a bit.
I find this Obama "losing buzz" stuff quite amusing and as a rebuttal of sorts would like to relate my personal experiences to date with the Obama For America campaign.
First of all, I live in Greenville, SC, home of the notoriously fundamentalist christian school Bob Jones University. My congressional representative is a conservative Republican and our Senators are R- Lindsey Graham, who is absolutely villified in this county as being a "moderate", and R- Jim Demint, who is being praised for his staunch opposition to the bipartisan immigration bill. Demint, you may recall, said during his campaign that single mothers shouldn't be allowed to teach in public schools. He won this county with little difficulty.
That having been said, I am quite proud that the next President of the United States, Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), will be coming to Greenville Friday for a campaign rally. I'm not a political scientist, but I doubt he'd becoming here if there were not significant interest in his candidacy.
I have attended two "official" campaign organizing meetings in Greenville; the first, shortly after his announcement, drew approximately 75 people. The event was professional in organization and informative in content. There was a multimedia presentation that seemed pretty damn Pro to me. The staffers running the show emphasized the importance of the individual and the responsibility the individual must assume in promoting the candidacy of Senator Obama. They gave us a specific list of tasks around which to organize our efforts. One thing that impressed me was that the staff was sincerely grateful for the participation and the enthusiasm of those who were volunteering for the campaign.
The second meeting I attended was last Saturday in preparation for the "walk for change" national canvass. The meeting was at the main branch of the downtown library and about 50 volunteers were present in addition to the "official" camapaign staff. Again, I was kind of blown away by the enthusiasm and professionalism of the folks running the show. Those of us who did not come with a partner were quickly partnered up. We were given very practical and organized maps and voter lists and scripts (although the staff emphasized that we tell our own story and not follow the script verbatim). We were given numbers to call should we have any problems and each canvassing team had leaders who would stay in touch with each other throughout the day. Those like myself who had never canvassed were given enough support to succeed. I was blown away by the professionalism, leadership and organizational ability on display, and I remember thinking that if Greenville, SC can do this, then the sky is the limit for this campaign.
We got a lot of people involved and engaged in this campaign for the first time. We collected a great number of supporter cards and were able to speak face to face with quite a few leaners and undecided voters. I think we made a difference this weekend, and I think that in the coming weeks the "polls" and perhaps even the more coveted "buzz" will reflect this tremendous grassroots effort.
My friends, we had 10,000 people knocking on doors across the country. If my fellow volunteers in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Timbuktoo had a similiar experience, we're going to reap the benefits.
This is a true people powered, bottom-up movement, and I'll just continue to do my thing and we'll see where the race stands in the weeks and months to come. I believe that Barack may need, in the not so distant future, to get a little bolder, and yes, perhaps even sharpen the rhetorical knives a bit. It may be neccessary eventually, but I believe that right now Obama is earning the trust of his supporters and of voters gernerally. Believe it or not, he is still in the process of introducing himself to much of the country. I believe we have the potential to reach a whole new level with this campaign. Good luck to the Clinton and Edwards campaigns and indeed to all the campaigns.
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