I need help

So I was in a fender-bender on the way to work this morning. Well, I suppose it would be more accurate to say that the lady in the Beamer who turned left into my lane and t-boned my driver's side door had the fender-bender... I had a driver's side door bender.

So anyway, as I'm walking over to exchange insurance information with her, I notice that she's got a Virginia license plate. So what do I do? Do I get all angry and yell at her for running into me?

Nope.

I introduced myself as an Obama organizer, asked her if she's registered to vote and if she's had a chance to get out to the polls to vote early for Obama.

She promised she would.

What do you call 200 washington lawyers sitting in a room?

I call it approximately 1/20th of the poll monitors that Obama will have working for him in Virginia on election day.

That's right, we've signed up 4000 lawyers to make sure there are no shenanigans on election day in Virginia.  That's enough to put two attorneys at just about every single polling location in the entire state.  In fact, we've signed up enough local lawyers to actually have one inside each polling station to make sure everything runs smoothly.  And that's not even counting the other Obama volunteers who will be helping out by shuttling people to and from the polls, reminding people to bring ID (though one of my jobs is assisting people who forget by explaining they can vote without it), giving people estimated wait times, and anything else to make sure things go as efficiently as possible.  Heck, we've even got people tasked with bringing extra sweatshirts and jackets so that people who show up wearing campaign paraphernelia (from either campaign) can vote without stripping (VA law says no campaign stuff in the polls).  We are leaving nothing to chance.  

And again, this is happening everywhere.  The scale of what he's put together is nothing short of astounding.  It gives me chills just thinking about it.  Every single voter in every single polling location in every single swing state in the whole freakin country is going to cast their ballot under the watchful eyes of Obama volunteers.  

The Republicans are NOT going to steal this one.

IT'S ALIVE!

Bless me father for I have sinned.  It has been over two years since my last post.  I have neglected my readers for far too long, but I am repentant and I shall mend my slothful ways and provide cheap entertainment to the masses once again. 

Yes, that's right, I am a fiery Phoenix rising from the ashes, breathing new life into my blog and...  

OH GOD I'M ON FIRE!  PUT ME OUT!  PUT ME OUT!  I SWEAR I'LL NEVER USE A TRITE PHOENIX METAPHOR AGAIN!

AAAAAA!

...

Right, so now that I've got that out of my system, down to business.  I've been encouraged to start posting on this blog thing again and, now that I'm officially graduated and no longer spending all of my free time studying and working and stuff, I suppose I actually sort of have time to do this.

That, and now that several of my friends have moved away, I have fewer people to bitch at, so feel the need to spread the love.  :-)

Anyway, to briefly summarize my life since my last post:

1.  I graduated law school, with honors even.
2.  I now work for that really cool firm where I interned during my first summer.
3.  I've taken the Maryland bar, but do not yet have my results.
4.  I'm a volunteer coordinator for Obama's campaign in Manassas, VA.

So there are probably a million and a half things for me to talk about (this is me after all), but what occupies most of my attention these days is the election.  It's 8 days away AND WE ARE GOING TO CRUSH MCCAIN!

No really, we're talking landslide, uncontestable mandate, broad-spectrum discrediting of republican ideology, and the initiation of a new order that shall forever change the face of America!  GOBAMA!  *commence speaking in tongues*

But seriously.  I've been volunteering for about two months now and Obama's ground campaign is nothing short of incredible.  In Manassas alone, we're getting more than 200 volunteers and having face-to-face contact with over 3000 registered voters per weekend.  There's only about 40,000 people in Manassas, and maybe 22,000 registered voters.  Figure that 60% of them are either ours or undecided and we're talking about reaching close to 25% of our potential voters each weekend.  

Think about it, just one field office can attract and coordinate 200+ volunteers and reach out to 3000 voters, and Obama has 50 field offices in Virginia alone, and many are getting more volunteers than us.  Conservatively, we figure we're reaching over 200,000 voters every weekend, and even more during the week. And the same thing is happening EVERYWHERE.  In every population center, in every swing state in the whole damn country.  That's tens, if not hundreds of thousands of volunteers, friends and neighbors reaching out to their communities and convincing those around them to get to the polls and vote for Obama.  This is the great unsung story of this campaign, and this is why McCain never stood a chance.

Because he's got nothing.  I don't know what happened to the field organization that propelled Bush to a second term, but McCain's ground campaign is virtually nonexistent.  I make a point of driving past the McCain office every weekend, usually more than once, and I have yet to see more than three people in it.  The good people over at www.fivethirtyeight.com have been going from city to city for weeks and report that the same is true wherever they go.  Obama offices overflowing with volunteers and McCain offices empty or closed. 

Ok, you get the idea.  I'm excited and am convinced that we're going to win and we're going to win big.

Yes we can.  

Yes we will.