Ground Game

Back from Pennsylvania today.  Yesterday I drove out to Doylestown, PA, site of one of the two Obama offices in Bucks County.  The Obama campaign also has 55 other offices throughout Pennsylvania with more slated to open.  The campaign clearly has its GOTV operations going full-steam, and the organization and energy were impressive.  

When I decided to go to Pennsylvania to canvass and register voters, I sent an email to the general PA email address, and was directed to the Doylestown office where the need was greatest at the moment.  We arrived at the office around 10:30, and found it filled with people.  We received a quick training, along with maybe 20 other volunteers, on the basics of canvassing.  Then packets were distributed to each pair of volunteers, each of which had a map of the location indicating all the houses we were to hit, directions to the neighborhood and back, and a very detailed log in which to enter the results of our canvass- altogether I was very impressed with the organization.  50 days out and they were ahead of where my office was at in Florida in 2000 a week before the election.

We were dispatched to Quakertown, a small working-class town about an hour north of Philly.  We weren't knocking on all the doors, or even all of the Democrats- we hit a few independents, Greens, and even a couple Republicans (one of whom told me to "shoo" when he saw my shirt).  There were definitely more Obama supporters than not, but that makes sense since most of the voters were Dems.  I was surprised by the number of folks we spoke to who hadn't decided and thought that they wouldn't make up their minds until just before the election.

Many of the folks we spoke to were very vocal in their criticism of perceived mudslinging by both campaigns, wanting Obama and McCain to focus on the issues.  That said, many of these folks were quite cynical about the ability of either candidate to enact any of their campaign promises.  

I'm a little nervous about the number of Dems who were still on the fence.  In 2004 15% of registered Dems went to Bush and Kerry still won the state.  I think that, in the area we were in (where one man asked if we'd knocked on the door of the "colored people" who lived across the street) there's some general resistance to Obama, and I imagine that this will be offset by increased turnout in Philly and Pittsburgh.  

Strategically, if the campaign is hoping to reach these voters, they should stick to their guns and stay clear of ad hominem attacks on McCain, no matter how satisfying they are to the base.  Obama needs to highlight parts of his economic plan that are appealing to working-class seniors, like the goal of allowing seniors making under $50k a year to forgo paying any federal income taxes.