My experience canvassing

Saturday was a great experience. Once our busload of Upper West Siders arrived at the Bristol, PA field office, most people went off in pairs with local volunteers who had cars to nearby towns and developments. I paired up with a Columbia grad student, and we were one of the few groups who spent the whole day on foot. All told, we knocked on about 80 doors in Bristol.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day, which made it extremely pleasant to walk around. It also meant that most people weren’t home (I’m presuming that they were out barbecuing, having a picnic, or otherwise enjoying what may well be the last sunny and warm weekend for a while). Of the 80 doors we knocked on, we talked to about 20 people. The majority of folks we met were already strong Obama supporters, and we were even able to sign up three volunteers. I had mixed feelings about meeting so many people already firmly in Obama’s camp. On the one hand, it was really encouraging and made me hopeful for November 4th. On the other, I wondered if we shouldn’t have been deployed somewhere else.

Bristol, from what I saw, looked mostly white and working class. It made sense, then, that we met a handful of very ardent Hillary suporters (some of whom were now going to vote for Obama enthusiastically, some grudgingly, and one who opted out of the election all together, feeling that neither McCain nor Obama is as good as HRC). We also met veterans who represented every part of the spectrum. One was an active democrat who owns a restaurant and had already held fundraisers for the local democratic congressional candidate and would happily host an Obama event. Another—and possibly our most interesting conversation of the day—had a McCain sign on his lawn. We approached anyway and learned that this guy’s wife was the strong republican in the family. He started out saying he was definitely going to vote McCain because he believed that only someone with military experience could get us out of Iraq and Afghanistan. The more he talked, though, the more you could see that he wasn’t totally happy with that choice. I got the distinct impression that if he wasn’t married to an ardent McCain supporter he would have either been 100% undecided or leaning Obama. Hopefully the Obama campaign can pull him over to our side.

We heard a lot about rising healthcare costs over the day and spoke to one woman who worried about Obama’s experience and association with Jeremiah Wright. No matter how the conversation was going, though, we found that there was always an easy in: when asked, every person without exception said that the last eight years had been bad for them. McCain’s party affiliation and Bush-aligned voting record definitely working against him.

It was a long day but a good one. I wish I’d talked to more people, but every piece of info we gathered for the campaign (including who had move and even one person who had died (awkward!)) is helpful. Todd and I head back out to PA on Saturday for more pavement pounding.