Here is Part One in case you missed it.
Primary Day, March 4, 2008
8:35 am - A quick breakfast at the hotel. Coffee, orange juice and one of those do-it-yourself waffles from a Dixie cup. After splitting up into new teams, we head to the Obama headquarters in Warwick. I see many familiar faces along with several new faces. "New" as in I just met them, but many have been here since Saturday.
11:03 am -We're on the road to canvass in Warwick. Our driver today is Liz, a native Rhode Islander with a great sense of direction. Bless her! Today, I'm out with Lauren, Mary, Darren and Asher (pictured above). The plan is to have Liz drop us off in our respective turfs and pick us up when we are done.
11:32 am - My "turf" is a middle class neighborhood with lots of huge dogs barking in the yard and several "For Sale" signs on the lawn. Again, hardly anyone is home since they are mostly likely to be at work at this time. Thankfully this is a pretty quiet, nice neighborhood and it sort of reminds me of the neighborhood where I grew up in South Jersey.
12:19 pm - I talk to a voter who turns out to be a Republican - but he likes Obama quite a bit. He tells me that he was wavering between Hillary and Barack initially (no mention of McCain), but he eventually leaned towards Barack because he likes what he called the "consistency" in his record and what he perceived to be the senator's ability to unify people from all walks of life. He also told me that all of the houses up for sale are largely related to the sub-prime mortgage crisis that has gripped our nation. Unfortunately, Republicans are not allowed to vote in the Democratic primary in Rhode Island, but he had very interesting perspectives.
12:41 pm - As I am finishing my turf, I hear a loud crack of thunder. Time to call Liz the Driver!
12:53 pm - We all share our canvassing experiences and find we've had the same luck for the most part - a lot of people were not home. Darren did say that he spoke to about a dozen people and they were largely Barack supporters. Several people stated that they had already voted and one or two actually said they didn't plan to vote at all, which is incredible to me considering the importance of this particular election. Also, we all seemed to run into a few homes where someone was home - they just wouldn't answer the door. You can't really blame them since it is rare to get door to door visitors in their neighborhoods.
1:15 pm - We're back at the Warwick headquarters for lunch and to await our next assignments. I have some barbecue chicken pizza and meet more volunteers that I hadn't met before. It's pouring, so the canvassing is put on hold for a while even though some intrepid Hopemongers like Darren and Chantel don rain ponchos and go for it.
5:14 pm - Back in Cranston, it is still raining pretty good as my great-grandmother used to say. Some people are staying for the party once the polls close, but many of us are returning to New York tonight.
6:03 pm - Despite the still-heavy rain, a few Hopemongers brave the elements to actually stand on the side of the road to hold up "Honk for Obama!" signs.
Bless their hearts, but I just can't do the cold, driving rain thing. I'd rather Blog for Obama - indoors!
7:02 pm- On the way to get food for the ride back to NY we get word that Obama wins Vermont!
A few of us are getting sporadic updates during the ride back home and I check for updates on my Blackberry. It's close throughout the night but, as we all know by now, it was a very different story in Rhode Island and Ohio, although the great state of Texas came through in the end thanks to the caucus results. Another bonus was the eight delegate swing Senator Obama ended up getting out of California after the results were finalized. There wasn't much noise in the MSM about it, but the Obama campaign quietly lit up Texas on their "State of the Race" map which highlights all of Obama's wins (29 of 43 so far to Senator Clinton's 14).
He won Wyoming yesterday and is likely to win Mississippi on Tuesday but many of us are still planning to hit the road again in April to nail this nomination down for Senator Obama once and for all. He is ahead in the popular vote, the delegate count and he has won the most states, but we all know that it ain't over 'till it's over.
See you in Pennsylvania!



















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