No country for (inconsistent, tired, clueless and corrupt) old men

Ok, so I'm back to my politics talk again. I just can't stay away from this topic.

So, the last few days have been B-U-S-Y...not only on the family and work side, but also on the "figuring-out-my-campaign-volunteering-commitment-between-now-and-November-4th" side.

After 4 days of spinning my wheels and creative negotiation with my husband and our September-October schedule, here's where I ended up with my Obama campaign involvement:

• Camp Obama & being a Deputy Field Organizer = just too much time commitment for little old me (Camp O meant at least 3 full weekends of volunteering - one weekend of boot camp training, 2 weekends in Nevada -- albeit Vegas - bling, bling, which would have been fun...we will likely still go though)
  
  
• After 4 phone conversations and 3 e-mails to the Obama4America peeps in the L.A. regional office, we've determined the best way for me to be involved is to sign-up with my local San Diego peeps.
  
  
• So now, I am on Team B in the 50th Congressional district (San Diego) and I have taken on a small leadership role called "Data Manager" - this is nice title for data input monkey for people who can't use the online tools for our canvassing calls to Nevada. (Ironically, as a tech person and computer savvy professional, this job is probably my worst nightmare since it involves picking up the slack of computer illiterate people and inputting their results into the voting software. BUT, I am over this and will do whatever it takes to help my team. Yes I am a pig, not a chicken, as the analogy goes.)

Last night I attended the 50th Congressional District Obama rally party in Encinitas. And how refreshing it was to be surrounded by 200 like-minded individuals who want so badly for our candidate to win that they are volunteering time to do so. The energy and excitement was palpable. And our stated goal for California campaign efforts is clear -- Help win Nevada's 5 electoral votes. This election may come to 5 votes at this rate.

This weekend, I begin my phone canvassing of Nevada undecided voters. And one of the weekends in October, our family will likely make the trip out to Las Vegas to do physical canvassing and voter registration - sans any Camp Obama training...I think we can handle it.
(Funny enough, with all of this Obama talk in our household, I have my almost 4-year-old twins saying "Obama for America" to their preschool teachers -- so much so that the teachers mentioned it to me the other day. Whoops! At least they will be ready for our Nevada canvassing. :)

I know, I know...all this time, all this commitment. And you know what? We may not win in November, but at least I will know that I am not just on the sidelines watching how this unfolds. 47 days commitment to this campaign is relatively short in the scheme of another 4 (or possibly 8) years of another potentially bad leader. I want to make my difference in this, however small.

To close, there was a great editorial I read earlier this week from Thomas Friedman, author of non-fiction bestseller The World Is Flat. The editorial was in the New York Times, entitled "Making America Stupid." It totally resonated with me and is the new article I point folks to when they ask me why I support Obama.

No country for (inconsistent, tired, clueless and corrupt) old men, especially McCain.

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Update on my Data Manager role as of this evening's Obama campaign 9PM PST conference call :

Apparently, there's more to my responsibilities than data input guru. I will also be training other volunteers on the voter database software tool and will be the list generator for canvassing calls and for volunteer management on specific events like out of state travel, etc. OK, I feel better now. I think. This, on top of everything else. Oy. (I have to remind myself...it's only 47 more days in the grand scheme of 4 years of the same old, same old...)