Six months ago I would never have believed I would write this, but tonight I went door to door campaigning for Obama. When Hillary dropped out of the race I decided that I would vote for Obama, but there was no way I was campaigning for him. I figured that I'd let all the Obama people do that…after all he was their candidate. I decided that I was going to focus my energy on campaigning for Becky. What changed my mind were two things: first, Obama seems to be slipping a little bit in the polls. I don't think his getting elected is a done deal and I could see some of his supporters acting as if it were. I would hate to have this long, drawn out election ending with another Republican in office. Secondly, Brian from the Obama campaign came to our county central committee meeting and asked for our help. Also and even more personally important to me is that he talked about how important it was for Obama to get Becky Greenwald elected and said that the two campaigns were working together to elect both of them.

The strategy meeting ended up being very small–six of us plus Brian. Three former Hillary supporters and three always Obama supporters. Then the always Obama supporters went home and two of us Hillary supporters went door to door with Brian. Tomorrow I am calling up the local people that I know who supported Obama in the caucus and goading them into coming next time.

I've never gone door-to-door before, though I have done a lot of calling. Canvassing isn't the most fun thing I have ever done, but it isn't the worst either. Most people said that they were undecided. Some weren't even sure if they were going to vote. I had one person say that she believed that Obama was the anti-christ…we marked her as a “no” though I guess she didn't say that she absolutely wouldn't vote for him. One man slammed the door in my face. There were a couple of nice ones though. I have to admit that I am still not particularly passionate about Obama, but sometimes politics isn't about passion as much as it is about hard work. My focus isn't going to be on how much I like Obama or how excited I am about him–because quite honestly I'm not that excited. It is going to be much more about how he shares my values about getting health care for every American, protecting social security and safeguarding the environment.

Anyone else canvassing? I'd love to hear other stories.