Scott Harper's campaign (IL-13) organized and caravaned over 30 volunteers yesterday to Lafayette IN. We met at the McDonald's in Bolingbrook Il at 6am. Despite what the ignorant media says about Barack's supporters we were overwhelmingly white, at least two thirds female and except for Scott's staffers all but 2 or 3 of us were way over 40. Most were older than me and I'm 52.

We had plenty of people willing to drive their own cars paying for their own gas. I teamed up with one 68 year old woman who was kind enough to let me ride along. She was so nice she even paid for dinner. I owe her one.

We got to the campaign HQ on 4th St. about 10am Indiana time. The office as expected was bustling with activity. With a minimum of fanfare
we checked in, lined up for our precinct packets, grabbed stacks of 4 different pieces of lit and headed out the door. They run a very efficient organization.

Joan has GPS in her car so finding our two precincts a few miles away was easy enough. We took the advice of a guy from WI who was parked in front of us and worked them together. Good thing too as some of these houses were 25 or 30 steps straight up to the front door and by late afternoon Joan was shivering and couldn't hike up them anymore. I have long legs and need the exercise so that was fine with me. Anybody who says the midwest is all flat ought to canvass Fairfield precincts in Lafayette IN or river towns in IL like Elgin.

The packets themselves are great, looks like they are using Bill Foster's (IL-14) software that served him and Patrick Murphy in PA so well. Makes planning your route a piece of cake.

The first precinct we did in the morning when the weather was warm and sunny didn't go so great. A lot of "not homes" so we left the lit. On that list we seemed to be looking for young people at their parents' homes, lotta quarter or half acre lots, solid 4 bedroom spreads built in the 70s. Some kids live there but most weren't around on a bright sunny spring Saturday.

Talked to one guy my age when looking for his son and he tried to shut me down right away. Said I came to the wrong house, he was voting for McCain, originally from Chicago he smugly "knew all about" Obama. Said Barack should have stayed away from a guy like Rezko. Like McCain should have stayed away from Charles Keating I asked?

I told him I was actually looking for his son and then gave him my succinct economic speech. We had a $1 trillion dollar debt when Carter left office. It took us over 200 years, 2 world wars, a civil war, umpteen recessions and depressions to run that up that tab. Now it's $9 trillion. It's so ugly you have to say it twice. $9 trillion. In twenty seven short years of trickle down, supply side economics, with tax cuts for the richest 1% we've ballooned that debt out of control. John McCain said in 2001 Bush's tax cuts offended his conscience. Now he wants to make them permanent. Your kids, your grandkids are going to have to pay that debt. Guilt is a powerful motivator and it's about time some of these fools started feeling it. It didn't change his mind but I could tell it gave him something troubling to think about. He took my lit, said he'd give it to his son and begged off.

When I have time to expound on that like I did down the street with an undecided son of a Greek immigrant who couldn't make up his mind between Hillary and Barack I tell them the Venezuelans, Iranians, even the Saudis and our "good friends" the Iraqis don't want to be paid in American dollars for their oil anymore. Our oil companies have to buy Euros to pay for it and that's one of the big reasons oil and gas costs so much.

He really identified with that. His dad left the family some property in Greece, a small hotel he and his brothers would like to sell. America is so unpopular there now his brother slaps Canadian maple leafs on his luggage when he goes back to the old country. They're stuck hanging onto the property because of the hit they'd take converting the sale into dollars. Said he's a Greek-American and he'd like the American part to be a positive, not a negative, not have to hide it when he goes back to Greece again.

That oil company riff makes for a nice segue into why the gas tax "holiday" is such a bad idea. I told him McCain proposed it with no way to pay for it and Hillary "me-tooed" it with her windfall profit tax on the oil companies. There's no better way to get a nod of recognition or an "ain't that the truth" than to emphatically say George Bush will never sign a bill that has a windfall profit tax on oil companies. It's just never gonna happen. If by some miracle she and McCain ginned up enough popular support in congress to pass such a bill Bush would veto it and throw it right back in her face. She could either vote for it again without the tax, gutting the Highway Trust Fund so Indiana will have to sell off more roads (Governor Mitch Daniels has about wrecked his career in Indiana by leasing their stretch of I-80 to Australians) or she can spend the summer telling disappointed drivers she was for the bill before she was against it. We all know how well that worked for Kerry. That's dumb policy and even dumber politics she's using hoping you're dumb enough to buy it. The kicker I use is what it boils down to is you can vote for someone like Clinton or McCain who promises you a free lunch and thinks you're too stupid to see through it. Or you can vote for Obama who tells what you need to hear, doesn't make phony promises and treats you like an adult.

The second precinct in the afternoon went much better. It got windy, cloudy and colder. Many more people home, lotta Obama supporters, fewer undecideds, even fewer Hillary supporters and all of three McCain voters. We saw three Hillary signs all day and none of her doorhangers. Did see Obama flyers stuck in some doors that evidently had been there a few days. Nobody but us had actually knocked on their doors this cycle and judging by the reaction of most people nobody had ever canvassed them before.

After talking to a number of undecideds I'm confident they're voting Obama. Most people are pleasant, if they're not seriously engaged they know they should be and are happy to have someone on their doorstep making the case for their candidate.

We got all but about 5 houses that were "no such addresses". Didn't get back to the office til about
6:30 and didn't get home til about 10.

This post is book length already so I'll sign off with this. If you're an Obama supporter who can get to IN or NC, go. Every vote we can get counts. From what I saw on the ground in Lafayette it looks good.