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Reporting from Rochester, NH
I've been here with my colleague Ethan since Friday in Rochester, NH working the tech side of the Rochester Get Out The Vote operation. We'll be here through election day supporting the existing operation which is doing amazing work. We set up an operations center in the community center next to the campaign office - half a dozen laptops, several laser printers, a wifi network, phones, office supplies - which is the new headquarters for all the GOTV (Get Out The Vote) operations. From the administrative side of the operation, the lack of clear information on what's going on, the seemingly bizarre orders coming from the state office, and general exhaustion create a lot of chaos at times. Yet we're still getting out hundreds of volunteers every day to canvass and call thousands of voters, package literature, enter data, serve food, keep the place organized, etc - so despite the chaos the campaign at all levels still seems to be extremely effective. Tuesday will be the real test, of course, and I still don't understand what we'll be doing then.
Bill Clinton was in town for Jeanne Shaheen today. (She's running to replace John Sununu, a longtime Bush supporter, in the U.S. Senate.) The opera house had maybe 700 seats and was packed full; I was helping staff the event, and then watched from the back of the auditorium by the sound engineer, barely 50 feet from the podium. There were two memorable moments in his speech. The first was, "When I was elected, the country was in a ditch. Now the country's in a ditch again and we need to elect Obama. That's what happens - country's in a ditch, gotta call a Democrat!" Second was an absurd story, the kind we hear far too often, of a family in the rural midwest: their child has multiple severe medical conditions; the husband's trucking business went under when gas spiked last year, and he's now a contract trucker without health insurance. They could qualify for Medicaid only if they got divorced. So their options were: 1) Starve and pay for the kid's medical bills, 2) eat and the kid dies, 3) get divorced to save . "These aren't my family values!" she told Clinton, crying... and then laughed from the absurdity of it all.
Change begins in two days. Don't forget to vote.
Bill Clinton was in town for Jeanne Shaheen today. (She's running to replace John Sununu, a longtime Bush supporter, in the U.S. Senate.) The opera house had maybe 700 seats and was packed full; I was helping staff the event, and then watched from the back of the auditorium by the sound engineer, barely 50 feet from the podium. There were two memorable moments in his speech. The first was, "When I was elected, the country was in a ditch. Now the country's in a ditch again and we need to elect Obama. That's what happens - country's in a ditch, gotta call a Democrat!" Second was an absurd story, the kind we hear far too often, of a family in the rural midwest: their child has multiple severe medical conditions; the husband's trucking business went under when gas spiked last year, and he's now a contract trucker without health insurance. They could qualify for Medicaid only if they got divorced. So their options were: 1) Starve and pay for the kid's medical bills, 2) eat and the kid dies, 3) get divorced to save . "These aren't my family values!" she told Clinton, crying... and then laughed from the absurdity of it all.
Change begins in two days. Don't forget to vote.