Getting out the vote in South Carolina, January 25-27, 2008

My trip started as I met up with the rest of the group going to SC from DC for Obama (a 20-yr old American University International Studies white male, 2 25-year old white females working in DC, and Tricia, the group organizer who is a black female who worked for Jesse Jackson's campaigns in '84 and '88) at a parking garage not far from my office and home last Friday at 3:30 PM.


Ryan and Tricia, 2 of my carpoolers!

We settled into the rental car and began the 8 hour trek to Columbia, SC. We arrived at the Obama HQs at 11:30 PM and learned what we'd be doing the next day and sent to the YMCA to settle in for the night. Upon arrival at the Y, we were directed to the gymnasium and told to find a place to stretch out our sleeping bags and get as much rest as we could (it was already 1 AM). The vans would be back for us Saturday morning at about 7 AM. The hard wooden gym floor was not bad as I found an exercise mat to rest my sleeping bag on and looking around the room, we had about 30 or so other Obama supporters sharing our space.

I was keyed up, but managed to go to sleep pretty quickly, only to be awakened again at 5 AM as the latest busload of supporters arrived.

Looking out at the room I realized that the population had grown considerably throughout the night as carpools and busloads arrived and now we had about 200 people "fired up and ready to go" and ready to work for Obama.

We arrived at HQs and were told that we needed to rush to the capitol building at the State House and provide visibility (mainly cheer and wave signs) for The Today Show cameras.



Lester Holt was the host and he's amazing...so handsome and articulate and nice. He had his picture taken with anyone who wanted that during the breaks in shooting.


After doing this for about 1 and 1/2 hours, we headed back to HQs and were told to provide visibility on particular busy intersections in Columbia. I couldn't believe that I was actually standing in the middle of the street, waving my Obama sign and smiling at the South Carolinians that drove by and urging them to go vote (for Obama). I did this for the next few hours until about 1 PM when I returned back to HQs for the next assignment. As an aside, I did an informal "honk" poll and decided that Obama supporters honked their car horns or gave me a thumbs up about 3 times the rate of the Hillary or Edwards people, which, as it turned out, was actually more reliable than Zogby or Rasmussen have been lately).

South Carolina Primary Results:
Barack Obama 295,091
Hillary Rodham Clinton 141,128
John Edwards 93,552

At HQs, I made the mistake of sitting down and realized how tired I already was and decided to take a rest for the next hour and a half.

Watching the mostly young, cell-phoned Obama organizers frantically sending volunteers, walking down the halls of the building engaged in conversations Aaron Sorkin-style, I was able to re-energize myself pretty quickly and was sent out to canvass a neighborhood, which involves knocking on doors and urging people to go vote, if they hadn't already. We (1 guy from DC, another from PA, and a girl who will enter the Peace Corp in a couple of month from NYC) were assigned a neighborhood and GOTV. The neighborhood was mostly a black neighborhood with new, well-mannered, middle-class homes and the reception we received was great! Everyone, except one lady who supported Hillary, was an Obama supporter and their enthusiasm for his candidacy just energized us even more.

We finished canvassing and returned back to HQs at 6:30 PM (the SC polls closed at 7 PM) so I headed over to the Convention Center where the doors were opening at 7:30 PM for Obama's victory celebration. I had separated myself from the people I came with earlier in the day and decided maybe I would hook up with them at the Convention Center.

Upon arrival, I found 3 lines (one for the press, one for the Super-Volunteers who had been working for weeks and the rest of us). Since I'd arrived pretty early, I was pretty sure I'd make it inside so I got in line and made some "friends" with the people around me...an Edwards supporter from Atlanta (who voted for Obama since her guy is out of the running, really), a young Yuppie couple from Columbia, and many, many young people full of energy and all smiles as we waited to get in to the rally.

At 7:01, a huge cheer went up and I wasn't sure why until my son Matthew telephoned me to say that CNN had just called the primary for Obama.

Needless to say, the atmosphere was electric from that moment on. While I continued to wait to get into the rally, I saw my friends from the DC car ride walk past me to the line for people with tickets and I had to laugh to myself that I still have things to learn about this "politics" thing! But I was having a great time with the line and crowd outside as we waited to get in to the rally to celebrate our candidate and our own hard work.

At about 8 PM, I entered the doors of the Convention Center and TSA employees were there checking our bags and coat pockets. Inside the rally, there was a high school band playing and we were also entertained by a huge TV monitor showing CNN's election coverage. Each time the numbers would change, the crowd went wild. CNN had their usual analysts there talking about the black vote and what it meant for the outcome.

The crowd spontaneously erupted into a chant "Race doesn't matter!" as they/we defiantly raised our fists toward the CNN pundits!

The back of the room was filled with media! Earlier in the day, I gave interviews to the German press and a Thailand radio station about why I supported Obama. The press was everywhere and it was fun to listen in on their interviews with people at Obama HQ while I rested earlier in the day.

Obama's lead continued to grow over the other 2 candidates and the crowd continued to get more pumped up. CNN showed Bill Clinton giving a speech in Missouri and the crowd, again, spontaneously broke into collective "boos" for the ex-president. Person after person I spoke with during the weekend expressed their disallusionment for the Clintons after their campaign antics turned on Obama. I had more than one close supporter of the Clintons tell me they had literally shed tears about this and how they felt hurt and angry over the reality they were now seeing from the ex-first-couple. It was heartbreaking for me to see so many people let down, but I'm just glad they have a young, fresh, inspiring candidate to turn to with their support.


Nestor, a disappointed ex-supporter of the Clintons

The crowd continued to grow as they let more and more people into the rally and finally they closed the doors and Obama was introduced to the crowd by a young Iraq war veteran, Pete Skidmore, who welcomed him on stage as “the person I expect to be the next commander-in-chief.” U2's "It's a Beautifle Day" blasted over the speaker system and the crowd went crazy, waving signs and shouting "Obama" as Obama and his wife, Michelle, entered the arena. As the two of them stood before me (I had managed to be pretty close to the podium so I had a good vantage point), I just kept thinking "I want to see the 2 of them do an inaugural dance" next January! What a great-looking couple they are!


Obama delivered a tremendous speech and was interrupted after almost every line with applause and cheers.





At about 9:30 PM, the rally ended and I headed to the doors realizing that I hadn't had a real meal since the McDonald's breakfast earlier that day. I walked around downtown Columbia and found an Oyster Bar and went in and had a glass of wine and a half-dozen oysters. I was surrounded by Hillary supporters drowning their sorrows and loss, but met up with a couple who were in town to attend a funeral of a distant relative so we talked politics, business, and family matters, and shared some funny stories.

After about an hour, I decided to walk back to the Y and get some sleep before we headed back to DC at 8 AM on Sunday. Passing by an IHOP, though, I realized that I was still hungry, so I stopped in and found a huge crowd of Obama supporters sharing good times. I had breakfast with them and we continued the celebration of our victory with high-fives and big smiles.

The Y was almost deserted as many of the volunteers left right after the rally to return to their homes or head to the states to support Obama in the Super Tuesday states. (By the way, the SC Obama campaign expected about 800 volunteers to come in for the primary vote but instead got about 2700 volunteers!...now that's enthusiasm!!)

The trip home was uneventful and I arrived safely back to DC at about 4:30 PM Sunday. I was exhausted but it was a good exhausted. I placed my "Obama '08" lucky sign that I had waved all day in Columbia SC in my front window and went to sleep, happy and tired.

I don't know whether Obama will be the Democratic candidate or not, but I sure hope that he is. Nevertheless, the weekend that I spent in SC, working for Obama, is one of the highlights of my life.

Finally, a few random thoughts:

Here are a few details about Obama's victory in South Carolina. According to the official results and CNN exit polls, Barack won:

* 55% of the total vote, more than twice as many votes as any other candidate
* 57% of voters who had never voted in a primary
* 66% of voters who had never voted before at all
* Every type of community -- urban, suburban, and rural
* 58% of voters between ages 18 and 64
* 67% of voters between ages 18 and 29 (Ba-rack the Vote!)

The clear lesson from South Carolina is that voters are ready to bring this country together and solve the problems that matter to ordinary Americans.

This election isn't about race or gender, income level or education level.

It's about the past and the future.

And one more thing...

Is Barack the one we have been waiting for? Or is it the other way around? Are we the people we have been waiting for? Barack Obama is giving voice and space to an awakening beyond his wildest expectations, a social force that may lead him far beyond his modest policy agenda.

Such movements in the past led the Kennedys and Franklin Roosevelt to achievements they never contemplated. [As Gandhi once said of India's liberation movement, "There go my people. I must follow them, for I am their leader."]

We are in a precious moment where caution must yield to courage. It is better to fail at the quest for greatness than to accept our planet's future as only a reliving of the past.

So I endorse the movement that Barack Obama has inspired and will support his candidacy in the inevitable storms ahead.- Tom Hayden