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I'm an Edwards supporter who has backed Obama since a week or two after my candidate dropped out of the race. I've done some volunteering for Obama here, and am happy to report that, with almost all the votes counted, Obama has won Durham with 75% of the vote.
There was a time when Clinton could have won my vote. I liked the fact that she adopted John Edwards' health plan. Yet I had not looked much into Obama before Edwards left the race, and I found that, the more I looked, the more I liked. Personally, he conducts himself with dignity, which is refreshing after the chimp. He's shown good judgment. At almost every important juncture in the campaign, they have made some good choices, which made some of the Clintons' bad choices more glaring.
I also found that I liked the way Obama ran his campaign. You probably saw last time around how bringing in paid staff totally killed the grassroots campaigns in many areas. The Obama campaign never did that, but instead used the volunteers quite well. They run a tight ship, the tightest I have ever seen in a Democratic presidential campaign. I'm a political scientist and a Democratic activist, and I've never, ever seen anything like the enthusiasm surrounding this candidate. Their campaign staff operate with a philosophy that empowers the grassroots, unlike many campaigns, which stifle them.
How many people do you know who have said, over the years, that they'd like to see change, but feel powerless? THey are showing up to volunteer for Obama.I went out doing GOTV canvassing with a 39 year-old man who had never been canvassing before, and he said he'd be back to do it for the general election. Repeat that story 10,000 times, and you know what it was like here in Durham today. This campaign has given hope to so many. It's not that we are creating "Obamicans" (though that does happen), or that George Wallace voters have somehow come to Obama. It's that many people who once had hope for a progressive vision for the future of the nation, people disenfranchised by the man, suddenly have cause for hope again. We are empowering people--or, rather, they are empowering themselves.
Being born in 1968, I've spent all my life hearing from old hippies about how cool the summer of love was and how the older generation just didn't get it. Now I hear folks from that generation complaining about the stupid young people who just don't get it. Yet Obama has clearly done his homework. He knew early on that this year was a "time for change" in the electorate, and he ran with this as a theme.
But, most of all, this election is about competence. Obama has demonstrated, through his campaign, that he is someone who can get things done, that he knows how to pick people who get things done. I know that some have great admiration for him as a person. I don't really see that, I see him as a politician. As a political scientist, I respect his skills as a politician. I want someone who will spend more time on policy than spin, and I think that an Obama White House will deliver.
But what do I know? I'm just a Democratic voter in yet another state that suddenly does not matter because we voted for Obama in droves. I fully expect to hear that we don't matter because we have advanced degrees, or are black, or have good incomes, or some combination thereof. It's galling to think that Clinton paid the people who advised her to play up these divisions within our party such amazing money, but it's even more galling to think that she thought this scheme would work.
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