Long Time Gone

The poor, black and the white, wealthy. Where is John Edwards to further expound on this stark division? Actually, it's not that simple but there is a world of difference between the ritzy colonial homes in Center City and the sizable African-American population that dominates public transport and neighborhoods farther out in the city.

Must it? Yes, as I just purchased my bus ticket from Boston to Philly for March 31, staying until the day after the primary, April 23rd. Adventures aplenty. Must look for yoga studios in William Penn's metropolis!

Another day, another sex scandal takes down a powerful man. It just goes to show that people who are overly moralistic are almost always hiding something.

I'm firming up my plans to be in Philadelphia from March 30 to April 24 to campaign for Obama. I'm finalizing housing plans with a wonderful woman who has offered a bedroom in her home near Obama HQ, which is ideal since I won't be renting a car. I've also applied to volunteer at the Denver convention, as well as to housesit in Cambridge, MA during July. We'll see; perhaps something is taking shape.

When Senator Clinton said that all Barack Obama has to offer is "a speech from 2002," she probably hadn't read this story. It's from a teacher in Appalachia. If we do not elect Obama, this is what we will lose [excerpts]: I would love to give you a personal view of how Obama has already changed my life and lives around me. I teach high school students in the foothills of Appalachia...the foothills of poverty. I have primarily white poor as well as black and Hispanic and mixed race in my classes. 50% live in poverty. Obama has offered my students inspiration to be something more than they thought they could be. And they are eating it up!!!! It's the first time many have ever cared about politics and I have had students tell me that their parents have never voted and have always been angry at politicians. But they are voting this time. But to have 2 whole class periods (my class periods are 90 minuets long) where the students are asking questions faster than I...

Today I learned that the entire town of Oxford, Ohio has been canvassed by our efforts as well as presumably most or all of the 14,000 Miami University students here. In Cincinnati, 61,000 households or individuals were canvassed on one day by Obama volunteers. Our goal is one million doors knocked on/voters contacted before Tuesday, a record that has never been set. People are still travelling from out of state to Texas and Ohio. Our three Chicago visitors left today after canvassing efforts in Hamilton, their Prius windows scrawled with "Obama" in soap. I had a rude awakening to the realities of rural America today. Much of Hamilton is flat, gray, miserable, depressed, poor in ways we do not have in California, and dusty. Food choices are almost entirely limited to fast food. I had my first all-Taco Bell lunch and still feel undernourished and sick. Thank heavens for the yummy club panini sandwich at the non-Starbucks coffee place downtown Oxford. Our first canvass...

I'm on some campaign email lists from Pennsylvania, Ohio, California, and Texas, and here are a few excerpts, from March 1: "I'm a Pittsburgher living in Austin for a couple of months, and I thought you'd all be interested to hear a bit of what is happening with Obama here in Texas with the Texas Primary pending on Tuesday. Obviously, he's speaking here often now, but it's really hard to get in because the tix go so fast. Tix to his speeches are so precious that Craigs List Austin is actually crammed with scalpers selling tix to his FREE speeches with starting bids between $25 and $50. I've never seen anything like it." AND [from SF list]: "I know you've heard it before on this list from those headed out to Texas, but I wanted to make one final plea: Texas needs our signs! And yes, there's still time: I am headed out to Clarendon, Texas tomorrow night (where I am the out-of-state Precinct Captain), and the Obama staffer on the ground i...

Last night, three people arrived to stay at Lisa's house, making our motley crew of Obamans five. Three animals, too. The three Chicagoans went to Hamilton today, while I stayed in Oxford and canvassed for three hours with a very sweet political science professor who said he hadn't campaigned for anyone since RFK.