roads that don't exist on the map

I spent all day today canvassing in rural west-central New Hampshire. This is a very different experience from my previous canvassing stints in south Minneapolis four years ago, where we walked house to house in neighborhoods where the houses were quite a bit less than, say, a mile apart. Rural New Hampshire is a different story.

When we returned to the Obama office in downtown Claremont, NH and did our tally sheet, we discovered we'd actually knocked on 17 doors. (By "we" I mean myself and Zoning Man, a new friend from recent debate-watching festivities, whom I hereby introduce to you.)

Seventeen. In four and a half hours. And that might have been counting the house with the majorly mean-looking, snarly, barking, spike-collared, not-tied-up German Shepherd, on whose door we actually got nowhere near knocking. It definitely included the "house" that appeared to actually be a chicken coop with a lamp in the window - there were cedar shavings on the floor and everything!

So really we spent the afternoon driving around on back roads in rural New England looking at the beautiful fall leaves and gorgeous mountain views. And occasionally parking the car and walking up a driveway to knock on doors and chat about politics. And occasionally driving down a road until the asphalt turned to dirt, which gave way to dirt wheel tracks with grass growing in between, which then, at least once, just sort of petered out into the woods. Oops. Turn around (I think I did more three-point turns today than in the rest of my life up to this point).

I don't want to jinx anything, but I am feeling good about the direction New Hampshire's voters seem to be swinging. We were in an area with a demographic that you'd think would be unlikely Obama supporters. Yet, of the maybe ten people who actually answered their doors, we did not talk to a single person who was even leaning toward voting for McCain, much less anyone who was solidly in his camp. Granted, we drove past McCain yard signs (as well as Obama signs) and we were focusing on reaching out to voters who were registered as undecided.

But of those ten "undecided" voters, at least a few were so firmly for Obama that we didn't even stay to chat, because contrary to seemingly popular belief, preaching to your choir isn't a great use of time. Others were really leaning toward Obama. Only a couple were really undecided, and the hope there is that come Election Day they'll remember those pleasant young people who drove all the way out (and we're talking "out there") to their house to discuss the issues and their vote.

Apparently New Hampshire isn't the only swing state where people are feeling optimistic about Democratic progress. There's a good story today on my new favorite poll-watch website (thanks Tim!) about optimism in Indiana, a state Republicans have long counted on, and how perhaps the most heartening thing there is the great mix of people who are coming out to volunteer for Obama. It's not just college students, as is often the case, but all ages and backgrounds. The same appears true in New Hampshire. Zoning Man and I were probably the only 20-somethings in the Claremont office today. The rest of the room was quite mixed, some families with teenage kids, a great elderly couple who were rather dressed up for the occasion, and many people in between.

We care. That feels good. And we care in apparently large numbers in states that some had given up on. We can do this!