Day 15 – The Other Long Journey

4:11 pm Chicago time

Due a lack of a wifi connection to upload photos, this final blog entry will likely be a photoless affair. I am writing this once again from a metal tube hurtling through the air.

I have left Chicago and am on my way to Newark in New Jersey. My flight left around 30 minutes late and my connection the other end is tight, so we shall see how I get on. So far lots of turbulence on this flight, but nothing I can’t handle.

I left the house at around 10:20 am Chicago time to head to the airport. Saying goodbye to my British comrades was difficult, we had enjoyed such a wonderful and unique experience together. This goodbye was sweetened by the knowledge that I would soon be home, it’s always nice to go back to normality. I checked in fine and even scuttled off for a cheeky pint with my two comrades who were flying at similar time to me.

The Captain just popped on the radio and from what I could make out through the muffled transmission, we may in fact end up in Newark early, now that has calmed me a bit!

Will blog again on the Newark to Olso leg of my long long journey.

18:18 pm Newark Time
I am once again writing from an airline seat and I am pleased to inform that my connection fears were entirely unfounded.

Upon leaving the aircraft, the walk to the next gate was less than three minutes, I even had a chance to squeeze in a Ben and Jerrys sundae to celebrate the momentous occasion! The flight left pretty much on time and there is a good selection of films on entertainment system ranging from Seth MacFarlanes ‘Ted’ to ‘The Dark Knight’. I was also pleasantly surprised that my flight time is only around 6 hours and 50 minutes.

Whilst I am not crippled by tiredness, I think that it is incumbent upon me to sum up this entire experience briefly.

This has been one of the most fun, engaging, life changing and inspirational experiences of my life. Our team from the UK were wonderful and I greatly appreciate their love, inspiration and understanding. I could not have experienced all of these things without them.

I was truly blown away by the passion and hospitality offered to us by Obama for America, the team of Tammy Baldwin, the team of Rob Zerban and the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. These people did their organisations proud and I hope that both sides can take away new ideas for future campaigns. A special thank you goes to Ben for graciously letting four of us stay in his home for around 10 days.

I also hope that Rob Zerban stands for congress again, I genuinely feel he will be beat Paul Ryan in one or two elections time.

I may never get a chance to do something like this again, I hope that is grasped it with both hands and that our American friends were happy with our efforts, although for the most part we are all happy with the results!

Please feel free now to let anyone have the URL of this blog who would be interested now that the campaign is over.

The next short part of this blog will be a small update on my final flight leg, it will be short because I will be zombified!

Thank you all for reading and for your wonderful comments, I greatly appreciate it. Here’s to four more years!

10:43 am Scandinavian Time

Whilst my plane arrived in Oslo more than half an hour earlier than planned, the fact it took about 40 minutes to get my luggage put my transfer briefly in the balance. However, a lot of running and irritating a Brit with a guitar at security saved me from potentially several hours being stuck in Oslo. As we speak, I am under an hour away from having my feet on the Tarmac in Trondheim.

When I get back its time for well deserved food, rest and time adjustment.

This is ‘Daves Obama Adventure’ signing off for good. Thanks for reading 🙂

Day 14 – The Final Day

Our final day of holiday (or should I say vacation?) involved a trip through the wonderful Wisconsin countryside to do some fun bloky activities.

First stop, the Mexican migrant worker restaurant I mentioned a few days ago thats in Elkhorn. Some of our group didn’t get a chance to try it last time, so they had to give it a go! I had a burrito where each half was about the size of a lung.

The waitress remembered us and we chatted about how happy she was that Obama had won.

Next, ten pin bowling in Lake Geneva (yes, you heard me correctly).

I scored at least three strikes, which considering I am bad at bowling is something I am rather proud of.

One of our team cleverly discovered a free wine tasting opportunity at a local vineyard. We indulged and tried to look well versed in all things wine, but I don’t think we did the best job!

As you can see though, they had surprisingly few vines.

After a burger in Whitewater we headed back to Racine to say our goodbyes to the Obama staff and of course take some more swag for our cases!

Now for packing ready for the big journey home, wish me luck!

Day 13 – Milwaukee

With all responsibility now at an end, we began our first of two days holiday to round off our trip.

All of us woke up in various states of rest and consciousness, more do with lack of sleep than alcohol. In my case, I was up at around 7am and decided to eat for breakfast the various things that I had ‘liberated’ from campaign offices over the district.

After a hearty breakfast at the wonderful ‘Roberts Roost’ diner, it was off to Milwaukee.

You would think that 7 guys who are for the most part political geeks would go to see some culture or a nice museum, but instead we indulged in a brewery tour! For $7 you could visit the Lakefront Brewery and get 4 6oz beer samples, the tour itself, a voucher for another pint at one of their pubs in the city and a commemorative pint glass. We had a wonderful time and I think I ate my body weight in pretzels.

At the recommendation of our American host, we ate Bratwurst at the restaurant that Obama ate in recently, plus we could use our beer voucher!

Milwaukee is the home of the TV series ‘Happy Days’. In commemoration of this, the local authorities put up a controversial statue known as the ‘Bronze Fonz’. As you can see, it’s hideous but an essential photo opportunity.

After a trip to Walmart, it was back to base camp for drinks and socialising.

What we will do for our last day is currently undetermined, but it should be fun!

Day 12 – The Decider

Wow! Can we believe that this day has finally arrived? All the months of expectation, excitement and sometimes uncertainly have rolled on and built up to this day. We have been working the campaign for just over a week, but Democrats have been working these areas for months with only two possible outcomes – win or lose.

Despite most media outlets sticking to the messages that the contest is ‘neck and neck’, we all felt cautiously optimistic regarding the result. The swing states are deciding this election and whilst some are closer than others, the maths just about worked out for an Obama win.

Whilst many of my team were door knocking throughout the day, I was back in Kenosha to help control the very last of the GOTV operation. After a few quiet days, the troops in Kenosha were out in force to do their part. Kids skipping school, people taking a day off work, everyone was becoming a community activist. Many people were not home when an activist called, but there were activists who knocked with very few breaks for nearly 12 hours and going to houses visited several times until they spoke to that voter. Their passion is inspiring.

At around 1 or 2 o’clock, we were told to clear out the office by 5 to that every possible staff member and activist could be sent to key areas to get out the vote places hardly knocked or have a low turnout. I was bumped up to the position of office manager somewhat and coordinated the final couple of hours of voting. Queues were long at polling stations, especially for registration. Although the polls closed at 8pm, anyone already in the line could still vote. The weather had also taken a turn for the worse meaning that door knocking sheets were coming back increasingly soggy making sorting them a tad tricky.

They luxury of being in the office is that I got watch their Politico feed of the results being called state by state. It was like a snail race, each candidate slowly creeping up in electoral college votes switching in who was leading. Whilst I felt confident of a win, the lack of a clear lead early on made me slightly nervous.

Just before 9pm the boys popped in to pick me up to head to candidate for Congress Rob Zerbans victory party.

The hall looked great, decked out in posters and flags with a huge screen projecting the results. The free draught beer was also a bonus I must say.

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Shortly after arrival, Wisconsin was won and the room erupted. We all knew though, that it was the big result that we really wanted.

We all thought that we would not get a definitive winner until 1 or 2 am, however shortly after 10 pm on the screen flashed ‘Barack Obama, President Elect’. The room went insane. People hugging each other, kissing each other, crying and embracing kinship, the kinship of hope.

We had won the state, we had won the nation, every one of us in that room could leave with our heads held high.

Rob Zerban took to the stage and informed us that he had unfortunately not beaten Paul Ryan, however it appeared that Tammy Baldwin was set for victory. He was gracious in defeat and felt optimistic about a win in 2 or 4 years.

All of a sudden, everyone wanted photos with team UK. We were like mini celebrities and were thanked by everyone, and we said back how grateful we were to them for letting us share this experience with them.

After some chatting we headed home to watch the results come in on the TV with a few drinks.

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It’s not over yet folks, I will blog about my two days of holiday before going home.

Did you enjoy election night? We certainly did

Day 11 – Polling Eve

After a wild goose chase to Madison involving being messed around for an Obama event, we got back on the road and back to Racine where the final election countdown has truly begun. As per the request of one of my party, we stopped at Ihop on the way back to refuel our stomachs. I had a stack of chocolate chip pancakes that were so filling they came close to killing me. See below

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I was once again posted to Kenosha where they wanted me to ‘keep things jolly’ during the very important shifts of GOTV what were taking place all day. It was the general feeling that as long as we had a consistent and productive door knocking campaign for the last 24 hours, voter turnout would be sufficient for a Democrat win in Wisconsin.

After once again staffing the slowly becoming legendary ‘Daves One Stop Campaign Shop’ it was back in the car and off to an area near Milwaukee for a new task.

Day 10 – The Calm Before the Storm

The t shirt on the above pic is going to be my campaign uniform for the next few days I think!

Today began with a ‘looking pretty for the press’ type of event. We were sent to another campaign office in Racine to bulk up the crowd a bit for a BBC press report. The slightly amusing point being that it was for radio! After interviewing a few Americans they interviewed one of our UK team and told us that the interview would be on BBC Worldwide later that afternoon. Campaign activities prevented us hearing it though!

After a minor panic when I thought I had lost my iPod (luckily I hadn’t), it was back to Kenosha to continue helping to run the campaign office.

Things were a bit quieter today, but of course there was plenty to do! Once again there were fantastic bagels at the well stocked food counter.

Daves ‘One Stop Campaign Shop’ was open for business once more, and here is a picture of me in action.

I provide service with a smile and lots of people say things like “is your accent real?” or “do you come from England?”. I am of course very happy to chat to Americans about life in Europe, even if my friends laugh at me because I often open with the line “Hi I’m Dave, I am from Wales but I live in Norway”.

As of today, the national polls look respectable for Obama. As long as we keep working this state at this momentum for the next few days, I think Wisconsin is in the bag.

Day 9 – Operation Get out the Vote

Look at the beautiful sunrise over Lake Michigan!

Today was something slightly different but none the less very interesting. We were driven 25 minutes or to Kenosha, a small town on the outside of Racine.

We were sent to their local campaign office to make sure that local activists were trained and given the correct materials for the huge door knocking campaign over the weekend.

This was the best organised campaign office I have ever been in. Arrows on the floor lead to areas to sign up, then get trained in door knocking, then receive their areas before being given supplies and heading off out of the door.

I was in charge of what I described as ‘Daves One Stop Campaign Shop’ where I issued activists with clipboards, pens, bottled water, campaign literature and hand warmers.

Hundreds of activists marched through the doors, many of whom were first time canvassers. All of them very friendly and gladly refuelling on the bagels on the food stand!

The highlight for many of the activists was a visit from candidate to the Senate Tammy Baldwin.

She gave a speech with the same fire and passion she had given on Thursday when warming up for Obama. We briefly spoke, although we spoke longer when I accidentally walked in on the tail end of an interview she was giving. I discovered that her Grandmother even had Welsh heritage. I wished her luck, and she thanked us for helping. If she wins she will be he first openly gay Senator (by the way, the old Senator I
mentioned in the Obama rally post was called Herb Kohl). That will be a fantastic achievement if we can help her to win!

Thank you for reading, more tomorrow!

Day 8 – The Lightning Campaign Rises

Before I get into today’s blog, I was alerted to a photo on the Internet by my brother. Someone from the press actually shot my Obama high five! Take a look:

I will be using the ‘cool’ from this for the next 30 years he he he.

Today all preparations were kicking off for the final push. Over the weekend leading into Tuesday there will be a huge voter ID campaign with a large number of volunteers. Our job was to do our bit to help in this effort.

We were sent to the outreach Democrat campaign offices in Burlington and Elkhorn to deliver bottled water and various campaign materials.

When in Elkhorn we we asked about somewhere to eat, they recommended a Mexican migrant workers cafe around the corner. When we arrived it was a grocery store with two or three sets of tables, but served the best Mexican food I have ever had and it was only around $4!

An activist at Burlington also had a fantastic collectible, Mitt Romney toilet paper!

We made our way back through the beautiful Wisconsin countryside back to Racine.

Things were jubilant back at base camp with activists doing all sorts of crazy things, all whipped up by election fever.

Next stop was to head a mile up the road to set up a campaign office.

There will be several micro offices all over the region that will have food stations, debriefing areas, training areas and campaigning materials. We spend the afternoon lifting furniture and moving things around to allow the final set up to take place.

After a brief hello with Congressional candidate fighting against Paul
Ryan, Rob Zerban, it was time to clock off.

Early start for Saturdays final push campaign, I will let you know how it goes!

Day 7 – The Big Man

Now for the big event I mentioned yesterday, although for my Facebook friends this is old news!

We were told by Democrat HQ back when we first arrived in Racine that any Obama visits would generally be announced with roughly 24 hours notice. That notice came late last night.

It would be a relatively small rally of 4000 people in Green Bay, roughly 2.5 hours outside of Racine. This meant leaving home at 4:30 am as final role allocations would be handed out a 7am.

We arrived at the airport in the town and were allocated into two groups, one doing security and the other working the crowd. I was allocated crowd.

Shortly after allocation, the crowds swelled, a testament to the Presidents popularity (and the novelty of seeing the President I’m sure!)

My teams job was to ensure that tickets were correctly filled in and that as many people as possible were signed up as activists. It was a long and difficult job (temperatures were truly freezing) but the crowd were fired up and ready to rock. Bizarrely, I did meet one Republican, how odd.

Just before 10am we were given the word to stand by, and after a short wait we were ushered into the ViP section and given some of the best spots in the house, even it was behind the podium (which didn’t bother me in the slightest).

Despite the previously mentioned numbers, the site looked tiny and the atmosphere was like one big party.

After seeing the outgoing Senator (his name escapes me) and (hopefully) incoming Senator Tammy Baldwin speak, it was time for the real show to begin.

Air Force One came floating through the sky with grace before landing and halting directly next to the stage at a safe distance.

Secret Service personnel and press left the back of the flying Oval Office before the music stopped and the speakers announced “please welcome, the President of the United States”. Moments later, a leather jacket wearing Barack Obama comes down the steps and runs down the Tarmac to the podium.

He spoke for around fifteen minutes and I was in complete awe, at times forgetting I wasn’t American. His speech was filled with hope, optimism and can only be described as epic. If Americans do not vote for this man, they are making a grave mistake.

Soon the speech was over and after a few waves to the crowd he joined the people and shook their hands and hugged them.

Being in the VIP section gave me the biggest perk I may ever have. We were at the front and well within hand shaking difference. As Obama made his way up the line I said to my colleague “do you dare me to high five Obama?”, he said “yes” and the challenge was set.

I shook his hand said “good luck Mr Obama”, then I remember my challenge. I said something like “high five Mr President” and he looked, smiled and gave me a huge high five. The following photo was taken by me seconds after the event.

We left light headed and giddy, before going to an airport coffee shop and all of us Facebooking the hell out of the event.

This was one of the most amazing days of my life, and something I will never forget.

Roll on the return to the campaign trail tomorrow!

Day 6 – Halloween

Another day on the doors today in preparation for Thursdays voter rally.

Despite my claim the other day that Racine was broadly ‘affluent’, this is not strictly true. I am told that Racine in fact has a fairly high unemployment rate as its major employer, a local factory, recently shut. The signs of this are few and far between however, giving the impression of a degree of wealth (especially in my eyes).

Today were back knocking doors, however the focus was switched to the Latino communities for the most part. I initially feared that this may bring with it a potential language issue, luckily everyone we spoke to was an English speaker.

Because state welfare program’s are few and far between and if they exist are generally poorly funded, communities take matters into their own hands. I saw this on my travels, which gives food for thought considering how lucky we have things in Europe.

Today one of my colleagues knocked his first Republican! Whilst one Republican voter is not an issue in itself, what is concerning is that everyone we were knocking had previously been recorded as a Democrat voter.

Ah we’ll, these things happen.

The mood at Democrat HQ is upbeat with lots of mainly older people sitting and sorting the door hangers mentioned yesterday. We got stuck in ourselves during the afternoon to make sure this operation was ready for the final push after early voting closes.

We also saw some young people at the phone bank canvassing voters by phone.

The office is well funded and well organised, I am suitably impressed thus far.

We clocked off early and went to bed due to a rather exciting development that would have us hitting the road by 4:30am to Green Bay 2.5 hours away. But you will have wait until tomorrow to find out what it is!