Observations in one day of phone banking for Obama in my town

[karynnj]

My town is a mostly upscale suburb about an hour out of NYC in NJ. We were calling Democrats and Independents. It is a mostly Republican town - so usually the Independents are Republican. People listed as Independent on the voting rolls can vote in a primary though it changes their designation to that party. (They can then file a form to turn it back.)

1) Many independents were leaning to Obama
2) A Republican, who answered the phone - the number was on because her husband was independent - asked if she could vote for Obama. (answer no - the deadline to change between parties is past.)
3) There were many undecided - and many mentioned they intend to rewatch that last debate. Others said that they were still going back and forth.
4) I hit several very enthusiastic Obama people.
5) As the script immediately identified me as an Obama supporter, many who refused to say - might well have been HRC.

NJ is usually so late that there is no effort - the candidate is already known, so I have nothing to compare it to. They are having some problems coordinating the volunteers as they didn't expect so many in some towns. I don't know what to make of this - but it does seem like NJ is more up in the air than was expected. (This is a very Republican part of NJ. It would be more interesting to see what happened in Newark and other big, predominately Democratic cities.

[City Lights]

1. Thanks for sharing this, karynnj.

With Obama bringing so many new people out to vote, it's almost impossible to look at prior elections for comparison anyway. He's like a wild card in the race. No one can predict with much accuracy what will happen.

The fact that may independents were leaning Obama squares with what's happened in other states, and I think it's encouraging to hear that Republicans expressed an interest in him.

I'm getting really psyched about Super Tuesday. He's got serious momentum. The endorsements are pouring in from politicians and newspapers. I've had a really good feeling today about him winning the nomination. We've got a long way to go, but today I find myself cautiously optimistic. :bounce: