Squirrel & Politics

I don't like squirrels, but I did think this one was funny.

Completely unrelatedly, this woman directed my attention to the following extraordinarily well-informed and articulate endorsement, from what she calls the "somewhat right-leaning editorial page of the Washington Post":

Barack Obama for President

It's relatively short, thoughtfully nuanced, and well worth the read.

Obama is apparently leading three to one in newspaper endorsements; this article provides the tallies.

Also, tonight I made my first volunteer phone calls for the Obama campaign. The site makes it simple by providing you with the names, phone numbers, and even ages (!) of your assigned voters, along with an easy-to-follow script. You can read the script from your computer and enter data directly as you go, or you can print out your contacts and enter the data later.

The point is not to debate with firmly Republican or undecided voters; if someone is strongly for McCain, you thank him or her politely and hang up! If the voter is undecided, you offer your own reasons for supporting Obama.

Granted, I was still a bit shy, but everyone I talked to was polite and some were very friendly indeed. My favorite was probably octagenarian Raymond. My least favorite thing was giving my spiel on numerous answering machines.

I know that some of you are jaded and skeptical about the political process, and don't feel like we can make a difference anyway. I understand those sentiments--especially if you believe Republicans stole the 2000 and 2004 elections--but I've never felt as strongly about a campaign as I have about this one, and it doesn't make sense to me to avoid involvement just because the process is flawed and the battle is uphill.

I don't believe you have to volunteer to be a good citizen or even an interested party. But for me, anyway, it sure feels a lot better than sitting around and trying not to think about how life will be if Obama doesn't win this election.