This is a postcard from one corner of the nationwide effort organized labor is making to elect Barack Obama -- the American Dream Candidate -- President of the United States.
I've been spending today in Dayton, Ohio, with hundreds of shop stewards from United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) locals across the Midwest who have come to this city today to join together behind Barack Obama.
And the spirit here is incredible. Video and more info after the jump.
Nobody here needs reminding about how bad the last eight years have been for working Americans. They see it in their own lives, and in the lives of the people they work with. And they are ready and eager to do whatever it takes to ensure that the next four years aren't more of the same.
And the folks here will be central to that effort. Shop stewards are workplace leaders -- grassroots leaders who serve as the connection between workers and their union. Each of the hundreds of men and women here today will leave here today charged with a crucial task: to bring Barack Obama's message of hope and change to the people they work with every day.
They're ready to do just that.
To give you a sense of the energy here, I took a short video of Steve Powell, UFCW's international political director, speaking to the fired-up-and-ready-to-go crowd. Here it is:
Steve doesn't pull any punches:
John McCain supported privatization of Social Security. Look at the mortgage crisis. Look at what's happening on Wall Street as we speak. Turning over Social Security dollars to the stock traders and the investment bankers doesn't make a whole hell of a lot of sense to me this morning!
You can see and hear the spirit in the hall as Steve talks about the big differences between McCain and Obama.
This is one tiny corner of the biggest ground game labor has ever brought to a Presidential election. All across the country, in halls like this one, working people are getting together and getting ready -- getting ready to send John McCain back to Arizona and get this country moving in the right direction again.