So Obama is still well ahead in the polls and the situation is looking better when you look at the state-by-state elctoral college situation. Still, I am by nature a worrier. And things are going to be getting uglier from now on. So instead of fretting myself into a big ol' puddle of worry I thought I would come up with some ways that we could all more productively channel our energies and help keep up the momentum till election days. There is an activity for every day left.
I am so much of a worrier about the election that my sweetie just this week sent me this card.
Plus watching video of McCain on Faux News today made me hopping mad.
And as Josh Marshall and others tell us it is only going to get worse. Come November 4th we're going to be hip deep in slime.
So what's a gal (or guy) to do?
Here's the start of a list of suggestions. One for each day between now and then. We can all so at least some of these. It will make us feel better and help keep the momentum going. As Barack Obama said yesterday, now is not the time to get complacent.
- Vote early. There have been a couple of great diaries on this topic here and here. Rock the Vote also has a great set of resources. The more of us that vote early the less pressure on the polls on the 4th, the less opportunity there is for vote suppression and the more we can do to GOTV
- Donate. Donate to Obama (can anyone say $160 million for October?), but also to downticket races. El Tinklenberg(opposing Michelle "McCarthy" Bachman in MN, Dennis Shulman in NJ and Betsy Markey(running against Marilyn Musgrove) in CO are some of my favorites but I bet you have your own. I am personally fond of the $18 (or multiple donations) for good luck.
- Volunteer. If you haven't already go put in some shifts at one of the campaign office or find an event that needs volunteers.
- Volunteer to monitor the elections to minimize the suppression of the vote. I am signed up with Election Protection but there are many such organizations and many states are actively seeking citizen election officials.
- Write letters to the editor. It is important that we get our message out there and fight back against the endless smears and vitriol coming out of the Republic party. There are some sites out there that make writing a letter to a paper easy, PublishaLetter.comis one, but there are others.
- Document the filth. If you get robocalled, keep the line busy as long as you can and report it. Then go write another letter to another editor about how you're fed up with it. And call and complain to your Senator or Congresscritter especially if the former is a vulnerable Republican up for reelection.
- Go to an Obama or a Biden rally. Or a meeting or rally with wonderful Jill Biden or Michelle Obama. Then write a diary about it to cheer us up. Read one of Musikal203's diariesto learn how.
- and 9. Did I mention donate? And volunteer? I did? Well you can never do too much of either.
- Put up a yard sign. Yeah I know they don't vote and campaigns hate them but especially this year, especially in swing states they help reinforce the idea that yes, it's ok to support Obama, in fact most people do. Bumper stickers and tee shirts are good too.
- Call in or email a question or comment to a radio show. We need to beat back the slime on all fronts. I personally won't listen to winger crap, but NPR is important too.
- Speak to your friends and family. Make sure they know the truth about Ayers or Acorn or whatever smear-du-jour is coming out of the right wing noise machine.
- Keep Republicans busy. If you are push=polled or called engage them for as long as you possibly can bear it. Less time for them to speak to wavering voters.
- Feed a campaign worker. many of the big HQs have people working non-stop to fight the good fight. they need sustenance so give them a call and see what they need. Usually it seems their interest is in good nutritional meals as they have plenty of snacks. Be sure to call first.
- Chill. Keep calm and have faith in one of the best run campaigns that we've seen in a long time. Take a deep breath then start at 1 and do all 15 things all over again.