Tonight I convinced 2 NH voters to vote for Obama!
I'd signed up on the website just tonight.
Made calls from home.
Had some time because my plans got cancelled.
Really only spent about 2 hrs total doing it...I could break it up to work for my night (I was cooking soup). They had me call NH probably because I live in MA..
I am really moved, really floored. I heard "no one has ever explained it to me like that". The guy said "I can't believe I'm saying this but you convinced me". AMAZING!
Obama's script is very basic and it seems like the don't hate if you go off script...encourage you to tell personal stories. So unlike the calls I made for Kerry or even Obama last time where the script was so rigid...I felt like I could be myself without "doing it wrong". I know too much to stay on a rigid script.
I found that understanding that the people were making a valid choice given what they know really helped. IN NH at least, most undecided voters are socially moderate to liberal. Truth is, that should be enough for them to vote against Romney if that stuff matters enough. So many in NH are fiscally conservative as well so I have to work showing that Obama is actually a moderate there...the whole package really is palatable even for fiscal moderates to conservatives when they really get the alternative. It wouldn't be if they were so completely ideological on that point that they were Republicans but I am not CALLING Republicans!
One guy was completely in the middle but reasonably informed, the other was a woman who was leaning Romney.
I got to her on the women's rights stuff. She was the typical person who was just too busy (raising teenagers, working, caring for aged parents) to pay close attention to the election until she tuned in on debate night. She'd known Romney as "not a crazy person" when he governed in MA, directly to her south (she worked in MA, like many do in S. NH). I told her that it's normal she, being in NH not MA doesn't realize that Romney seemed more reasonable as Governor only because he had not been Allowed to be crazy here. He could not have accomplish anything in MA without the assent of strong Dem House and Senate...he was forced to be more moderate than he felt. ( He vetoed something like 800 bills and his veto was simply overridden most of the time. WHY THAT IS NOT OUT THERE is a mystery!). I also reminder her that Romney had run as a moderate but changed his positions after he was elected and many in MA felt betrayed. This is a prelude to what we are seeing now from Romney running for President, I believe.
I live in MA. I had frame for telling her what's really so.
I validated her feelings and also that OF COURSE she'd think Romney was a moderate based on the info she had.
I ended up almost crying on the phone with her, to be honest. It was quite a personal call and what she said and the higher purpose of what I was doing was really moving. I did spend more time then they probably want (about 10 min). It was worth the time.
This woman I spoke longest with is one of the people who if duped to vote for Romney would be voting, due to misinformation, severely against her best interest. (including Obama's not countering and calling out Romney in the debate which made her believe that later calling Romney a liar was just political, understandably).
Her mom is a frail elder on Medicaid and she could not have her life and care for her...she did not know about the cuts to Medicaid that will be immediate and dangerous in a state like NH.
She promised me she would vote for Obama. SHe has daughters.
I am just so moved by how easy this was and floored I had not done it this time around before and upset that I did not because in one night I convinced two voters.
You can do this too. You really can help. If 100 of us had convinced just a few voters each...can happen in certainly...states can be won. We've seen it. Elections can be won or lost literally on what we do.
Please join me. It costs us nothing...not even time in how it is set up. You have a free moment...make one call. I never got this was so until tonight.
(read below about why I realize I did not do this before).
I know many, if not most of you, are taking action on your political beliefs and are working to reelect the President and other worthy Democrats. Many of you have done a whole lot of work in your communities and even nationally. I have so admired your contribution to the President's reelection and to our country's future. Thank you so much for your efforts, on the behalf of all of us--even the misguide Romney voters-to-be!
But it must be so that there are other people --like me until tonight-- who have had barriers to taking action even as we ardently support Obama, or at least ardently oppose Romney/Ryan and their like minded down ballot candidates. This is a choice between two, after all; like all choices we make in adult life we need to choose the better of the two to lead us for the next four years. The better choice is crystal clear and has been for me all along. I've always believed that my actions should be in line with my beliefs and have in the past taken actions on the campaigns I believe in. Up to tonight, I realize now, I was being a hypocrite for not taking action in this election. I was coasting.
I realize now that I felt resistance to looking into how I can help. Part of that was I have a foot injury so cannot canvass or hold signs to do "visibility"...which is what I'd prefer to do. I have to make calls and I'd done that before and it had been a stretch because, in my prior experience, I'd have to go somewhere for a chunk of time and adhere to a rigid script, which I found difficult and stressful to do. I had gone to an OFA "call party" in 2008 and it had been chaotic and we had that same kind of rigid script. With my foot, I simply had trouble motivating myself to look into it. I had heard, vaguely, that you could make calls from home but I did not realize how easy and convenient they have set it up to be.
Since the first debate, Obama's poll numbers have gone down and that fact has broken my denial that I was not taking action, that I had barriers (described above), and that they were getting in the way. Maybe that is the same for at least someone reading this diary, or someone you know.
I know many if not most of you may know that you can make calls from home easily on your own time. But as I said, I didn't know you can make even ONE CALL at a time, whenever you want so I have to assume not everyone knows how flexible you can be around this. Additionally, as I said before, the script is loose in that they encourage you to tell your own personal stories. I felt I could be myself.
I wish I'd know this before and started making these calls sooner. Hopefully this will inspire at least one other person to figure out the ways they CAN stretch and help Obama win re-election. It needn't take a lot of time nor any money, and so much is at stake. I feel I made a real difference, and so can anyone.