Keep on rocking in the free world

Pictured above is a photo taken by Chris at the Obama rally in Orlando...we were really that close!

For the reasons Chris has outlined in his post below, a number of stories will go live on the blog retrospectively (they were written 'live' at the time but need to be appropriately reformatted i.e. with pictures etc, before they can be posted).

Here is our press release:

Two local Labour prospective Parliamentary candidates who were in America helping Barack Obama’s campaign have arrived back in the UK, hailing his ‘inspirational’ election victory.Chris Clark, Labour’s Parliamentary Spokesman for Ashford, and Dr Rav Seeruthun, Labour’s Parliamentary Spokesman for Maidstone and the Weald, arrived in the US two weeks before the election and were based in the key swing state of Florida.Chris and Rav took part in the Florida Democratic Party’s efforts to ‘get out the vote’, knocking on doors and speaking with voters in the Tampa area.The parliamentary candidates were guests of the Hillsborough Democratic Party and Susan Smith (centre of the picture attached).

They also met with one of the many lawyers working for the Democrats in Florida. They were astounded about how complicated the ballot was, in total it was over four sides of A4 paper. The received a really positive response from the American public. They were really interested in how an Obama win will have a positive effect on the world. Their main challenge was not to get caught up in long conversations and to get on with the job of winning votes!

Chris said: ‘This has been an amazing experience. I’ve worked on lots of election campaigns in the UK but this was something else, an inspirational, defining moment, and it’s been an honour and a privilege to be involved. Knocking on doors in Florida, I sensed real excitement, a feeling that people are desperate for change. And being at the reception in Tampa on Tuesday night with hundreds of volunteers, who’ve all worked so hard, was special.

‘The hopes of people around the world are invested in Barack Obama following this historic victory. From day one, he will have to take important and difficult decisions on the economy, on energy, on the environment and on foreign affairs. If there’s anyone who can meet that challenge and deliver the change we need, it’s Barack Obama.’

Rav said: ‘This is an event led by my generation doing something incredibly positive and I feel really proud of that. It’s been an absolute privilege to be part of history helping Barack Obama become the first black President of the United States. We have been doing everything we could to help this happen: we have knocked on doors in 90 degree heat, telephoned hundreds of voters and stood outside polling stations in the two hour queues for early voting encouraging people to support change.

'We were lucky enough to see Obama and Bill Clinton speak together in Orlando. It was amazing to see the make up of the crowd, all ages, all races, all chanting ‘yes we can’. Obama is an inspirational figure and the right man for the America and the world. I remember doing speeches about Martin Luther King at school, and never thought that in my lifetime this would happen.

'When we were out door knocking it was difficult to see that number of houses that had been foreclosed because of the credit crunch. Obama now has to prove himself and his first one hundred days will be key to this, he now has to ask what’s next?’

We Are The Champions

The final push is near. Tomorrow and Tuesday will be long, busy days. You can get through polling day on adrenaline (I’ve done it before and will do it again) but it helps if you’ve got some reserves of energy in the tank. So I had a good rest and didn’t get up too early.

When I did get up, it was to make sure I was in time to watch the Brazilian Grand Prix, the final race of the Formula One World Championship. And I’m delighted to report that after a nail-biting finish, we have our first British World Champion since Damon Hill took the title for Williams in 1996. Well done to McLaren and Lewis Hamilton. Lewis’s inspirational victory has set the tone for what I hope will be a historic week. By late Tuesday we could have the first black Formula One World Champion and the first black President of the USA, within three days.

Later in the day, I went over to the office on Bearss Avenue and was presented with a list of people to phone. This was a list of the phenomenal number of people who’ve attended an Obama event, joined a mailing list, given money to the campaign or otherwise shown that they are a strong supporter. My job was to phone and encourage them to give some time to the campaign – preferably as part of the formidable door-knocking machine. I spoke to two people who said they would come and help, and mostly left messages on answering machines. It’s always difficult to gauge how much of a difference these calls make – it’s not the most rewarding work if you’re mostly leaving messages, as I was, but on the other hand, if even a few of the people I’d left messages for rang back, saying they’d be coming down to help canvass tomorrow afternoon, then it would definitely have been worthwhile.

Wrapped Up In Books

As anticipated yesterday, I had no way of getting over to Brandon. Fortunately, John, an Obama campaign staffer working on data processing - who moved into Susan’s house ‘for a few days’ in June and has been there ever since! – was able to give me a lift to ‘Jimmie’.

Seeing as the Jimmie B Keel Public Library is not just a polling place but a public library (the clue’s in the name), lots of people walking towards the building are not there to vote but to return books or DVDs – this makes them quite easy to spot. However, ‘Mrs McCain’ (pictured above) doesn’t discriminate. Everyone who passes - even wearing an Obama T-shirt and walking away from the polls - is greeted with ‘Thank you for your vote for John McCain’. One of my favourite moments along these lines occurred this morning, when she approached a gentleman who was walking away from the library, carrying a book, and asked: ‘Would you like some literature?’ In response to this, he pointed to his book and said: ‘Already got some.’

We were a bit short at the polling station this morning as a few volunteers hadn’t turned up and others had been diverted to the Chris Rock event at Citrus Park. However, when a few more people arrived, Susan gave me a lift down the road to the Obama campaign office and I was teamed up with a young lady called Dana. She and her (ex-military) husband run an IT training business.

The round we were given was some way out of town and turned out to be more spread out than any I’ve done so far. We ended up effectively driving from house to house! This was also an area of contrasts, with estates consisting pretty much of mud roads and mobile homes just a street or two away from gated communities of huge mansions.

Many of these estates have drainage ponds – a necessity because the land is so flat and they need somewhere for rainwater to go. The downside of this is that in the hot weather, they dry up, leaving little pools of stagnant water – a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Annoyingly, I’ve picked up a few bites. Another thing I’ve noticed is that everyone here seems to have a dog – so far, no really aggressive ones though.

Just as we finished our round of canvassing (after which Dana was due to go ‘off duty’), Harry rang to ask where I was. We returned our canvass sheets to the office, where I met Harry and we went out to do some more canvassing. It's starting to get dark earlier and earlier, and we went off duty at about 17.30.

This was the last day of early voting. We’re hearing that 3 million people have voted early, and that of those more are Democrats than Republicans. Which is promising but doesn’t ‘seal the deal’ – three more days of hard work to go.

(Citrus) Park Life

This morning I made my way to ‘Jimmie’ (this has become our shorthand for Jimmie B. Keel Public Library) to join the rest of the campaign team. The number of McCain people had increased a little, and their volume had increased significantly. I really don’t think their presence is adding much value to their campaign as it mostly consists of talking loudly at voters as they arrive.

I did get talking to one Republican who was polite and friendly. His name was Kirk and while we disagreed about some fundamental things, we were able to hold a conversation without sliding into recrimination. One thing we did agree on is that the guy who’s there campaigning for a yes vote on amendment 2 (we’ll call him the yes-on-2er) is acting in quite a distasteful manner. Kirk says he refused to stand next to the yes-on-2er unless he removed the homophobic t-shirt he was wearing (‘God Hates Fags’ or suchlike); the t-shirt was removed.

On Sunday, Jimmy Buffett – who I’d never heard of but apparently is a popular singer in these parts – is playing a ‘Last Chance for Change’ show at the Ford Amphitheatre in Tampa. Tickets are available for free from Obama offices and volunteers at the early voting locations.

Once reinforcements arrived at the polling station, Harry and I went over to the office on Bearss Avenue. They sent us out canvassing on one of the less well-off estates in the area. The sheets they gave us were divided into evens and odds. This makes sense if you’re working as a pair, doing one side of the street each and sticking together the whole time. But we found that the area was so spread out, we were better off splitting the whole area in two – Harry doing one bit and me doing the other.

I have forgotten to mention previously that when canvassing, if someone wasn’t home, we had ‘door hangers’ – essentially a two-sided sheet of card, with a hole so we can hang it on the door handle, that urges people to take advantage of the chance to cast their vote early and gives details of the nearest early voting location. Tomorrow Chris Rock will be performing at a Get Out The Vote rally in Citrus Park. He’ll do a comedy set for the crowd and the idea is that everyone is led to the nearest early voting location immediately afterwards, so that they can vote early. As Citrus Park is just down the road from the estate we were canvassing tonight, flyers promoting the event tomorrow had been stapled to our ‘door hangers’.

As usual, the reaction we got was overwhelmingly positive. I met one elderly gentleman who I’m sure had only one or two teeth – he said he’d voted for McCain, because Obama 'won't do the things he's promising'. A legitimate follow-up question would have been 'But if he did, would that be a good thing?' I hope Obama gets the chance to improve the healthcare system for people like that man early in life so that they have access to dentistry before it’s too late. Responses such as this could be disheartening but it’s important to remember – this is why we’re here. Now we know he’s voted, no-one else from the campaign needs to spend time knocking on his door or telephoning him.

As time passed, it was a case of diminishing returns. Half way through the round, it struck me that this would be the case – it’s Halloween, so loads of people won’t answer their doors. Having knocked the majority of doors, we decided our work for the day was done.

Tomorrow I’m planning to head over to Brandon again, to canvass with Kevin. Not sure how I’m going to get there without a car, though, so this may change.

It's a shame about (the) Ray(s)

Probably the biggest difference between America and the UK is size. Almost everything here is bigger than in the UK. This difference of scale inevitably affects how Americans experience the world around them. That’s why they talk about ‘the London Times’, ‘Paris, France’ etc. The size of America doesn’t prevent people from identifying with their country – quite the reverse – but people do seem to feel very strongly about their home town and state too.

One of the things that’s been going on while we’ve been here is the World Series Baseball. Tampa Rays have been playing the Phillies. I’ve lost count of the number of people who’ve mentioned it. It’s all over the local radio, and there are people in Rays T-shirts, Rays flags flying outside hours, Rays bumper stickers on cars. Sadly, though, the Rays lost out to the Phillies last night. Better luck next year.

This evening it was Harry’s birthday so we decided to celebrate: Rav and I met up with Harry, Susan and her husband, Norwood, in a Greek restaurant called Akropolis, in Ybor City. The food was good and the musicianship of the young bouzouki player was impressive, if a little overbearing. We were also joined by Alison, the Chair of the Democratic Party in nearby Pasco County, who had many interesting stories to tell (apparently a sign that says ‘I don’t call 911’ translates as ‘if you trespass on my property, I may shoot you and I won’t call 911’ – good to know after spending a week walking up people’s drives and knocking on doors in the most blasé manner imaginable!).

At the rally yesterday, the Florida Senator Bill Nelson mentioned that there are over 5000 attorneys in the state of Florida alone, to make sure that things are done right this time. Those attorneys all sport blue baseball caps bearing the words ‘Florida Voting Rights Attorney’. At dinner this evening, we met Janet, who is one of the attorneys. On the right you can see a picture of Janet talking Rav through a sample ballot (I’ll try and scan a copy of the sample ballot, and append it to this post at a later date).

After dinner, we explored a couple of the local bars. They all seem to have very loud bands, consisting of one or two acoustic guitars, playing ‘classic covers’. There had obviously been some night-before-Halloween parties in Ybor, as almost everyone we passed was in costume.

One last political note for tonight: lots of people have taken advantage of early voting (they’re saying over 2 million) but the Orlando Sentinel are reporting a low turnout among young voters – if that’s correct, it’s disappointing and I hope they’re just keeping their powder dry for polling day itself.

And a final point for today – this has been Rav’s last day here. Tomorrow he has to get up stupidly early so that John the taxi driver can take him over to the airport. I will get up a bit later, bid farewell to Fred and the other staff at the Hampton Inn and make my way across town to carry on fighting the good fight.

Presidents of the USA

Today’s been a very long day – we’re tired but buzzing.

This morning we went to the Obama campaign office on East Brandon Avenue, and were set to work telephone canvassing. The lists we were given consisted of people who had registered to vote by mail, whose absentee ballot had not (at the time of printing) been cast. (Tomorrow is really the last day absentee ballots can be posted – after that, voters can still drop them off at early voting locations or turn up on the day to get the absentee ballot cancelled and cast their vote in the normal way.)

Being a working day, most people were out but we left messages on their machines, urging them to cast their ballot and expressing the hope that they would support Senator Obama. Many numbers we called had been discontinued – a sign of the number of mortgage foreclosures resulting in people losing their homes. In the news we hear about the ‘economic crisis’ but this is the human face of it.

Then we drove over to the Obama campaign office on Bearss Avenue, where Harry was also working. We bundled into his car and set off for Orlando, where Obama and Bill Clinton were due to speak at a rally. Rav was very tired and took the opportunity to sleep – leaving me and the Sat Nav to share navigation duties. On the way there, we came close to Disney World, Universal Studios and Cape Canaveral. There were hundreds of roadside restaurants, mostly empty, as it’s off-season.

Obama and Clinton weren’t due on till 23:00 but we wanted to get a good spot so we’d allowed loads of time. Arriving in Kissimmee at around 16:00, we located the Osceola County Stadium and joined the queue that would be our home for the next four and a half hours. We must have been among the first few hundred to arrive. Ahead of us were some real die hards, including a guy with a guitar whose repertoire seemed to consist of one song – the verse rehearsed a list of failures of the Bush Presidency and the singalong chorus was: ‘Who we gonna vote for? O-BA-MA!’ As you can imagine, the hours sailed by.

One thing that helped pass the time was speculating about the 30 minute infomercial that was to be broadcast tonight, simultaneously on almost all the major television networks here in the US. No-one’s done anything remotely like this since eccentric billionaire Ross Perot in 1992. Is it overkill? Or a unique chance to communicate a message to the American people? We hoped there’d be a screen we could see it on.

The merchandising efforts here were amazing. You could get pretty much anything Obama you’d like - badges (‘pins’ as they call them here), t-shirts, hats – and some of the designs were quite imaginative. Perversely I didn’t buy any, a decision I now regret as I’m not sure if/when I’ll get another chance as I suspect we’re going to be working flat out until after the election’s over. One thing we had wondered about was who gets the money from all this, as the stalls all seem to be run by small independent traders. Rav heard one of the party staffers talking to a trader, setting out the rates for running a stall – so now we know, stallholders pay a small amount for a pitch and then keep any profits they make. This is very different to the UK, where merchandising is primarily done by the parties themselves (though they tend to outsource).

Initially, standing and sitting in the sun, it was hot. Then, as the sun receded, we became increasingly cold. Just as Harry went and bought us each a hot chocolate, the queue started to move! At first it looked like we wouldn’t be allowed to take our drinks in so I gulped mine – then it transpired we could take them in after all. Having cleared security (airline style, with barriers, body searches, thorough examinations of anything like a camera), we rushed forward and made it into what at a gig would be called the ‘golden circle’, which probably held about 500 to 1000 people. We were about twenty or thirty feet away from the stage, where a former President and the next President would be speaking!

Standing as part of a tight crowd in the ‘golden circle’ for several hours, I began to regret gulping all my hot chocolate. (Rav and Harry had wisely discarded theirs when they realised there was going to be no way of getting in and out, and we were going to be there for the duration.) The venue was huge, and there were thousands of people stood behind us (I’ve heard there were around 35,000 there). There were big screens mounted in the stadium but we were IN FRONT of them. This meant we could not see the infomercial – though we could hear it, and liked what we heard.

The evening began with the National Anthem and the Oath of Allegiance. Jimmy Spitz (pictured right) - who played Matthew Santos in The West Wing, a character now confirmed to have been based on Barack Obama - came on and gave a brief speech, in English and Spanish. And then Bill Nelson, the State Senator, came on and introduced Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

They’re both great speakers. Clinton drew a contrast between his eight years in power, and the last eight years. And he set out five key reasons why we believes Obama should be the next President. Obama spoke about the challenges he will face if he wins. Two things were striking about his speech. First was his emphasis that the election is not yet won; and second, the content. He talked boldly of ambitious infrastructure projects – new roads and bridges, nationwide broadband cabling, and billions invested in renewable energy. Inspiring stuff.

I’ve already indicated above that security was high. The gates of the car park remained closed until the motorcade had got well away from the stadium. Finally, we were able to get on our way. This was an evening we’ll remember for the rest of our lives.

(I have other pictures of both Clinton and Obama and will probably put them up with another post in the next few days.)

Country Feedback

In an earlier posting, I alluded to the complication of the voting system here. In the UK, national elections tend to be held on different days from local elections and if they are to be held on the same day, there will be a separate ballot paper for each race. In the US, there are lots of votes all taking place on the same day. As well as the Presidential race, there are elections to all manner of local government positions, and also yes-no votes on proposed amendments to the State Constitution. This means that the ballot comes in book form! No wonder there are long waits at the polls, when people have so many marks to make on their ballot. One of the achievements of Barack Obama’s campaign has been the voter registration drives, which has seen large numbers of first time voters. Above all it’s essential that they come out to vote in the Presidential race but it’s also important that they vote down the ticket. Presented with a ballot that’s several pages long, many could just vote for Obama and leave. We need to communicate to them the importance of voting in the local races.

And so it was that Rav and I found ourselves stood at Jimmie B. Keel Public Library, one of the larger early voting locations. Our role was to offer voters arriving at the polls a copy of the Democratic ‘slate’ (list of candidate and amendment recommendations).

At any one time there were generally between 4 and 10 Obama supporters running a table with Obama campaign leaflets, stickers etc. By contrast, McCain supporters were comparatively thin on the ground. Their main representative was a woman who stood right on the perimeter of the 100 foot exclusion zone with a sign consisting of the McCain-Palin logo with some handwritten additions of extra pieces of card, all loosely taped together and flapping in the breeze. These invoked what she described as Obama’s ‘dangerous connections’ and ‘terrorist ties’, and implied he is a ‘Marxist’ (because apparently Obama’s plans to restore tax rates to pre-Bush levels are indicative of a commitment to Communist ideology). Her incessant refrain was: ‘John McCain – the true American hero. The only hero on the ticket!’ (She meant ballot, I think, unless she wished to emphasise Gov. Palin’s own lack of military experience.)

Being a polite individual and being stationed next to her to distribute our slates, I decided to be friendly and start a conversation. She asked where my accent was from and I told her. She then accused me of showing ‘disrespect’ to John McCain, just by being here. I assured her that I had great respect for Senator McCain’s past achievements and especially his sacrifices during his military career but that I disagreed with him about important issues about the future of America and the world. She then said she would never ‘interfere in your country’s election’. Later in this exchange, it transpired that she’s done missionary work abroad. So it’s OK to ‘interfere’ in another country’s religious affairs, it’s just politics that’s off-limits.

Under the Constitutional amendments, there’s one that both sides are campaigning hard on. Amendment 2, if passed, will define marriage as being between a man and a woman. This was put on the ballot by religious fundamentalists, and is primarily a way of ensuring the Republican base come out to vote (gay marriage is already illegal in this state). The implications of this are that unmarried couples will lose access to shared benefits such as health insurance and pensions.

When we were finished at the polling station, Rav and I headed over to a meeting of the North West Hillsborough Democratic Party, where Susan had invited us both to speak. There were 5 new members, who Susan had recruited earlier in the day at the polling station. Everyone was really pumped up and excited, but also rather tired as it’s been a long campaign.

Rav and I had decided that we’d have a go at emulating the American style of public speaking, which I’ve referred to in an earlier posting. Rav spoke first, about the shared values of the Labour and Democratic Parties, and especially about healthcare. I then talked about the historic connections between Britain and America, and why we’d come to support Barack Obama’s campaign for change. We’ll try and post video and transcripts of the speeches a bit later.

Following our speeches, the members asked questions and we had a long conversation about the socio-political differences and similarities between Britain and America. It was clear that they’d found the evening very interesting, and we gained a lot from it too. It was a great experience and we went back to our hotel tired but happy.

Then we had a few technical problems that meant we were unable to post but we continued to write entries to post later...................