What happens in Vegas

Home again, home again.

2008-11-10T07:26:00.000-08:00

and still standing, more or less ... omg.

Can I just tell you, what a small price to pay marching around North Las Vegas for weeks, in order to attend the best party of my whole life. Ramon, David and I got to the Rio casino where the Dems in LV evidently hang out every election, and finally found the gigantor ballroom full of thousands and thousands of Dems, with a huge screen at the back to which all were breathlessly riveted. The very air fizzed with happiness, relief, hope, all those things, and the fizz got straight into your blood and stayed there and yes, it's still there ...

When Nevada was called for Obama, my god I don't think my hearing will ever be the same, the thundering earthquake roar like your bones are going to rattle apart, shrieking, crying, laughing, people up on one another's shoulders, the spontaneous deafening chant of YES WE CAN, a forest of fists pounding the air, rhythmically, a slow-motion cliche like at the end of a Ron Howard movie, the roar breaking slowly into shouting, whistling, whooping, every sound people can make. You could walk into any corridor in the place and just stick your hand up and a stampede of people would just run up screaming and high five really hard so that your palm was stinging; I played this game all night long. Strangers hugging you and shrieking. You hugging strangers and shrieking. You'd just grab people's hands and Oh My GOD!! My GOD we DID IT!!! And jump up and down for joy. Yes, that actually happens when you are that freakin' joyful!! Who knew!

I was trying to explain this to Albert and finally figured out a way to do it, which is you know how, right when the clock strikes twelve and it's the New Year and for about a minute everyone is shouting and hugging and kissing, and there's confetti and streamers? Extrapolate the first three seconds of that minute into four and a half hours, and you begin to get an idea.

I had meant to leave kind of early but by the time the boys had stood me a couple of Coronas and I'd done my Pied Piper routine and collected an elevatorful of twenty-somethings and taken them to the wrong floor of the wrong tower, and come back again, and found Peggy, and came back up again to the 19th floor that had 'our' party for our (huge) canvass and all our friends, and introduced people, and did the required three minutes of jumping up and down shrieking and hugging each person, which I also learned that you can scream, hug and jump up and down simultaneously almost nonstop for four and a half hours, it was after one o'clock. So then Peggy and I went along to Ping Pang Pong and had some (very good, but not a patch on Dong Ting Spring) Chinese. I hit the road around two, I think, and drove for a couple of hours before taking a short nap @ truck stop and then blurrily home, bursting into tears as I approached LA, because the sun was rising in pink-tinged glory over the mountains and for the first time I heard the NPR guy saying "President-elect Obama."

Tomorrow.

2008-11-03T07:54:00.000-08:00

WHAT a splendid morning, I was bowling along to Starbucks and learned on NPR that McShame has to travel to Nevada to campaign TODAY, lalalalalalalaaaaaaa I feel personally responsible, lala.

Time is tight, today's schedule is kind of 9:00 to 9:00 and tomorrow 6:00 to 7:00!!! I have really got to sit down with this machine and record, though, the awesome climax and denouement of this glorious month of weirdness and, apparently, SUCCESS.

Okay just one awesome little thing. There is a French kid at my new office named Laurent who is cute as a bug (it didn't hurt a bit that he praised my French accent either) and anyway, he has been phonebanking to troll for volunteers. There are not a whole lot of French people in Nevada and I can only guess what your random Nevadan must think when confronted on the phone with this thick French accent saying Allo zees is Ahl from ze Obama camp, well really half the time he says Camp and half the time Campaign ... I was sitting right in front of him entering canvassing data, is the thing, so he was providing this endlessly entertaining soundtrack to my tedious task. It turns out he'd changed his name to Ahl for the phonebanking because everyone seemed to think that the name Laurent would be too much for a Nevadan to handle. His Spanish is terrific, I must say, rather proper Castilian Spanish though he's clearly doing his best to remember the Latin American-style 'z' pronounciation ('s' rather than 'th.')

So he was having zero luck getting hold of any volunteers and we decided he should change his name to Larry, because it was closer to his real name. And suddenly he's like completely on fire and he signed up three volunteers in the space of ten minutes!!! He and I decided that he should change his name to Larry lahk ohn hees resume, and everysing. And I said man, I am going to change my name to Larry, everybody should.

There's a heap of really nice kids at the new office. I particularly like this kid Jihad, he has got the driest, quietest sense of humor, and is just alive as anything. And Elsa and Gia, two Latin girls from San Diego, who are very giddy, giggly and fun.

There is also a super nice couple from Silverlake who drove up just yesterday and were entering loads of canvassing data all day; I sent them along to the South Point casino hotel thing where Oliver and I stayed, I hope they like it.

I took this photo MYSELF, THIS MORNING.

2008-11-01T18:38:00.001-07:00

I have so much to tell you tomorrow ... what a rally this morning. I had to get up at 4:30 though in hopes of a handshake, which I very nearly managed. It was SO great. But a bit droopy just now and looking forward to an early night. Only three left--eeeeek!

After that total E-ticket experience we went canvassing, and I was held hostage by two deranged McCain voters, and then I finally escaped, and then I was held hostage again but by this very hep cat ... a 60s guy, musician, very very funny, Vietnam vet and (quite long-winded) philosopher. Reminded me of my old friend Warbasse.

And right when I was feeling a bit rattled and just kind of through, the most gorgeous little girl answered a door and looked up at me all shyly and said, "You're pretty."

I told Oliver, "You win some, you lose some."

Okay so I was within three feet of Senator Obama at one point, and almost managed to shake hands, even. So you can imagine what kind of photos I've got ... and one of my fav senators Harry Reid spoke first and I saw him all up close and personal, too! (No really, years before I ever came here I was registered at giveemhellharry.com. I know, kinda strange but I love how he kissed the TV when Claire McCaskill won, and also how he was a boxer and he socked that guy, and his name is often coupled with the adjective 'scrappy.' His photo is up near the cash register at Lotus of Siam, and also, he has never left his home town, a la Joe Biden. People here tell me that there is nothing in Searchlight but Harry Reid's house, basically. Plus I have it on reasonably good local authority that Senator Reid, being a Mormon, actually wears one of those garments, and how random is that.)

So. Feast your eyes on THIS that I took myself
and I have about 100 more of them!

Okay just two more.

The 7-11 vote.

2008-10-31T11:08:00.001-07:00

There's no Obama cups left at the 7-11, but there are PLENTY of McCain ones.

What?! No more canvassing?!

2008-10-31T10:17:00.001-07:00

The canvassmobile.

It turns out that we're starting GOTV today and we're going to be sent to some new staging area, but nobody knows exactly what we're going to be doing. Training California volunteers, someone said. I wonder if I will be driving people on Election Day?

But the thing is, this means no more canvassing probably, starting today. However will the residents of North Las Vegas manage without me, Mario, Ramon, Laura and David knocking on their doors every day and harassing them?! I have gone from being a person who was not that crazy about approaching strangers with my politics to a person who is absolutely banging on the door and blabbing about politics whilst waving arms around for emphasis with the greatest of pleasure. I told those guys at the office last night (over Modelos and YouTube videos, after work) that I am ready to be like a Fuller Brush salesman or something. It's so exhilarating shaking hands with dozens of new people every day, they're so strange and cool and smart and funny and crazy and variable. Once in a while you get a nutcase, but it is so worth it.

Yesterday I was invited into this mobile home by two very frail elderly ladies and the cat-pee reek was like to make your eyes water. I'm trying to hold my breath while I tell them where their Albertsons is for early voting. The one was so fat and so soft with sort of rolls of her spilling like rising bread dough over the edges of the chair.

"I've never prayed for a President before," she said. "But I'm praying for him."

"Well keep at it, please, Ms. Davis, because it's working."

Later today I will write a valedictory note of our canvassing experience. It deserves a long and intricate post. But here are some photos that I will treasure. This one is of Mario, splitting our turf.

Isn't it lovely how the paper is glowing? And here is David. He has pretty much shaved his head since this photo was taken, though!

And this is Ramon 'Wikipedia' Gomez:

2008-10-30T09:15:00.000-07:00

There's this one kid G. in our office whom I would like to have for a son-in-law, he is so smart, kind and aware. Hugely tall, lovely eyes, super polymath. Actually I love all these kids in the office very much. But anyway, G, whom I only just got to know a little in the last few days. We were talking about Coachella at one point, which I have never been able to bring myself to attend:

"Oooh isn't it horribly hot and disgusting, though?"

"You can undergo a little pain to see a ton of awesome bands."

"I need my personal space, man."

"Oh yeah, not a lot of personal space at Coachella. It's like sometimes you're literally lifted off your feet by these bodies ... "

"Oh ick, no, I remember being in front for the Clash in like the early 80s and thinking yikes, I'd like to keep my spleen, if you don't mind."

"You actually SAW the Clash?! You are a god. You are a god, walking this earth."

"Bow down."

So anyways last night all of us were watching the Obama campaign 'infomercial' at the office (which WATCH it) and the end is so beautiful, and just as it ended G. grabs the cigs and goes outside. Which was a pity since the very end is the beautifullest of all where Senator Obama says this thing that I HAVE BEEN WAITING TO HEAR FROM GOVERNMENT ALL MY LIFE:

I'm reminded every single day, that I am not a perfect man. I will not be a perfect president. But I can promise you this, I will always tell you what I think and where I stand; I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you when we disagree, and most importantly I will open the doors of government and ask you to be involved in your democracy again.

(So whoever doubts this, listen to me: the message of this candidate is not really Change, so much as it is Participate. There are hundreds, or probably thousands of Californians here in Nevada with me right now who have responded to this message; and it is their efforts and those of similarly-inclined people all over this land, not only Senator Obama's, that have made this literally incredible moment possible. I say 'literally' in all consciousness, because I keep having to rewind over stuff that is actually happening, and I can scarcely process it.)

So obviously I am all moved and whatnot, and wandered out to have a cigarette myself, after. And there is that great big G., having missed the very end, sitting on the bench just sobbing. And he was all embarrassed but I said no, my god, I feel just the same way. And then S. came out and he had teared up too. And we were all shouting and hugging and talking about how we were at the EPICENTER OF HISTORY, how we, too, are literally making this happen, and these wonderful boys are all thrusting their fists into the air and tears on their lovely faces. I'm crying now, just thinking about it.

God knows what will become of us all on election night, they'll have to bring an oxygen tent big enough for the whole of the Martin Luther King office.

Six days left.

2008-10-29T08:54:00.000-07:00

Peggy and I were positively giddy watching the news last night. We had red wine from Trader Joe's and just revelled in the glory of it all. We drank to Sarah Palin.

"Long may she wave," I said, glass held high.

"I've been waiting for this since 1980," Peggy sighed contentedly.

"To Ted Stevens!"

"To Neiman-Marcus!"

"To Henry Paulson!"

You could really tie one on that way, couldn't you.

FIERCE.

2008-10-28T10:19:00.001-07:00

How refreshing it is to hear a politician speaking the truth. I'm like seriously pinching myself to make sure I'm not dreaming. Also this image quality may not seem so great but actually it IS because check out how far away we were even though the rally was at 9PM!

So yay, camera!

Here are some more photos of this passionate, engaged, gorgeous, brilliant woman who is going to be First Lady:

It was a thrilling speech. She'd only just been on the Tonight Show and still made the time to go and talk to a few thousand Las Vegas supporters. She did not seem tired at all. She praised her husband's brilliance, his cool and the skill with which he has run this campaign, with such candor and real love. She talked a lot about education, about how unfair it is that young people train for careers that don't pay enough even to pay back the cost of the education. About how Barack Obama understands working people because he is one of them. Things you've heard before, but just the fact of their being literally true and obvious was really shattering for someone like me, whose idea of a First Lady was Nancy Reagan or even Hillary "Shame on you, Barack Obama!" Clinton. I have to say it again, I admire the Obamas not because they are so very gifted, but because they are so very normal.

A moment of Republican-induced levity.

2008-10-27T10:19:00.001-07:00

They're playing Neil Young in the Starbucks, and before that, Steely Dan Aja, which was quite nice.

So after the rally, we ran across a sad little pack of McCain supporters (like five of them) holding these wee signs reading Socialism, Gun Owners for McCain, Hillary Supporters for McCain (please, it was all too clear that this woman never supported a Clinton in all her born days, plus it was written in the same hand as the Gun Owner one) and Barack Obama Who is He? They were halfheartedly yelling about socialism and whatnot, which these guys would not know socialism if it came up and smacked them on their fool heads.

So as I went past, L-shaped hand on forehead in classic style, I yelled right back at them: "LOSERS! YOU ARE *LOSERS*!! ENJOY THE NEXT EIGHT YEARS, YOU *LOSERS*!!!!!!!!!!!"

lololol

I am embarrassed to tell you how great that felt.

Tonight we get to go and see Michelle Obama! She's coming to us last, so it won't interfere with canvassing a bit!!! Will do my best to get a good photo.

Rally photos

2008-10-26T10:49:00.001-07:00

Yay!

Our vantage point, behind the media.

A ton of media, actually.

The candidate arrives!

I cannot even believe I am seeing this right now!

Seriously!

obligatory cute baby photo!

In which I hear Senator Obama speaking live at Bonanza High School

2008-10-26T10:24:00.000-07:00

Wow, can I just say. Would you like to see some history being made this fine afternoon?

Who cares that it was boiling hot and I had just driven four hours from L.A.?? Or that it will be my last day off until the election?

Senator Obama isn't really the superstar that people make him out to be. He's just a normal person, finally, asking us all to get off our butts. He's right, too. It's the only thing that will make the slightest difference at all. So I went back to the office and uploaded a whole lot of data with a song in my heart. The song was not, however, the Raspberries' "Please Go All the Way," my introductory choice for this experience. Since Carmen sent me the most awesome CD for my birthday, it was Jens Lekman "Your Arms Around Me."

My really brilliant but slightly misguided stepson

2008-10-24T18:03:00.000-07:00

is turning 24 this week and he says that he is jaded, if you can believe. Also he thinks that the world is going to hell in a handbasket, and he blames my generation for this. My generation? What does this kid want, an apology? Get a grip, I mean, we inherited a world of hurt just as surely as they did, more's the pity. Let's also blame Henry Ford, why stop there, blame Stalin, Joe McCarthy and John the Baptist. Surely there is a lot of blame to go around. Oliver said, did we blame our parents for fucking everything up, do you think? and I said yes.

That is, not us per se. But for global warming, read the Atom Bomb (the thing they'd just invented that would threaten all life on Earth, etc.) for the Iraq mess read WWII, etc. etc. Though the Summer of Love generation were not so keen on actual blame as this lot, maybe; there is a meme out there for 'hating the baby boomers,' it's not just my stepson.

I kind of read the attitude of the Summer of Love generation to our parents (I mean I was eight, but whatever) more like this:

Your old road is rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

So I told my stepson, you are not a giver-upper kind of guy! You don't just wake up and smell the pavement and then just lie there.

Get up!

It's funny when you get older and you realize that wow, you know, every generation thinks that it invented sexuality, and every generation thinks it invented despair. So. I hope we can all invent ourselves some awareness and address in the very near future, lol, I hope that is the next thing on the menu.

A Hispanic household.

2008-10-24T09:46:00.000-07:00

There are five voters in this house! I love those, because you can just bang out the lot in one go. A lovely Hispanic woman comes out, all dressed up. It turns out they're late, they're all going out to a funeral.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry."

"Yeah, we kind of have to go."

"My name is Maria and I'm a volunteer for Senator Obama. We just wanted to ask if you'd be supporting the Senator for president in this election."

"Is there anyone else, I mean anyone else we can vote for?"

" ... No."

"Haha, well, there's your answer."

Just one quick p.s.

2008-10-23T23:51:00.000-07:00

I'm home now, for just the one day. Wow! I love it here!

But the p.s. is this: before today, David had never ever had Thai food in his whole life, and he lives in L.A.!!!! He was an instant convert. He said, "I'm in love with this" (of fried shrimp.)

Oh, and Mario got us all the VERY cool Obama posters before he left for a wedding. He won't be back in Nevada until Sunday. Be careful, Mario, if you are seeing this!

He'd meant to give the posters to his friends at home, but then he saw the three of us longing for them like three little wide-eyed animated beasts in a Disney movie, and his soft heart gave right out, and he handed them all over.

p.p.s. Right when I was leaving Nevada I received a phone call from the campaign, it was this girl who had never phonebanked before and she was all scared, and her job was to ask people to travel to swing states for the campaign!

"You're my very first call ever, and I was really scared, but you sound nice!"

"Well, I am not so bad. But I am going to give you the biggest surprise right now!"

Stirring the pot. Or not.

2008-10-23T09:06:00.000-07:00

So I'd been trying to sort out more office space for us, because the program is expanding hugely in these last two weeks and there's really not enough room ... or rather, 12 more days! Is it even really possible?! I'd asked Peggy, and she sent me along to a bunch of union offices in order to figure out more space, but after a long morning of research I finally decided not to stick my oar in. It's too short a time, and there's a good chance that I will mess up more than I can help. Plus, and most importantly, I talked to a bunch of the kids today and came to realize that they are okay with being worked like pack animals, and treated rather badly. They want to feel the broken glass under their knees as they crawl across the finish line, and who I am I to try to take that away from them?

My favorite conversation was on the phone, with Laborers Local 872 political director Tom Morley, a wonderfully bluff-sounding, hilarious guy.

"Ha ha, oh, that's okay Mr. Morley. I know it's such short notice ... but hey, at least we're winning!"

("Ha ha ho o ha ha!" "Ha ha ha!" He has a bellowing laugh that is too delightful.)

"Hey though, I saw a Republican politician on TV last night telling everyone, don't count John McCain out yet, ya know. But I saw he had a vein pulsating in his forehead. Hahahahaha!"

"Hahahahahahaha!, well yeah, I'm not getting cocky Mr. Morley, in fact forget what I said before, we're losing."

"Oh yeah, that's right hahahahahaha, losing hahahahaha!"

Senator Obama will be here in Las Vegas on Saturday! Wouldn't it be amazing if we got to go to the rally?! I doubt it actually, because we're supposed to be canvassing on that day. But wow, though.

Exit, pursued by a Republican

2008-10-23T08:40:00.000-07:00

This really tidy apartment complex, adobe colored, a little severe but quite nice. Very hard to make out which number goes where in these eight or ten curiously disposed buildings. In an upstairs apartment there is the most extraordinarily skinny most hugely pregnant Obama-supporting girl, she is just all protruding belly and long straight mouse-blond hair and wide blue eyes, whose caesarean section is scheduled for October 30th. We blab about C-sections for a bit and she hoists her t-shirt up to show me that she hasn't got any stretch marks. Unbelievably, it's true. You wouldn't think that skin could even do that. Her sweet but unbelievably rowdy three-year-old son is bopping all over the place and I could only think, good lord, and with another baby!? Paging Mary Poppins, my god. But the closest early voting is October 29th!! Will she make it?? My bet is that she has to vote on Election Day. No way this girl is going for another six days in that condition.

So I pop upstairs and down and up again to this allegedly Independent voter, this 51-y.o. woman, kind of scanty in every way--hair, expression, lucidity--and she catches sight of my Obama button. Her wan smile is suddenly transformed into a mask of hideous rage. It is like a blast of sheer hate hitting your chest, swear to god, and she starts yelling.

"Oooooh, NO!! YOU LEAVE THIS PROPERTY RIGHT NOW!" She is literally trembling with anger.

Wow, hmm should I point out that it's legal to canvass? I've only got four apartments left in this complex ... but she's still yelling, so I go, "Okay, thank you!" which I'm sure she does not hear, because she is yelling, and nip back down the stairs.

"THERE IS A 'NO TRESPASSING SIGN OUT IN FRONT!" (false, actually) Most definitely if this chick could have me shot right now, she would do it. Rattling to think of, how just horrible this is. Is there anything that could make a Democrat behave this way? I guess some of the really out-there kids would say pretty horrible stuff about wishing that Bush or Jesse Helms would get shot.

"I'M CALLING THE MANAGEMENT!"

Fortunately, I noticed on the way in that the property office was closed (sign on the door, 'Back at 6:00' or something.)

She's on the balcony and watching. So I hop back into my car, a bit bummed out. Where the hell does that kind of hate come from? I can't understand it.

Fortunately my very last voter of the day, who lives in a really tiny unprepossessing house with the sad tied-old-bedsheet window treatments, is a lovely Latino girl who is just awash in toddlers and the cutest puppy, and she was undecided but now she is for our man. One look at this puppy, he was Doberman colored, and so little and sweet and willing, and it just flooded me with happiness and drove off all the yucky feeling.

Tonight I'm barreling home for one day, because we get Fridays off. I forgot to say I think, last Friday Oliver came and it was so awesome, we stayed in the most hideous casino-hotel but the room was so comfy and nice. Fun as it is, this whole business has made me very very appreciative of my life at home.

Yay!

Trouble in paradise

2008-10-22T08:38:00.000-07:00

There's a manager here who is working his kids too hard and they are starting to make mistakes .... yesterday they sent two crews to the same turf, and I do not know why they all kept knocking or for how long, but when a voter has to come and answer the doorbell for the same reason twice in a half hour, it's not great for the candidate, maybe. I've been kind of idly scheming about how I can improve the situation for the kids in this office and yesterday I think I came up with something, I'll let you know how it goes later this afternoon. A secret weapon that I thought of.

Yesterday was a mixed bag. We got to go to these black projects which is absolutely great for me, because you can hit a zillion doors in an hour's time, there are little kids playing outside to give stickers to, and everyone loves your guts because you are from the Obama campaign. I was invited into all these places, shook a million hands, felt terrific. Wrote down how they have to go early vote at the Lucky on Lake Mead on 10/25 and 10/26 between 8am and 6pm, because we have run out of blasted Early Vote pamphlets yet again, and that is their closest place.

It is so sad that these guys are so poor. Some messed up people around there, too--not all!--but one heartbreakingly beautiful girl in her 20s with slightly unfocused eyes actually opened the door to me wearing a hospital gown. Backwards, with the ties in the front. Meanwhile, Mario and Ramon were starting to get hassled because it was getting dark and things get a little rough out there at night. I don't get the kind of nonsense that a young guy does. Some guy was telling Mario, "F*%# Obama!" and whatnot. "Let me smoke my motherfuckin weed." That is a literal quote. So fine, smoke your blasted weed! My gosh.

After we got back, though, Mario and Ramon were sent off to a soccer game so that they could recruit more Spanish-speaking guys, and Ramon LOVES soccer so I hope they had fun.

And something about David.

2008-10-21T09:12:00.000-07:00

I have decided what the best career for our David should be. He is only 20! And so so gentle, kind, smart and good. Also he is a canvassing MACHINE, not to mention that anyone automatically wants to vote for whomever he is voting for, because your heart just goes out to him. He is going to junior college, still, but isn't sure yet what he wants to do.

So I asked him the other day, if you could do anything you want, what would it be?? And he said, "That's a good question ... I don't know, I'm going to have to get back to you." Note to everyone who knows any children and/or adolescents: ASK THEM THIS QUESTION. They ought to be dreaming stuff up right now.

So I asked David again yesterday, and he still hasn't chosen his best dream. But I said look, I'm watching you. And I have decided something, but I'm not telling you until you tell me first! That is your assignment!

Stallions, chihuahuas, etc.

2008-10-21T08:54:00.000-07:00

Mario appalled us all by confessing that when he sees one of those tiny little dogs like a Chihuahua, he longs to kick it. Partly to see how far it would go.

"You would be so sorry if you did that!" I exclaim, in my best maternal 'for shame!' manner.

"I know, I would be like, harming a little animal that is like 10% my size."

"Like ONE%."

"I'm not that big."

After it is established that a Chihuahua can weigh one pound, and that the scene in There's Something About Mary where the dog flies out the window is undeniably hilarious, the topic moves on to Girls Who Want to Vent. Mario has much to say here.

"So my girlfriend or even my sister calls me and she says, can I just VENT and you would just listen, you know? And I'm like, no, maybe I will sugar-coat it a little bit but I'm gonna straight-up tell you what I think."

Ramon: "Can I just tell you--and I'm giving you permission to write about this, it's okay--(sharp as a tack, our Ramon)--when they're calling me and talking and venting and whatnot, and I can just put them on hold, and I'm playing Halo. And then I come back in a little while, they're still talking, and maybe say Yeah, and then I'm putting them back on hold and playing Halo."

(They sing in Spanish, songs I don't know. They literally just burst into song.)

The other night I had quite possibly the most absurd conversation of this whole trip so far, and that is saying something. With Ramon, who is this big lively Mexican guy, shaved head but still looks as sensitive and brilliant as he actually is, this very mobile face, really he is scary smart. I'm getting such an education, talking politics with him. Just the coolest kid.

"So this girl, she really liked me and she invited me back to her place last night."

"Ah."

"And I had had a lot to drink and I had to admit, I said, I can't guarantee I'm gonna be a stallion."

"Oh, for pete's sake, how old are you?"

"25."

"Please! 25 is guaranteed stallion."

"Haha guaranteed stallion. But maybe, someday ... "

"Oh my god."

"What?"

"I cannot believe I just said that."

A Republican.

2008-10-21T08:19:00.001-07:00

Micro-apartments in North Las Vegas, very cinderblocky place built like one of those motels on Hollywood Boulevard with the concrete stairs, low ceilings, kind of discouragingly low on yin. But there are some really cool people in there, including a guy named Amy (is this a nickname for Amos, I suddenly realize) super toothless, rail-thin, wonderfully keen gaze, smart as a whip and desperate to lecture me about how he doesn't understand how working people could ever vote Republican, and how long do we have to wait for anything to trickle down, this with an awesomely Dickensian sneer, in all a very articulate, passionate intense speech plumb-full of Mudcat Saunders type charm. I was riveted and enjoyed myself hugely. Indeed I'm thinking man, we could deploy this fireball into every bar in North Las Vegas and just mow the whole place down.

Downstairs there is some guy Robert, a registered Republican, maybe 70, a bald, white, hellaciously angry looking guy.

"Yir sillin a laaaaaaaah."

"Okay, thank you, goodbye."

And I do mean that in every possible way. Your day is over, old man.

This woman who cracked the window open so she could talk with me.

2008-10-21T08:04:00.000-07:00

Maybe about 65, a piercing, suspicious grey gaze, once attractive I think but much faded now, lank grey hair, bobbed. Teeny little house full of deafeningly barking dogs. If she opened the door the herd of them would simply flatten us both. How does she walk them? Egress clearly problematic.

So she cracks open the window near the door and stares me down, not entirely unkindly.

"Obama, eh?"

"Yes, hello, I'm Maria and I'm a volunteer for Senator Obama."

"You know he's gonna put all the blacks in charge."

"?! ... ... Really?"

"Oh yeah, they're gonna take over."

"Golly! But, I mean, how, exactly? I'm just curious ... what do you think he would do?"

"Well we've got a black mayor in North Las Vegas, a black woman."

"Ah, ah, is she a good mayor?" [subtitles: wtf?]

"She's all right ... but she treats the white people like shit."

"You're kidding, how?"

"She took a $60,000 vacation."

"Well ... ah. I'm supporting Senator Obama because he's very well qualified, you know, as a senator in Illinois he had just the kind of legislative successes that we need in the White House right now. Finding common ground between people you wouldn't think even had any, and then concentrating on getting real things done."

"Oh well, I'm gonna vote fer im."

Crying out for rebuttal

2008-10-21T07:59:00.000-07:00

The Idiots Who Rule America by Pulitzer prizewinner Chris Hedges is a splendid but fatally flawed analysis of current economic conditions. This is the discussion we need to be having.

Mr. Hedges, we have Robert Frank, Robert Reich. And many, many other principled and educated people who are ready and willing to apply new thinking to these problems. These people exist. Even our politicians are not totally stupid. Some of them brought legislation to protect against predatory lending, against the predatory practices of credit card issuers. Attempts were made to address the problems with capitalization in the investments banks, but Christopher Cox (quite possibly the prize fool in this whole debacle) paid no heed. The voice of Bernie Sanders was lost in the cacophony of flailing Republicans last month.

So okay, in recent years they have all been brought down by the neocons and by their weak Democratic enablers. But don't say we have no leadership; we do. It only needs to rise to the top.

Mr. Hayes

2008-10-20T11:34:00.000-07:00

lives in one of the most wonderful nabes I have ever been in, you feel so safe and loved there, it's like everyone is looking out for each other but not in each other's business. There are a ton of teeny little churches all over.

So, Mr. Hayes is this kind of younger, way better-looking Morgan Freemanish guy sitting in his front yard with two other guys, one of them a slightly Willie Nelsonish dude and the other one is a beautifully dressed black guy who reminds me of the doctor on the tv show House. I said I'm looking for Lakeesha and Mr. Hayes goes, she's changing her mind and thinking of voting for McCain. !!! And I compose my face and say Okay, I have to mark that down, is all. And then he cracks up and goes no, no I'm jes messin witcheh.

So then I can launch into my pitch, which is to pass out the incredible Early Voting pamphlet of awesomeness that tells you all the zillion places you can go and vote exactly, and all the exact hours for each. And this well-dressed guy goes my god, look at this this is great! And I'm all I KNOW! He goes it should be put up on the bulletin board at Wal-Mart and I'm all DO it! He goes I can't go to Wal-Mart because I'm a union man. And I go you're not BUYING anything, go there! That is a great idea!

Then Mr. Hayes said this terrific thing, which was, "I ain't never understood about not going to Wal-Mart if you in de union, if you a truck driver you cain' shop at Wal-Mart but you can deliver goods to Wal-Mart. Ain't nobody understandin' how these things is all connected."

I wish we lived in a world where this guy could be the talking head who was speaking opposite Robert Reich, etc. But on my way I yelled back, "Go to Wal-Mart! Okay! Thank you!"

[Peggy said later, if you put that thing up on the Wal-Mart bulletin board it would last maybe ten minutes.]

There was also this older white guy who was washing his car, and he had a little weeping granddaughter who was complaining that 'Eric is mean and he hit my back,' and she was magically placated with an Obama sticker.

And there was this other older guy with the even more magical Barry White kind of voice, so loving and kind, and he's all hey baby, they have this way of saying baby that is very intimate and gentle without being at all intrusive or rude, you just feel kindness and warmth all over.

It was such a good canvassing day!

In which I chat with my daughter in Paris from the Decatur Starbucks.

2008-10-20T10:57:00.000-07:00

8:48am Carmen
hey

8:48am Maria
hey mousie

8:48am Carmen
im listening to carla bruni
...hahahaha

8:48am Maria
that is such a cute photo of you and michael bass.

ew!

8:49am Carmen
its so bad haha
i know i love that one

8:49am Maria
i had the most ridiculous night last night

i practically was arrested, if you can believe.

these two policemen stopped me because i didn't SIGNAL

8:49am Carmen
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ohla

8:49am Maria
I go but I'm from california!
That didn't go over too well

I literally had to do the sobriety test thingy!

8:50am Carmen
oh my god hahahahaha

8:50am Maria
Then they decided that I wasn't drunk (!)
Of course since I was out with Mellor and her friend alexandra

do you remember Edison's friend Max?
Well he and Edison came out with us

It was sooo late
I was starving

So dinner = three olives from the Martini we had.

8:53am Carmen
oh bah

8:53am Maria
And the bartender pours about one bottle of gin into each one

$12 each

!

So that was dessert

And the policeman said I smelled like booze (and no wonder)

And I had to come out of the car and endure every possible indignity

I'm all apologizing like mad

and 'follow my finger' and this and that

8:54am Carmen
hahahahahaha

8:54am Maria
By this time there is enough adrenaline in my body to absorb six bottles of gin

and I am Stone Cold Sober

But Mr. Policeman is just deciding that even though I am Not Drunk he is going to give me a ticket or two

8:55am Carmen
how rude!!

8:55am Maria
!!! I am thinking of Oliver and yikes, and all

8:55am Carmen
oh right

is he upset

8:55am Maria
Well, anyway, he thinks I'm too impaired to drive like three blocks

well wait until you hear the punch line, it is astounding

At this point it's like 12:30

And I said please, look can I just walk, I'll leave the car here ...

He's all no you have to WAKE PEGGY UP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT TO COME AND GET YOU OR ELSE YOU'LL HAVE TO GO TO JAIL!!!!!!!!!

I'm REALLY yikes then.

But I didn't want to wake Peggy up, so I'm thinking about going to jail and/or begging some more ...

And all of a suddenly

8:57am Carmen
oh god

8:57am Maria
There are about fifty sirens on the street!

And the policeman basically throws my license back into the car and shrieks, park your car and wait here@!!!!!

Don't walk home!!!!

And I go oh, okay, well bye.

They hop into their car and go tearing off, sirens blazing.

And I'm sitting in the car.

Until ....

one hour later they finally show up.

At 1:30!!!!

8:58am Carmen
jesus what did you do in the meantime

8:58am Maria
And they told me they were going to let me off for being a GOOD CITIZEN and not taking off!

8:59am Carmen
wow!

8:59am Maria
So I didn't even get one ticket or anything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

8:59am Carmen
yay mama

8:59am Maria
They were super nice and I told them look I just drank TWO bottles of water while I was waiting for you guys! And I'm totally sober and TERRIFIED! and the one guy nearly fell over laughing.

That was a good scare for me, I'll tell you.

[It turned out that they had only just found that little boy who had been kidnapped!!!]

9:00am Carmen
hahahaah

sounds like a not very fun night

but it sure as hell makes for a good story!

im so sorry

but thats kind of hilarious

9:09am Maria
I know, luckily it ended in humor rather than catastrophe.

Well it had elements of both.

9:09am Carmen
true

9:09am Maria
I felt very dumb sitting in the parking lot in front of a party supply place in Las Vegas at one in the morning all alone in a rented car.

9:10am Carmen
i cant say i know how you felt exactly

9:10am Maria
Pondering the possibility of jail.

So did Christopher Buckley resign

2008-10-20T10:55:00.000-07:00

from the National Review, or was he kicked out?

Equally gratifying, because even if he can be unutterably wrong-headed, there's no denying the man has got a very arresting prose style.

Christopher Hitchens endorsed Barack Obama on Slate on Monday, calling Palin’s conduct “a national disgrace” and writing: “Given the nasty and lowly task of stirring up the whack-job fringe of the party’s right wing and of recycling patent falsehoods about Obama’s position on Afghanistan, she has drawn upon the only talent that she apparently possesses.”

In which I visit Veterans

2008-10-20T10:44:00.000-07:00

There's a mix of black/retired/Latino in most of North Las Vegas, and traditionally turnout is bad but let me tell you, not this time. Furthermore, whoever said that Latinos won't vote for a black guy was surely smoking some powerful intoxicants. We own the Latino vote here, from what I can make out, street after street. Yesterday I went into a (really tidy and pretty) veterans' housing development and 80% of my contacts were very strong for Obama including one registered Republican and a couple of non-partisans, which you can literally choose that option here. I don't imagine that you could have found ten guys in this veterans' development in 2004 who were voting for Kerry.

You go in and there's a security desk, like you're not allowed in without signing in and stuff. Taped to the desk there's a big sign saying, "If you enter the building intoxicated, you will be given a breathalyzer test." Clearly, they run a tight ship; the whole place is squeaky clean, military clean to the last corner. The guy behind the desk is this mulatto guy with the most open, beautiful, serious face, kind of like Colin Powell's. I kind of get the idea that I might not be allowed in, but I make my best pitch, show my list of voters that I'm trying to contact to get their votes in early, I have literature for them, and so on. To my shock, this man is utterly thrilled that I am here, like under-the-surfacely thrilled, and he instantly does half my job for me by marking off one by one the guys who have moved, one has passed, sadly, and then he literally escorts me to each door to talk to these guys. I feel like royalty, like I have an honor guard, this man is so elegant and purposeful, devoting this whole half hour just to me and my little job. The guys who come to the door are so nice, so great. There's just six women in this whole huge complex of several hundred, and one of them is on my list, and tight-lippedly for McCain. But my favorite is this one Dem, though, such a hoot, with all these political cartoons and stuff on his door and out he pops, a quite chubby Vietnam-era vet straight from central casting, long grey hair and that ineffable kind of twinkling 60s anarchy, wearing a very loud BUSH LIES t-shirt. I mean the maximum amount of real estate on this very large t-shirt was devoted to the aforementioned slogan. The effect was eye-popping.

"Twenty more days!" he boomed. "I'm tellin' 'em all on the bus! The Republicans are LIARS!"

"Wow, Mr. Hyder, you must be a really great activist. Love your door by the way."

"I'm a jackass, and everybody LOVES it! I'm a DEMOCRATIC jackass."

"Mr. Hyder, you're a force for good."

Mario; plus, more on Race Relations.

2008-10-20T10:30:00.000-07:00

I haven't really described Mario yet ... the pen quails. He's a beautiful kid, all three of my crew are really lovely and so alive and young, so I'm like kind of a den mother I guess. I'm like a canvassing mom, instead of a soccer mom. Well anyhoo, Mario is 23 or so, with the liveliest disposition, slim, kinetic, articulate. I will write more about David and Ramon in a bit. But here is what I first wrote about Mario, to my old David Foster Wallace posse:

The thing is, it's almost impossible for those of us who follow media to understand those who do not. But my feeling is that you've got all these people who suddenly realize that it actually matters, like for the very first time they've actually realized that it matters whether or not they vote, how they vote; and they don't know how to inform themselves. They don't trust any institutions, including media. They don't read books and have decided that newspapers are not to be trusted, that they're partisan and/or corporate tools. And they're waiting for something to magically relieve them of their uncertainty.

And that something is Mario, my canvassing partner!! lololol. You guys ought to get a load of this kid. He is from South Central and did really good in school and wound up going to Berkeley--and I will bet a million bucks that he goes into politics himself someday ... he's been working 12 hours/day or more, super smart, good lookin' and talked about not just Obama but also was telling kids in the street to stay in school, "think about going to college, dawg, you can go to a job straight out of high school and do all right, some people do, but you really have to shine bright to do that. I grew up in a worse ghetto than this and I'm telling you ... " and all doing those complicated ghetto hand-shaking terrorist fist-bump things that look so elegant and funny. I just love this kid. Our other partner, Tony, was this total wacko white boy smelling very strongly of booze, as in the whole car smells, and he's completely nuts, made a mess of our walk sheets, he is a thoroughly confused specimen but seriously people seem to like him a lot, he's just this kind of giddy drunk guy. Not Mario, though, Mario was THROUGH by about halfway through the afternoon and he goes "I am about to SNAP" and I go "Don't be snappin, now?! That is not the Obama way! No drama, Obama."

"You got me," he said. "Touche."

Today Mario told me he thinks I sound very well-read. I was all, !! Wow, you know one doesn't really think about such stuff, how one *sounds* to people. Though I have noticed that certain people can get all intimidated and annoyed with you and think you are name-checking when you are only trying your best to get your blasted point across.

So Mario and I discussed this. He was saying that one of his best friends from Berkeley is this Jewish guy who talked "like a book," lot of hard words and whatnot, and Mario liked talking with him, but he said this, that at first he thought that the guy was trying to put people down with the fancy vocab. And I'm all hold up now,you are very articulate yourself, and you know that a lot of times you choose a particular expression because it is precisely the one you want, and not because you are trying to impress anybody.

And said that yeah, in time he learned to think differently about his friend. And then one day they were talking about it, and his friend said yeah, well, maybe you were talking to me because you wanted to learn my vocabulary, but I hung out with you so that I could learn how to talk to girls.

Sr. Robles

2008-10-20T10:25:00.000-07:00

Today I have to get a bit earlier of a start because one Arturo Robles of Bonanza Blvd., which is this enormous 4-lane highway, has kindly offered his chain-link fence for displaying a banner. He may live in a broom closet (a four-plex the size of my bloody garage,) but his corner is seriously as enormous and visible and well-trafficked as a straight-up billboard would be. So I told him, okay, I am coming right back here with a banner. So after work I nipped along to the big office and demanded one, and they have to ask some higher ups but there was a very large one in there that I might be able to have today ... !!!!

[UPDATE] I never did get that huge banner, though I tried mightily. It's still up against the wall at the MLK office in North Las Vegas. Apparently it belonged to some state Senator originally, and all the uppity I'm-too-important-to-see-to-this wee staffers on both sides couldn't get me an answer for days on end, so I just went and fetched some (really pretty big) yard signs at the Eastern office and took them chez Robles. So, take that! petty tyranny!

Yay, us

2008-10-20T10:24:00.001-07:00

So the three of us are this incredible team, you know, and they are sending us into these really low-income nabes and we nip around and tell people to vote early and pass out literature, and whatnot. The thing is you *really* need to have serviceable English and Spanish both, because there's loads of black people (including the most astonishing kid who rode past me on a bicycle, you know, he looked but *exactly* like Omar from the Wire--I mean literally I was so thrilled to see him and immediately thought omg they didn't kill Omar after all, yay!--and he shouted out to me, "Obama, represent!" and I thrust my fist into the air and yelled "Yes We Can!" and it was just something), and then Latinos, all kinds, and then really old crotchety white people, and then kind of white-traish, I suppose you would say, which I guess I immediately think that when I see a white person missing teeth.

So what I'm saying is that these really sweet young Latino guys, and me you know, we are just demographically situated in such a way that we have no problem communicating with any of these groups. Plus we all came up poor, or at least poor-ish (Mario, super poor, he literally grew up in South Central) and that helps a great deal w/r/t not being shy to be walkin' in the ghett-to. Though even I actually balked at going into a couple of these total meth lab looking places alone and had to call for backup.

(If you add David and Mario's ages tog., you still need to add another five to arrive at my age! Yikes!!!)

It's just a kaleidoscope, the variety and quality of human contact, the raw hope and energy, the total surprise of visiting these apartments that totally shamed me over the size of my own house, literally a whole apartment of maybe 500 square feet, I'm not kidding, and inside, often and often (not always!) there are these really aware, smart passionate people who just were never given much of a chance, you can see and feel this. The kindness and beauty, so much, mixed in with suffering and broken windows and a mess in the yard. And we could figure out how to reach all that willingness and intelligence, and help it come out. This can TOTALLY be done, I feel. My heart is so full. (So I sound like a Hallmark card! Whatever!)

1-877-OBAMANV

2008-10-20T10:22:00.000-07:00

Maybe I will burn out at some stage but so far, we are on fire here. I have a new canvassing partner, David, who is 20 and from Pomona. It turns out that both David and Mario are Salvadorans, which I learned for the first time is also called "Salvie"!!!!! The stuff I am learning. I really wish I had one of those recording devices from the movie Dreamscape or whatever, well they had the same thing in that wonderful Ralph Fiennes movie that I just adored what was it called? Where you can record every sensation? And then you can play it back on a device, I highly recommend that movie.

Our main job is making sure people know where to vote early. These guys can still register, even! They can vote early at the local Lucky and Albertsons markets! Only on certain days, though, for each place. There are some wonderful, expensive-looking fliers in both Spanish and English that list literally every single place and time for early voting in NLV, but we haven't got enough of them. When we canvassers assemble at Staging Area 3 we are all looking longingly at the few of these sumptuous documents that remain to be doled out in insufficient quantities to each. One doesn't want to be greedy, of course. And yet, one does. Tomorrow I plan to take one of them to Kinko's and duplicate like mad.

There's a number, 1-877-OBAMANV, where you can call to get every kind of voter information. I tried this yesterday in order to get the addresses for late registration and was horrified to find that it's like calling the blasted DWP or something with a thousand menus and eternahold. So I've simply got to get more documents.

My New Job

2008-10-20T10:21:00.000-07:00

The second those guys discovered that I speak reasonably okay Spanish they were agog with amazement and changed my whole gig. Now I am supposed to be precinct walking in Latino nabe every day for SIX hours, I hope I can manage, that is six times more than my usual amount of walking; on the other hand it sure beats idea of sitting on butt for one month. Anyhoo. They need a certain number of these bilingual canvassers straightaway and recruitment efforts are anemic. With all the volunteers crowding into the Culver City HQ at home, how can this be? I don't believe it. But i'm coming to discover this really interesting thing, which is that there is kind of a Chinese wall between Latinos and whites, on which more anon.

None of these kids believes me when I tell them that this is the most amazingly orderly campaign I've seen. I'm like look this is not like your regular job; you are aiming for 60% not 100% or even 90%. If you got 70% it would be a miracle. You have to dial down the expectations.

One of them pokes his head out the door and yells, "Dance Party!" Oh, yikes. Well maybe I would but it might harsh their (faint) buzz if some Mom starts dancing. But I couldn't resist going inside to have a look under the pretext of fetching some water. Stevie Wonder on a little iPod dock. They're all so white, it's absurd, but there's one well-built campaign Amazon with some amazing moves, totally outpacing the field, and all the boys are riveted.

There is widespread perception that Latinos are prejudiced against blacks but in my experience it's rather like America generally; the more educated people, are the less prejudiced they are. It's really that simple. Uneducated people I suppose feel their own lack of achievement and look around for someone to bash, old story, there's an excellent take on the philosophical underpinnings of scapegoating in Ernest Becker's The Denial of Death and Escape from Evil; really interesting reading if you dig sociology and whatnot.

I've never been so happy to speak Spanish in my whole blinkin' life.

So this long-held belief regarding Latino prejudice against blacks will be put to the test tomorrow. Fieldwork!

State Assemblywoman Peggy Pierce

2008-10-20T10:04:00.000-07:00

Is just so cool. She is gorgeous, fast-talkin', totally brilliant, my height (five feet) and absolutely hilarious. I'm staying in her beautiful house and have this lovely spacious room and bathroom all to myself, which is all very guiltmaking. It's like I'm having this political holiday. Peggy is the PERFECT person to watch TV news with, can I say. We're like the middle-aged chick version of Mystery Science Theatre. Each of us has a glass of red wine. Our two silhouetted heads before the softly glowing talking heads of MSNBC.

"I love Rachel Maddow, don't you?"

"Oh yeah. I think Pat Buchanan has a crush on her, too."

"He does like her, doesn't he."

(btw, Nevada, re-elect Peggy Pierce!)

J'arrive, ca. October 5th

2008-10-20T10:01:00.000-07:00

Have arrived in LV with that Black Kids song cranked up quite high. Also The Raspberries Go All the Way, which I have adopted as my personal theme song for the Obama campaign: Please, baby, go all the way. I have expunged all the feeble sexual connotations from this great pop music exhortation, and am applying it equally to myself, my colleagues, my candidate, everyone.

It's a pleasantly poky little office park, fake adobe, three little offices stuffed with kids. I find the guy I'm supposed to see, one Andy, shaved head, self-consciously blue-collar looks, almost New Jersey-ish. He is under a lot of pressure and showing some cracks. Or maybe, he is far from giggly at the best of times. I have received conflicting instructions about whom to report to and have been told on the q.t. that a little turf war has broken out for my services. The usual human mess is immediately evident in this organization, petty jealousies, self-importance, dueling egos. Along with the same scarcely-dare-to-believe-it hope and energy. This must be the first campaign any of them has worked on, since they were like five years old in the last elections. Some of them are getting really disgruntled and even angry, and I have such an urge to say look, now, this stuff doesn't matter, eyes on the prize, but I've only just arrived so I don't. Plus I'm like wow, this is all so organized. I only know the Gore, Kerry and Villaraigosa campaigns (and from the lowliest positions in them all) but it seems to me that chaos is endemic to these things.

Very few in this main Las Vegas office, staffed pretty much exclusively by 20somethings with rich parents (fancy laptops in every corner) seemed to feel like they had anything in common with the people they're supposed to be engaging, I would say. They're tentative, uncomfortable-seeming. It might just be the culture of this office, but I often get this feeling that we've lost the natural facility to connect person-to-person, compared with even 20 years ago. Really it's because we went through a period where "liberal" was a slur. Now "conservative" will suffer an even worse spin through the pejorativity machine.

Finally Andy tells me I'll be doing 'logistics coordination' whatever that is, and I start learning the ropes of this from Lissa, a rather lovely dark-haired girl with kind of a fawnlike air. She gives me a set of sheets to review. It's just basic GOTV, really. Clark County is pretty safely blue, but North Las Vegas has got a huge minority population and is far less certain. Therefore our efforts will be concentrated in this area. There is enough money to hire paid canvassers and we are supposed to find a certain number of these, preferably bilingual, as quickly as possible. I'm thrilled to learn that Craigslist is in the picture. They're putting an ad up on the Las Vegas Craigslist trying to scare up more Spanish-speaking guys, and lord it is written to 'tu' rather than 'Ud.' so I'm like all yeeks no, no. There are a few typos. And so kind of to while away the time while these guys figure out more exactly where to put me, I correct this advertisement, which will turn out to be my best decision of the whole trip.

Halftime

2008-10-20T09:11:00.000-07:00

There's almost exactly two weeks left until the election. Electoral-vote today gives Obama 363!! Pinch me, I can hardly stand it.

I wrote quite a bit over the last few weeks, so I'll put all that up in the first few posts, and then I'll be trying to update daily.

Between my near-arrest (the hair-raising details of which appear below) and the adrenaline and strain of the election, I'm as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. But much happier than such a cat, I hasten to add. It's hard to describe. Let's say I'm provisionally ecstatic.