Election Day in Philadelphia

by David Safier

A nervous morning in Philly, with poll numbers all over the place. My position is, if Clinton wins by less than 10, that’s a win for Obama, since Clinton is fighting from way behind. If it’s down around 6, she’s in deep trouble. If she’s in the 14-15 point win range, she gets to crow, and everyone will say she has the right to fight another day.

This morning we took a subway and knocked on doors in an area I would normally be wary of walking in. And as with the other days, we encountered nothing even approaching a problem, or even a genuinely negative response.

Since we’ve been here, we’ve knocked on doors in white, black and mixed low-rent neighborhoods. We’ve walked by people lounging on old couches on the sidewalk and hanging around outside corner markets. I would normally consider those danger signs and be sure to cross the street to put a little distance between me and potential trouble, but we got into discussions with people in those and other situations, and they were friendly, or they were combative in the “Oh, yeah, well, I’m for Hillary” kind of way.

This sounds trite, I know, but there is so much mutual misunderstanding and fear, on all sides of the racial and income spectrum, that is simply unwarranted. Some people are genuinely dangerous, but most people aren’t. Granted, I wouldn’t want to spend my Sunday lounging on couches on the sidewalks or hanging out in front of corner markets, but exchanging a few friendly words to indicate to each other that we’re all human beings behind our differences — damn, I wish there were a way we could manage that!

And while I’m digressing, an interesting thing about the Obama campaign is that it allows you to talk about race and other issues of ethnicity, and carry on meaningful discussions without feeling you’re walking on eggshells. Yeah, I’m a Jewish white guy. Yeah, you’re a black male or female. So let’s see in what ways that information is significant and in what ways it’s insignificant. I’ll learn from what you say, and you’ll learn from what I say. And we’ll both develop a slightly more rounded view of the nation we live in.

Anyway, we returned to headquarters for lunch, then took some signs and walked over to Temple University for a little “visibility” — just stand there and let people see Obama supporters, hoping some of them will think, “Oh, I almost forgot, I’d better go vote for Obama (or if I’m undecided, Obama is the last name I saw, so I think I’ll vote for him).”

That was pretty boring. We returned to headquarters planning to walk another precinct, but instead we got roped into more visibility at the corner. This headquarters is at a very busy intersection (Girard and Broad, if you know Philly.) Starting at 3pm, I stood in the median and waved a sign as cars and trucks passed. I got a reasonably number of honks and waves, which I assumed were for my sign, not my good looks.

By 4pm, 15 Obama supporters were standing around the intersection with signs, and it turned into a honk-athon. It was amazing. Constant blasting of horns, like a parade. Honks from private cars and SUVs, cabs, working trucks, Post Office trucks, huge 18 wheelers with their long, deep base horns, street car drivers who opened their windows and rang their bells. It was an exhilarating madhouse. It felt like the whole world was for Obama. On that corner, it was probably 90% true.

Some polling places apparently had record turnouts — more people by 10am than they usually have all day. One woman said she voted at 8am, and 65 people had voted before her. But other polling places reported only slightly better-than-average turnout. All this was before 5:30, when people get home from work, and the polls are open until 8.

So I’m back. I’m done for the night. Over these last few days, I’ve been a very small cog in a very big campaign machine. I’m pretty nervous, but I still have a bit of a buzz from that amazing honk-fest at the intersection.

I’ll tell you what, Mike. If Hillary’s win is in single digits, I’ll absorb the cost of the trip and not turn in my expense receipts like I was planning to. And that includes the tab for Friday night after the Obama rally, when I took the whole CNN crew out for drinks. That Wolf Blitzer, let me tell you, he can really knock ’em back. He kept shouting, “Another round on Dave for the Best News Team in Television!” How could I refuse Wolf, especially after he’s had a few? And by the way, he won’t drink anything unless it has pineapple and a little parasol sticking out of the top.

If Hillary is in double digits, you’re getting all my receipts, plus a bill for hours spent.

It’s 6:30. The polls close at 8. Only time will tell.