Living in a Blue State

Now that Indiana is a blue state, have I earned the right to roll my eyes in condescension at residents of red states?

Am I now allowed to look down on the people of, say, Missouri?

I didn’t think so.

Holy Shit!!!

Yes. We. Did.

Indiana was just called for Obama by NBC.

What we thought was impossible, just happened. Indiana is now a blue state.

We did it!

I’m feeling too much of a high to think rationally, but we made the impossible happen in Indiana.

Hope wins!

Obama and McCain in Indiana: Still too Close to Call

Hard to believe:

A new poll shows the race between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain remains tight in Indiana about a week before the Nov. 4 election.

The South Bend Tribune/WSBT-TV poll released Tuesday found Obama supported by 48 percent of likely voters and McCain supported by 47 percent. The poll, taken Thursday through Saturday, has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

In May, if you asked me who was going to win Indiana, Obama or McCain, my automatic response would be McCain. A Democrat, much less an African-American Democrat winning Indiana? It seemed impossible.

But beyond looking at the polls that look favorable to Obama in this state’s race, I take a look at what I see in the rural city where I work.

City is probably the wrong word. It’s a town of about 20,000 people or fewer. It’s rural and has been solidly GOP in the past. But I drive around and Obama bumper stickers seem to outnumber McCain stickers 5-1 while it’s probably even in the yard sign war. People I talk to seem to be solidly pro-Obama.

This evidence is all anecdotal, and I think in the end, McCain will win the state. But things are looking damn good in a state that Kerry lost by 20 points.

I’ll be taking election day off to get people to the polls. I hope you consider doing the same.

We can do this!

35,000 in Indianapolis

What a great morning:

An estimated 35,000 people cheered Sen. Barack Obama on the American Legion mall in Indianapolis today, as he urged them not to wait until Election Day to cast their votes.

“I want everyone who is able and willing to go vote today. If not today, tomorrow,” Obama said.

He expressed optimism that on Nov. 4, Election Day, Democrats would prevail, but he also cautioned that the next 12 days will be tough.

“Change never comes without a fight,” he said.

Some of my pics:

I’m also voting for “that one!”

Evan Bayh actually gave a good speech. For him. He had a little passion and didn’t make me want to hurt myself to make him stop.

I was gald to see that sign. Our thoughts are with Obama and his family.

If Obama wins, one thing we are certain to see more of is Obama kitsch. Most of the merchandise was fun, in a tacky kind of way.

But prepare yourself for a landslide of kitschy Obama items like silly hats, bad t-shirts, and bobble-head Obama dolls.

He still gives one hell of a speech. Hoosiers were fired up and ready to go before the rally today, as many of us think that there is a decent shot that Indiana will vote for Obama.

But the speech fired us up even more.

Let’s go do this!

Overall, beautiful day, beautiful crowd, great speech.

Photo of the Day

It’s fall near my Indiana home.

Thanks to Keith Thompson for the pic.

Might Obama Win Indiana? It’s Possible

Wow.

Indianapolis – It’s been a long time since Indiana was at play during a presidential election but the latest Indianapolis Star-WTHR poll is showing just that.

The presidential race numbers indicate a real race shaping up in Indiana: 44 percent of likely voters polled support Republican John McCain, 47 percent support Barack Obama with 6 percent not sure.

Obama’s support comes mainly in metro areas from women, the young and minorities.

I doubt Obama will win Indiana. No Democratic presidential has won the state since Johnson beat Goldwater in 1964. This Indy Star/WTHR poll has Obama ahead by three points in the state.

Obama up by three.

In the words of Indiana’s GOP chair:

“I don’t know that it is. In the end it’s competency. It’s policy,” said Murray Clark, State GOP chairman.

Indeed. Murray, in the end it certainly is about competency and policy. Barack Obama has the right policies to help Hoosier families and has demonstrated his competency through the way he has run his campaign.

I need to get to work to help Obama carry Indiana.

iSi, se puede!

50 States

From NY Times’ Guest Columnist Timothy Egan:

The furor over this week’s New Yorker cover — the satirical cartoon of Barack and Michelle Obama in Muslim and black-militant poses — boils down to this: We get it, but what will those folks in fly-over country think?

The answer is that they get it as well. Irony, it turns out, does cross the Hudson River. And if they don’t get it, if they see the cover as affirmation of the sludge they’ve heard on talk radio or certain cable outlets, they’re never going to vote for Barack Hussein Obama anyway.

People forget that part of the inspiration for the magazine cover is this year’s best media-division political laugher: the suggestion by Fox News that a triumphant knuckle bump between the Obamas, a gesture familiar to any third grader in Little League, could actually be “a terrorist fist jab.”

People in the middle of this country aren’t quite as stupid as some people might suggest.

What was really funny about Barack and Michelle’s fist bump was that the rubes on Fox News suggested that it was some kind of secret-African-American-thing that people in Indiana, Nebraska, or Montana might fear. They are THAT out of touch.

More:

The second factor is the Democratic Party’s decision to field operations in all 50 states, a plan that was scorned when Howard Dean, the party chairman, first proposed it in 2006. Following that lead, Obama has fully staffed offices in five cities in Montana. He’s visited the state three times, and he’s on the air with television ads. Senator John McCain has no paid staff and has yet to set foot here.

“It’s not a head fake,” said Caleb Weaver, a spokesman for Obama in Montana. “We think we can win it.”

Ah, the 50 state strategy. Dean was mocked for proposing the very simple idea that to get people’s votes, you need to ask for them. I’m glad that Obama understands that idea and is pursuing it.

Obama is in the process of opening 20 offices in Indiana. And while I think his chances of winning the state are not great, it’s very possible that he might win Indiana. Lots of people are fed up with GOP policies, so it makes sense to go after those voters by asking for their votes through ads and outreach.

The biggest misperception of people in Montana, he said, is that everyone is a rube just off the hay truck. That’s not to say there aren’t militia wackos hiding in the hills, trading toxic nonsense about Obama’s secret Muslim past.

But for every nut, there’s a New Yorker reader — and then some.

That’s last sentence is so true in Montana, Indiana, Alabama, and all the formerly red states.

If Obama is able to pick up just one red state while holding on to the Kerry states, Obama will be our next president.

So why not ask for votes in all 50?

Turning Indiana Blue

From Porter Shreve in the Times:

SIX and a half weeks have passed since Lake County turned in its votes and Tim Russert proclaimed: “We now know who the Democratic nominee will be.” Pundits have studied the exit polls trying to decipher why Senator Hillary Clinton won the primary here by a mere 2 percent. Some questions can’t be answered: What were the roles of race and gender? Did Rush Limbaugh’s “Operation Chaos” swing the primary?

Two-thirds of Indiana voters said the biggest issue was the economy. In this state, where American flags fly on every block and the most popular politicians have made their reputations in foreign policy and national security, it’s surprising that only 20 percent of voters called Iraq their top concern. But more than 3,100 Hoosiers lost their jobs in April. A retired railroad worker I talked to from Southern Indiana said he used to be a Republican and a member of the National Rifle Association, but after eight years of George W. Bush he could no longer afford a hunting rifle. He backed Mr. Obama.

Snip

The dairy farmer who worried about his courthouse roof might be right that the state isn’t likely to go blue for the first time in 44 years, but even so, Mr. Obama’s willingness to commit some of his war chest to operations here would help candidates from the top to the bottom of the Democratic ticket. Perhaps that 50-state idea isn’t a gimmick, after all.

Chances are that Indiana will go to McCain this year. And that’s fine.

I like that Obama is spending here because his campaign seems to think that even if they can’t win Indiana, they can force McCain to spend money here that would normally be spent in real swing states like Ohio and Florida.

From the Inbox

Holy shit.

Good Morning…or at least I am trying to believe it is. J and I lost our house and both of our cars yesterday to flood waters in Columbus. We are safe, as well as our animals. We are currently staying at J’s mom’s in Indianapolis (We were lucky to have gotten out…Columbus is now an island). I’m not sure for how long we’ll be at N’s or what our next step is, but J has made the necessary calls. We’ll know the true damage when we get to go back…when we left the area the water was at least 4 feet high and hadn’t crested yet. If you are the praying sort, send one up for us. If you need us you can reach us on our cell phones.

Nightmare. Tragic. Horrific. WTF?

I just saw on the evening news that a friend with whom I’ve worked for 7 years was stabbed in her home this weekend. I’m more than a little bit stunned.

Apparently, an acquaintance of hers from the homeless day shelter where we work found her in her home, knocked on the door and asked for a sandwich. She invited him in and prepared him a sandwich. He asked for a knife to cut the snack and then used the knife to demand money.

Soon after, he started stabbing her because she only had $100 to give him. He stopped stabbing her and left her for dead when she was on the floor playing possum. He her must have heard her the blood gargling in her throat, so he went back to stab her some more.

Fortunately, she seems to have survived and is now in critical condition.

He turned himself in today and is in custody. It’s amazing how crack (my guess) can play such a role in causing this kind of shit.

I break into chills and tears when I imagine the fear, horror and pain she must have felt during those moments. I worry that while the physical pain will heal, the psychological trauma may last a lifetime. I’m enraged that a fucking dick head like that was able to inflict that kind of pain on someone who was trying to help him simply because he wanted some fucking crack.

Motherfucker.

She (for some reason, I feel more comfortable not using her name) is one of the sweetest people I have ever known. She is always willing to go well out of her way to do what she can for our homeless clients. She hasn’t developed the cynicism that most of us working in the field have — it just simply isn’t part of her nature. Her smile and the daily morning chat we have always brightened my day, and I know her warm personality has always been a comfort to people trying to end their homelessness.

Please send some good thoughts her way.