How Dumb Are We?: David Broder, the dean of political reporters, writes in the Washington Post that this is the best election since 1960 won by the Camelot candidate, John F. Kennedy. Few can quibble with that observation. But, the flurry of last-minute campaign pranks remain. What's amazing in this election cycle is the degree opposition forces believe how stupid some voters, especially blacks and Latinos, really are. One flyer in a predominately black Philadelphia neighborhood advised voters, because of anticipated heavy turnout, polls were open for two days. Tuesday for Republicans and Wednesday for Democrats. In New Mexico, a Mexican mother and daughter were told by a Republican lawyer that they had to produce citizenship papers at their polling precinct or they would be arrested and deported. The mother, who speaks only Spanish, was freaked out. She is a naturalized citizen and her daughter was born in this country. Elsewhere, flyers warned voters they could be arrested if they had outstanding parking violations or criminal records. In Pennsylvania, Jewish voters were targeted with advertising by a Republican special interest committee linking Barack Obama to the Holocaust. In Nevada, Latino voters received robocalls in which the callers identified themselves as Obama supporters and they could cast their vote by telephone. "We see this every year," said Jonah Goldman of the advocacy group Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. "It happens around this time when there's too much stuff going on in the campaigns and doesn't get investigated." Goldman blamed the increased dirty campaigning -- from both Democrats and Republican operatives -- on the proliferation of the Internet and emailings. "It's difficult tracking them down," he said. In recent years, only one dirty trickster was arrested and convicted. But, the most effective pranksters were members of the Nixon re-election team and former fraternity brothers at USC calling themselves ... well, let's say sexually active rats. Their phony letter brought Democratic candidate Edmund Muskie to tears and drop out of the race.
The Good Guys: Unpaid and unsung volunteers are the hallmark of democracy and the linchpin of political campaigns no matter which side of the political aisle they work. I'm proud to reveal my niece from Las Vegas and nephew from the San Francisco Bay Area are spending all their time these days getting out the vote in Nevada. Here are excerpts from an email sent Sunday night by my nephew: "Here's the situation on the ground... We go to the staging location each day where we get our assignments.... Apparently there are many such places in Clark County, home of Las Vegas... The staging location is a yellow pentagonal-shaped domed hut literally surrounded by dusty, rocky dirt wastelands. Except for one lonely dirt road, there is nothing around it for at least 100 yards ... This isolated dome has Obama signs all around it and somehow attracts loads of volunteers... People are coming in from all over California and Arizona and the locals to help knock on doors and be observers at polling places on Tuesday... To give you an idea how good the Obama ground game is, people here are certain we have knocked on every single door in Clark County where people were suspected of voting for Obama. Every single door! This is insane when you realize how many doors that is. One reason I believe it's true is because I have literally driven into neighborhoods that don't have houses but have compounds -- tall barbed wire fences with towers in the backyard, loose dogs barking, security gates. ... Supposedly, these are drug dealers or rich eccentric people. And most aren't voting for Obama, or we can't tell, but a few are. "Meth Manufacturers for Obama."... This is the south side of the city. Behind me, all I can see are mountains, no more houses. We're going everywhere -- gated suburban communities and rural neighborhoods that have only two houses on a street. Some of the streets are paved for a block, empty and dirt/rock road, paved again for a block then dirt/rock, etc. ... One Republican I talked to here said they are getting 10 calls a day (from McCain supporters), even though they made it clear they are voting for Obama. They told me the live callers don't have the nerve to say the things the robocalls do (graphic descriptions of dying fetuses because of Obama's pro-choice stance, terrorism, socialism, etc." Meanwhile, my niece, a mother of four pre-school children, is so busy doing volunteer work for the Obama campaign we haven't heard from her in two months.
More Unsung Heroes: Last weekend, Brad Adams of Ocean Beach, Calif., was among thousands of volunteers from California canvassing Nevada neighborhoods for the Obama and McCain campaigns. "I already voted (early)," Geri Mondolino told Adams. He asked whom she voted for. "I couldn't wait to vote for Obama -- get those idiots out of the White House." Early on the next afternoon, Renee Scherlein of Oceanside and Cynthia Corelius of Vista walked up the driveway where Jim Roench was in his garage working on his motorcycle. "Can we count on you Tuesday to vote for John McCain or Sarah Palin?" asked Scherlein. "I think we're in real trouble if we don't," Roench said. "I really got a problem with that whole Obama deal. My only concern about McCain is he's run a terrible campaign." What is remarkable is that all the volunteers mentioned in this blog are donating their efforts for the first time in their lives. "We've never had a ground game machine like the Democratic Party and the Obama campaign has here," said Jon Ralston, a Las Vegas columnist and commentator. Ted Jelen, a political science professor at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, said the Obama campaign is flush with resources. "They've got more volunteers than they can use," Jelen said. "I think the ground game is really going to matter." Nevada historically has been a Republican stronghold but the demographics are changing with a vast influx of new homeowners, blacks and Latinos. Obama's lead in the state polls Sunday was 4 points.
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