The Obama Difference: Enthusiasm = Action

Today was a horrible day weather-wise in Raleigh. Cold. Wet. Rainy. Just ugly outside all day long. I spent most of the day at NCSU registering students and going to meetings to get the campus organized for the final push before the deadline on April 11th.

By the time I trudged back to HQ to phonebank, I was tired and didn't really feel like making too many phone calls. But then the door bell rang and these two women came into the office. They were both in their late 30's or early 40's, and they had come in to drop off voter registration forms. I had met them at a previous Obama event, and they were obviously enthusiastic for Obama at the time, but as we all too often see, enthusiasm doesn't necessarily translate into action. For these women, it did. On their first day of registering voters, they dropped off 44 forms between the two of them. That is an incredible effort on a cold, soggy day for two volunteers. To put that in perspective, in the two hours I spent at NCSU today, I registered 9 new voters. Needless to say, all of us in the office were pleased when they walked through the door and their energy was contagious with the rest of the group making calls.

And that's the Obama difference. He doesn't just inspire enthusiasm. He inspires Action. Both of these women lead busy lives. One was a doctor and the other was self-employed with 4 children to take care of. And yet they found enough time on an ugly Monday to go out and register 44 voters. Absurd. Inspirational.

These women aren't alone. All across this community and this nation people who have been involved in the political process and those who haven't are coming together. We've seen the results in state after state with record participation in the Democratic primaries. We saw it in Pennsylvania where they bumped the voter registration rolls by 4%. And we saw it in Texas last Saturday where record crowds came out for the Conventions. We see it writ large and we see it writ small, and it all looks beautiful. That's the Obama difference.

VOLUNTEER today.

Fired up and Ready to Go :-)