Synthetic Life

Change is in the air.

When I decided that I was going to volunteer for the Obama campaign last month, I really didn't have any idea of where I wanted to go. My only criteria were: I wanted to spend my time in a state that really mattered, and I wanted to go somewhere I had never been before, preferably out West.

I consulted 538's Tipping Point and ROI charts, and at that time in early September, the main battleground states out West were Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada. I've been to NV several times, so my choice was between CO and NM. I've always wanted to visit Denver and see the Rockies, so I went with the Centennial State.

I ended up convincing my friend Orlando to tag along. Since neither of us had budgeted for this spontaneous trip, I dipped into the ThankYou points I've accumulated over the years to pay for the airfare. Fortunately, free housing was arranged for us by the campaign, so our only remaining expense was the car rental.

When we first arrived on Wednesday morning, we picked up our car and headed North to Rocky Mountain National Park. It's generally not a good idea to go rushing from the sea-level elevation of NYC to 11,000 ft. heights in a single day, but we were short on time and I wanted to do some sightseeing before we went to work on the campaign the next day. (I did pay for the rapid elevation change with a dull headache for all of the first day, but it was nothing serious.)

We had originally reserved a compact car for our trip. When we got to the rental place, we managed to upgrade to a Pontiac G6 for a couple of bucks. It had a grand total of about 24 miles on it. So we essentially got to toy around in a brand new car. Pretty sweet.

We managed to get a decent amount done in our limited time at RMNP. We started off with the easy hikes around Bear Lake (where I took the photo above) and Sprague Lake. Unfortunately, it was a little early for foliage as the aspen trees really hadn't turned golden yet except for some scattered stands here and there. It was still beautiful, of course.

We finished up driving along the amazing Trail Ridge Road. We even saw some moose, elk, and goats along the way, which for city slickers, is pretty cool. We went as far as the Forest Canyon viewpoint before we had to turn around due to the setting sun. Our hosts were waiting for us, and we still had to drive a few hours back down to Aurora.

Oh, right. Aurora. We never did end up in Denver. More on the campaign work in the next post.

With the election just three weeks away, almost all the polls are showing Obama building a significant lead over McCain. As a Democrat, I'm conditioned to fear the worst, but as time progresses, the situation is appearing more and more promising that we will have a Barack Obama presidency starting in 2009.

Obama's recent surge in the polls can primarily be attributed to the economic crisis that has befallen our financial system. But I think where McCain may have started to lose this election was when he picked Sarah Palin to be his runningmate.

Palin has widely been credited for solidifying and re-energizing the Republican base. What I don't think has been as discussed is how she has done the same for the Democrats, perhaps even more so. It was her presence on the ticket that finally got me off my ass to say, "I cannot let this happen."

Although I had been talking about volunteering for Obama's campaign for awhile, it wasn't until the evening of September 3rd, 2008, after Palin's convention speech, that I finally put action to words. I made my first donation to Obama's campaign that night. In the proceeding days, I decided to truly get involved by booking a flight out to Colorado to help the campaign's effort to win a critical battleground state (more on that trip later).

While working in Arapahoe County where I was stationed, I came across many individuals who shared similar thoughts. The out-of-state coordinator at the Aurora, CO headquarters told me that he was prompted to action by Palin's selection as VP. I met several undecideds who told me that they were leaning towards Obama primarily because the idea of Palin being so close to the presidency frightened them.

In the end, yes, it's all about the economy, stupid. But I do think Sarah Palin was the start of the end for McCain's presidential hopes. Yes, she did give McCain a bump in the polls to the point where he even led Obama shortly after the Republican convention. But once the shine wore off and voters found out more about her, the boost has turned into a drag, pulling the GOP ticket into the abyss.

With three weeks to go, time is running short for McCain to find any way to climb out of the deep hole he's in. Yet I still worry, in spite of the polls, that somehow they can come up with something to steal the election. That's why I'm still planning on going to Pennsylvania to help the campaign there. Until Obama reaches the magical 270 electoral votes mark on Election Day, I'll still be keeping my fingers crossed.