let me say from the outset that things are going mostly smoothly here in indiana.  so the problems that i'll discuss stand out as exceptions.  they are memorable because they are so rare.  but who's interested in good news?

i'm doing election protection in indiana.  in our minority precincts, precincts where we expected some hassles for low-income voters because of the severe id restrictions, we have stationed non-credentialed "poll watchers" outside those precincts to act as voter contact for those with problems and the obama campaign.  i have more than a dozen locations (some with multiple precincts) that i'm overseeing -- and things are tremendously slow.  sure, we have had some voters who have had issues, but all the ones who have come to the obama 'watchers' have been resolved quickly and without issue.  iow, everyone has gotten to vote.

per usual, the most common problem is wrong polling location.  in my area, we've had two voters who swore that they were registered only to discover that they aren't.  one of those intended to vote for barack; the other declined to state a preference (but used our "services" anyway).

who said illinois' democrats can't get along?  you couldn't tell from today's democratic party of illinois' delegate selection.  things went swimmingly, as it were.  speaker madigan ran a tight ship and not a single angry word was said.

who'da thunk it?

this was, after all, springfield, the site of ongoing hand-to-hand political combat between the speaker (and chair of the democratic party of illinois) and the governor and the selection of delegates in one of the tightest presidential (primary) races in history.  since every delegate counts, it wasn't a stretch to expect hand-to-hand combat here, as well.  i was especially interested to see how the standing committee members would be divided, given the increasing importance of the credentials and rules committees.  yet not a single angry word...

friday night was spectacular.  the largest crowd ever for a presidential candidate this cycle.  the enthusiasm and motivation unmatched by any other campaign.  but the philadelphia speech was just the beginning of my night.

we had another barack event to set up -- his whistle stop in wynnewood, pa.

the r-5 back to wynnewood was packed almost entirely of people returning from the barack speech.  so there was a lot of enthusiasm and buzz in the air.  when the train stopped to let people off, it took minutes (seemed like forever) before the train moved again.  when we finally got back to wynnewood, the office -- and parking lot -- was packed.  a huge meeting in preparation for saturday's visit was going on.  the kids were supposed to be at this meeting -- i don't see how, since it started 20 minutes after the train was supposed to leave philadelphia -- but we really only arrived at it's tail end.

in philadelphia, barack obama declared independence from the politics of the past and challenged his supporters to work towards building a brighter future for the country born from this place.  tens of thousands -- estimates ranged from 35,000 to many times more -- waited and celebrated barack's platform of renewal for the country and reform for the democratic party.  but barack's speech in philadelphia didn't even end the day.  in fact, friday turned into saturday, as we prepared for barack's stop in wynnewood.

thursday night, actually late into the night, the high school kids from lower merion came in to make signs for barack's saturday train stop in wynnewood and phone voters with the news.  with their usual enthusiasm and efficiency, they dispatched both tasks.  isabel drew out many signs, and they were painted in bright red and blue by a handful of teens (at least).  this is a bright, dedicated group of high school seniors and juniors (with at least one sophomore) who really have a passion for electing barack obama president.

after tuesday's craziness around the michelle obama event, wednesday had to be more calm.  if nothing more, many of us were exhausted.  i know i was.

on wednesday, while the city was preparing for the debate, we began our preparations for this weekend.  i don't know how widely my view is shared, but i'm a little worried about our efforts this weekend since so many of our volunteers -- and i mean an overwhelming majority -- will be off for passover this weekend.  while we have taken great steps towards insuring that we don't knock on people's doors who are observing passover, we still have thousands and thousands of supporters that we have to knock out.  will we have enough volunteers?

but that's not all.

in what was a new speech (to me), michelle obama talked to almost two thousand people on the mainline outside of philadelphia mocking hillary clinton's tepid criticism that a black man who lives on the southside of chicago was "out of touch."  it was the culmination of the efforts to reach out and mobilize thousands of pennsylvania voters, and our work to make the event happen in the mainline office, in the hope that pennsylvanians will vote their dreams and not their fears.

before the speech occurred, the day was filled with excitement and a little confusion, hope and a little anxiety.

we are met this morning with news that we have further closed the gap between barack and hillary, with the latest series of polls showing barack polling within the margin of error of the recent polls [pdf].  for a week out, the size of the undecided vote is the real harbinger -- and explains hillary's attempts to swiftboat barack.  perhaps more interesting is the sudden interest in the pennsylvania democratic party's intervention in the primary.  "Has [Democratic Party Chair TJ] Rooney crossed ethical line by backing Clinton?" asks one lehigh valley paper (which is supposed to be a hillary stronghold).  i guess hillary is now doing to the pennsylvania democratic party what she and her husband previously did to the florida democratic party -- kill it with "kindness."  it's the killing it, though, that should concern us.

what a day monday was!  it started at 8am -- when i got to the office, we had a handful of people there, wanting to know where the line started for tickets for michelle obama (even though we wouldn't give them out until 9.  i later brought a table out, if only to establish some order for the ladies who would be in charge of distributing the tickets.

my obsession yesterday was making sure that all the data got entered.  given that we had lots of canvassers, knocked on lots of doors, and we had a fairly good response rate, we had an incredibly large amount of data from over the weekend.  fortunately, we have a terrific, terrific team of volunteers who are entering our data from all our voter contact efforts.  on saturday, we had the data team come down to pick up walk sheets at least three times (that i'm aware of), and at least twice on sunday, just to be sure that all the data collected got into the database.  yet we still are collecting new data, and i was really focused on making sure it was in the database before it got closed to cut our gotv universe.

the michelle event offered additional opportunities to collect new data.  the wonderful thing about barack's campaign is that they spend so much attention to detail, which makes new data capture possible.  in my mind, the whole purpose of these events is to identify, motivate and mobilize new supporters, new volunteers and new "strategic corporals."  i'd bet the communications department has an entirely different purpose, but -- thankfully -- they are not mutually exclusive.

saturday was the day.  two busloads, and at least four carloads, of "hillary's neighbors" from chappaqua, ny and surrounding areas in westchester came to our little neck of the philly suburbs to canvass for barack.  it was a sight to see, about 100 new yorkers -- most of whom road from westchester to philly on school buses! -- came here to talk to pennsylvania voters about why they want this race over.  for them, it's time to focus on mccain.  it's time for hillary to be a senator again.

on a day that started off a little threatening -- we actually saw lightening at the beginning of our training for our chappaqua visitors and we got a little rain -- it turned out rather beautiful.  we walked our entire universe in upper and lower merion (except for the orthodox jewish neighborhoods), knocking on thousands and thousands of doors, finding hundreds of supporters (and a few pennslyvanians still supporting hillary).  but what was amazing about our chappaqua visitors was that they could engage people in pennsylvania with a level of unparalleled authenticity.  they know hillary.  they choose barack.

and that's basically the path of most democrats now.  they start off knowing hillary.  but as they get to know barack, that's the choice democrats make.  as one former hillary supporter put it, barack will make a better president.