Barack Like Me

Josh Castle once again organized a really successful Voter Registration effort. I'm waiting to hear how successful in terms of numbers, but judging by previous efforts (2004, 2008), it will be impressive. As Josh said, every vote is a treasure.

Ben Doko was out waving his sign, along with other recruits, at Westlake, 5th and Pike. They had a table which consistently had people crowded around. Nearby, musicians, coffee stands and merchants strongly supported their candidate.

At one point, a tall guy with a McCain-Palin shirt strode by and said to one of the volunteers, "What a waste of campaign money." In actuality, this Republican could not conceive of the fact that people would volunteer their own time, without being paid, to uphold democracy. It seems one party would rather have ordinary people vote and the other would seek to disenfranchise them.

As a voter registrar and volunteer, I did not encourage people to vote for a particular candidate. The people I registered very openly supported the same candidate I support, and vigorously. They did not need a push from me. In any event, we had plenty of Republicans for Obama and Independents for Obama buttons and they moved right along with the rainbow ones with Space Needles.

Even the bus ride home was a seminar - from the dockworker at the back of the bus who was an ex Navy Seal and favored Obama, to the fifteen year old too young to vote but politically astute, to the Florida transplant who favored Ron Paul and was able to articulate his belief that it was a mistake to ever go off the gold standard. I love this town.