Voter Drive Pt 1

Back to our irregular scheduled programming, I decided to do some voter registration this year.  Haven't done any yet, but heading off to the glorious task of sitting in front of a supermarket and pestering people shortly.

I tried to do some volunteer work for the 2004 campaign, but it didn't go well.  Phone bank was the primary need, so I showed up and the task was to call a registered Democrat in some adjacent county:  "No sorry, I'm voting for Bush"  Rinse, wash, repeat, and after about 10 calls going down this way, I was emotionally spent.  (waah waah waah, whiny Liberal, I know)

For those brave souls heading off to do door to door canvassing the following Saturday, I picked up a couple dozen donuts and delivered to aide them in their effort.  Having completed my contrition to the effort, I retreated from the office with tucked tail, and washed my hands of the idea.

Kerry lost, and I'm sure the absence of my continued effort had very little to do with his loss, but the act of giving up on the campaign never fully left the recesses of my mind.  Enter 2012, and the re-election effort for Barrack Obama.  I have some guarded optimism about how the campaign seems to be going surprisingly well at this point, so I've fallen into the trap of signing up for what seems to be a winning effort.

I doubt my resolve is strong enough to survive the door slamming of a canvassing effort, and I'm still not fully recovered from the trauma of my phone bank experience, so the relatively neutral ground of registering voters, seems like a very plausible idea.  But wait, how could this play out?  Sure, a lot of people could probably be receptive of our presence.  Some will hopefully need to register, and will follow through *imagines mental smiles at this glorious accomplishment*.  Some will ignore us, and some will politely nod and walk by.

What about the leering smile saying "I'm voting for the other guy.", the "vote the bum out" cat call, or the "I can't wait for the Muslim to lose"?  I'd like to say I'd come up with something witty like "I hope you enjoy the  national Dressage competitions held for President Mittens" or  "Is electing Bush Jr, Jr, Esquire really gonna help things here?".  But verbal fisticuffs don't generally end up more helpful than physical ones, plus, my retort delivery is usually padded with too many "umm, uhh, *pause*" to ever pack much of a punch.