January 30

Today I did lots of phoning and followed up the phone calls with emails. These calls were done from home, something that makes me long for the group chemistry generated at the phone bank in New Hampshire. Still there was some degree of group chemistry generated from the phone calls - one Ron Paul supporter calling another Ron Paul supporter and just asking for them to get out there and cover their precincts.

I liked receiving this email today from Florida:

I wanted to share my experience canvassing here in Broward County, South Florida.

As you know, Dr. Paul took 3% of the vote yesterday in Florida. A friend and I signed up on the campaign's website to be a precinct leader, and took it upon ourselves to canvass 13 precincts in Broward County. I'm proud to report that in the precincts that we canvassed, Dr. Paul came in second to John McCain.

That's right; Dr. Paul beat Romney, Giuliani and Huckabee. This happened with almost NO media coverage of Dr. Paul. It's particularly noteworthy, because Broward County is a stronghold of Rudy Giuliani.

We know of other Dr. Paul supporters in Broward County who were waving Dr. Paul's signs, but they did not do that well in their precincts. Sign waving does NOT get votes, BUT PRECINCT WORK DOES GET VOTES!!! Please do the precinct work in your area so that Dr. Paul will win. God Bless You

A few of us will get together Friday night for another push to get precinct leaders organized for Saturday. So far that push is going stupendously. Saturday will be a big day. It will be the last complete day of canvassing before the election. Sunday will be a Sunday, as well as the Super Bowl, Monday will be a work day, and then we have Super Tuesday.

Tomorrow night, I will head down to the newly established Loop office, set up by my friends Tim and Mark and myself. We will likely be listening to the precinct leader conference call there on speaker-phone together as we did last week.

Tonight's debate was a real waste of my time, but I would have to say that I was giddy when the last question was asked. Ron Paul sat patiently after being overlooked and interrupted by Andersen Cooper. Cooper even lied to when him when he promised Ron Paul would have plenty of time later. Like a gentleman, Ron Paul accepted this. Through all of the Romney-McCain bickering the phrase "The house that Reagan built" was used twice by Romney and the self-congratulatory phrase "a foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution" was used twice by McCain. I imagine somewhere in some poll, tying yourself to Reagan was understood to be a good vote getter. The last question of the night was something like "If given the chance, why would Ronald Reagan endorse you?" Well, Ronald Reagan actually endorsed Ron Paul. With all of the meaningless invoking of Reagan's name, I liked that at the end of the night, Paul got one meaningful statement in which he, unlike the toads, could say that Reagan campaigned for him in '78, and in which he could say that Reagan to Ron Paul's face, praised the gold standard. I have not looked into Reagan's presidency enough to either like or dislike the man, but in his own, humble way, Paul beat the toads at their own game tonight.

After three consecutive days inside the house, recruiting precinct captains throughout the state (likely the most effective thing I can be doing for the campaign right now, and something I'm quite good at) I look forward to being around other Ron Paul supporters tomorrow evening. As far as face time goes, it's been a less than social three days in the r3V0Lution, and a little cabin fever is setting in in the -22 F (-30 C) weather. As far as communication goes, I've met some amazing people on the phone - lawyers young and old, businessmen experienced and startups, students from my alma mater, U of Illinois, and professors, Union workers on the job, Union guys laid up from injury, housewives, working women, grandmothers, the infirm, truckers, security guards, activists, and the shy. Lots of neat people. Three folks so far have even had Ron Paul advertisements on their cell phone voice mail messages.

Despite the feeling of being surrounded by great people in the phone bank in Concord, NH, after 4 or 5 hours of that anyone would get antsy. In which case we would look for someone who would want to go distribute copies of the US Constitution for half an hour. Then, we would go out, and try to engage anyone we saw in a discussion on the US Constitution and how they were voting. Almost always, the other person was excited to be part of the talk. Often, a Ron Paul voter would emerge from the discussion. The intensive phone time was helped along when broken up by some face to face time. I should make a point of remembering that for tomorrow when cabin fever sets in. It'll be a good break in the environmental monotony of calling on the phone and wearing my pajamas until 2 pm that doesn't fit the excitement of what is happening over the phone. Tomorrow, I will break more often, and make sure that I do not prematurely tire of the cool stuff that I am doing, just because I'm not varying the scenery enough.

What have I been doing all day? Talking to other Americans. And man am I having a damn good time with it.

Allan
Blue Island, IL