The Po Show

This is a True Story

This SOUNDS like an urban legend, but it's actually a true story:

Some volunteers were canvassing a rural area, in the Appalacians, and they knocked on the door of a house. A woman answered and they asked her who she was voting for. She hesitated and said she didn't think they had made up their minds yet, so she walked back into the house to ask her husband.

The canvassers heard a male voice call out, "We're voting for the nigger!"

The woman returned to the door with a big smile on her face, seemingly relieved to be able to answer their question, and repeated, "We're voting for the nigger!"

Wow. Purely aside from the shock of hearing how casually some people use the N word around complete strangers, the take-away message from this story appears to be: if THESE people are voting for Obama, this one must be in the bag.

I have spent the last couple of years, during all the inundation of election coverage (I swear there was an article on the front page of the NYT *every single day* regarding the race, when the election was still over two years away!), trying very hard not to get my hopes up. I was literally devastated in 2004 (I was bitterly disappointed in 2000, but I was so blown away in 2004 by Bush's re-election that I swear I still have not recovered). So I have not wanted to get too elated by all the signs of a Democratic victory. But maybe it's time to start icing that champagne.

On a side note, advance word on the Obama campaign's disclosure for contributions received during the month of September indicate that the figure is in excess of ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILLION dollars! In one month! I think I'm not the only one who has been bitterly disappointed by the last two elections, and wants to help put this one FIRMLY in the bag. But this kind of makes me want to cry, because I can't help but wonder what would have happened in 2000 if the Democratic Party had been better organized for the Gore campaign, and had gotten these kind of huge contributions. All the evil and stupidity that might have been averted. Yes, I know that Florida was a crime and a travesty, but it never should have gotten to the point where the race was so close that that mattered.

Well, we're here now, and things are looking pretty damn good, and that's the truth.