Election Eve

I'm excited (and a little nervous) about tomorrow. We'll be gathering with our debate-watching crew to hear the returns come in.

Four years ago, we did everything we possibly could to get Kerry elected. We knocked on doors, we went to rallies, we posted signs, we donated, we watched the polls to make sure there were no problems and that our voters showed up. (And yes, we won Philly and Pennsylvania, and no, it wasn't enough.) We didn't want to have any regrets, but that was cold comfort for another four years of an administration that was trampling on the Constitution (and let's not even discuss the economy, or the incompetence of the people appointed to agencies like FEMA).

But because we lived in such a Democratic area, it was hard to feel like our efforts made a difference. We knocked on a of lot doors, and let me tell you, I hated it. Hated hated hated it. All those hours, and I think that there might have been just one person it made a difference to. There was a man on our list who had some kind of serious medical condition. We gave him a ride to the polls. If we hadn't shown up at his door, and if we hadn't gone back on election day to get him to the polls, he would not have been able to vote. And he was really happy to be able to vote, so that mattered. But the rest of it? I'm not so sure.

And we're in another hotbed of liberalism now, so this year, we couldn't bring ourselves to go out and knock on those doors again -- I think it would have made just as little difference in Chapel Hill as it did in West Philly. So we donated and we've got our magnet on the car, but we didn't volunteer (though there's always tomorrow!). I regret that just a little bit, because I think we might see something wonderful tomorrow, and it would have been great to be a bigger part of it. I'm far more enthusiastic about Obama than I was about Kerry.

Even if we weren't on the front lines this time, I'm glad that Barack got so many people involved in so many places. And I'm looking forward to that same spirit helping us tackle the problems our country is facing.