Canvassed for Obama today.

I canvassed for Obama today in northwest Indiana, and got mostly black neighborhoods to canvass.

Walking into the campaign headquarters, we were all greeted by all these other volunteers already there, a lot of them good-looking middle-aged black women. One asked me and a couple people I went with where we were from, and right after I was like, "...but I'm originally from Michigan," she was like, "Where, I love Michigan!", and then when I said the northern lower peninsula, she was like, "I love the vineyards there, I've taken a lot of vacations there. But, then again, I'm a slush."

The campaign was very organized - packets divided into odd/even sides of the street so teams could go out and quickly go door-to-door, and when early voting information changed (a county courthouse that was an early voting site had electricity problems in the morning from severe storms the previous night), the office managers made sure that the extended voting hours got distributed immediately to canvassers.

The campaign also had a lot of donated food, and a black guy grilling up burgers and chicken for everyone, who was 2/3 black. It was almost like a big black family barbecue.

In terms of canvassing, in one lower income mixed black-white neighborhood where almost no one was home, the girl from my apartment building I was canvassing with got this fifty-some year old white guy in dirty jeans and a dirty black t-shirt and a graying pony tail pulled back under a black baseball cap. Huge amounts of pot smoke just rolled out the door when it was opened, and, as it turned out, the guy was an Obama supporter, though he wouldn't early vote that day since he was in no shape to drive.

At another house in another neighborhood, that one a little more well-off and a little more black, the girl from my apartment building I was canvassing came up to one door at the same time as three young black guys, so she asked them and the guy who opened the door about Obama, and the guy at the door and one of the three young black guys who came up to the door with her were Obama supporters and said they had already voted, though two of the three young black guys who came up to the door with her said they didn't vote. Anyhow, as soon as she started going down the walk, she said the three young black guys started hitting the other guy and were like, "Where's the fucking pot, you motherfucker!?!!??!"

Walking between streets along a main road, too, I passed a strip of businesses that included a black barber shop that was filled with guys, so I popped in to see if they all knew about early voting. They hadn't, and one guy who was getting his haircut gave me a power-fist farewell on my way out.

In terms of general canvassing, I felt weird just assuming black people were all for Obama, so I after I asked if people had given any though to who they might be voting for in the primaries - I don't ask them straightaway who they support, since that's very definitive and doesn't provide any opportunity for conversation -- I would be like, "So, who are you leaning towards now?", and most black people would be like, "Obama!" or something like that. One older black woman, though, was for Clinton, so I'm glad I said everything like I did for every voter I came across, so I didn't come across to her like some stereotyping dick who assumes every black person votes Obama.

Later, back at the canvassing office, three older black women were sitting at a table and I overheard them talking about how they didn't know who Hilary was until this campaign got going. "And Bill showed his colors too," one said, and to that the second was like, "Hello," and the third just nodded and was like, "mmm-hmmmm."