Big Changes

I don't know what happened to me, but I got possessed a few days ago. I had an epiphany that Kerry could win Virginia, and ever since then it has been all I could think about.

I went to my first campaign rally today, organized by a grassroots organization. I'll probably go into the details later, but the main point is that all of the anger and frustration I had towards the Bush administration melted away after handing about bumper stickers for a few minutes and driving around Northern Virginia in a parade of Kerry campaign-decorated cars and having strangers wave, honk back, and give you the thumbs up. It felt good. It felt really good. It was like the flip side of feeling angry all this time. The act of doing something, even something small like attend that rally, made me feel so much better and hopeful than I've felt in months.

The "big changes" are that I'm not sure how much time I'm going to have for the usual blog material. I'm working on getting other people to do small but significant things to scare the shit out of the Republican party by taking Virginia from them.

I'll write more about this later, but here's an email I just sent to ACT that touches on this:

Hello,

I'm involved in a grassroots movement to draw in volunteers from MD and DC to VA, and recruit more volunteers in Virginia to place it in the hands of a Democrat for the first time since 1964.

My belief that Kerry have a decent chance of winning Virginia isn't mere wishful thinking. It's based on the latest Zogby poll that has him down by 3%, an underground grassroots effort that has been going on for the past three months underneath the radar of the media, and several characteristics of presidential incumbent elections that favor the challenger in close races.

Wouldn't it be great to strike fear in the hearts of Republicans who thought one of their states they thought was in the bag was now up for grabs? And that the reason was not a formal effort by the Kerry campaign, or a slew of commercials, or a bombardment of media attention, but because enough citizens rose from their couches to stand and say, "This is not their democracy. This is my democracy. And I'm going to help take it back."

Here is where ACT comes in. You know how you list West Virginia, with its 5 electoral votes, and where the last Zogby poll has Kerry behind 6%, as one of the swing states on your web site? Why not add Virginia, with its 13 electoral votes, and where Kerry has risen from 8% down to 3% in the last few months (also from latest Zogby poll)?

Secondly, could you provide a contact where we could coordinate publicity efforts? I registered a domain name,
www.TheNovemberSurprise.com, and am working feverishly to get it up in the next few days. I'm working with other local grassroots organizations, as well as local and national bloggers to push the media perception from "Republican stronghold" to "swing state."

At the very least, we can give the Bush campaign a scare and force them to devote resources into a state area they felt they could ignore. And if we could get the media to pick up on this last minute surprise, a Republican state shifting towards Kerry could play into a "Surging Kerry" story and have a significant impact on media coverage of the race as a whole.

Thank you for reading. I hope you have the time to respond.