Election Day 2008: Watching History Unfold

I probably should have put this post up yesterday-- election day-- but after the election of Barack Obama, I was too busying partying with Democrats across the country and progressives around the world. As Ronald Reagan would say, it's a new day in America!

I took yesterday off of work to volunteer to help the Pima County Democratic Party Get Out the Vote Effort. I have never seen so many people at the headquarters. There must have been 60-100 people making phone calls asking people around Southern Arizona if they had voted and/or turned in their mail-in ballots.
There were so many volunteers that some of us were outside under a tent making phone calls. Gabrielle Giffords, our Congressional delegate, and some state legislators stopped by to cheer us on. Here I am-- near my outdoor calling post-- with Gabrielle. After 4 hours of phone calls and some free food, I drove around looking for long voting lines to photograph but couldn't find any. I went home for a few hours, and later in the day I joined my fellow Drinking Liberally peeps (below) at Gentle Ben's for an election watch party. Drinking Liberally is a national organization of progressive political nerds who get together weekly to kibitz about politics and progressive issues. As the excitement mounted, we all headed over to the big Democratic Party Party at the Marriott nearby. The celebration at the the Marriott was amazing. The ballroom and most of the lobby were packed with noisy, excited Democrats of all shapes, sizes, colors, and ages. Two big screens of election results and music by the Wayback Machine entertained the crowd. As we watched Washington, Oregon, and California turn blue, there was a roar from the crowd, and the election was declared for Obama. Men and women alike began cheering, screaming, hugging, dancing, crying, and offering high-5s to each other. It was exhilarating. I think the pictures tell the story.

Put It Back on the Table, Nancy!

Last week's Drinking Liberally get-together gave birth to a brilliant grassroots lobbying effort. Local DL regular Marlene Phillips gave an impassioned speech about impeachment of President George Bush. She and others urged the group to write letters to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi encouraging her to put impeachment "back on the table". You'll remember that soon after she became Speaker of the House she told George and the nation that impeachment was "off the table".

Letters are a great idea-- if you can get enough people to write custom letters. But Ken, another DL regular, offered a different suggestion. Instead of (or in addition to) letters, he suggested sending Nancy napkins with the handwritten message, "Put it back on the table" Or "Put impeachment back on the table." I love the napkin idea. Here's a link to Blog for Arizona where Marlene outlined the campaign a few days ago. At multiple political gatherings this week Tucson liberals were buzzing about the "Put It Back on the Table" idea. Let's do it!