After I finished my rounds, I spent the rest of the morning lining up volunteers, and helping my wife and mother-in-law, who were reporting raw voting data from the targeted location, to help us adjust our voter lists.

This afternoon, we continued canvassing, knocking on doors, working frantically to get out the final votes. My wife and mother-in-law drove one voter to the polls, and drove another man to the Summit County Board of Elections — to drop off his 91-year-old mother’s absentee ballot. Two hard earned votes.

The good news: It’s an absolutely glorious fall day. The perfect excuse to vote.

The bad news: I was just at the staging area when they announced our numbers, statewide, are low. You could feel the air go out of the room when we heard that. If the trend holds up, we could be in big trouble in Ohio.

I texted our volunteer coordinator to ask her how bad things are. She wrote back: “They are not terrible. just not where we need them to be. Hopefully more people will vote tonight, but that means long lines. The morning numbers were not good.”

People, it’s call-out-every-Who-in-Whoville time. We’ve been working too hard for too long to go quietly in Ohio. We have less than three and a half hours to get our supporters to the polls.

If you know any Obama supporter who still has not voted in Ohio — anyone — call them, text them, grab them by the scruff of their neck. Make them understand the fierce urgency of now.

My wife and I got to the Job Center in Akron shortly after it opened this morning, and, already, the line was out the door and down the block.

Hundreds and hundreds of people, mostly black, but, also, ethnically diverse. Many, many students and twenty-somethings. But, also, a good number of elderly voters. Plenty of moms with babies in strollers. There was just this overwhelming sense of excitement. You had the idea that people wanted to vote, and, moreover, they wanted to talk about who they were voting for.

The woman in line in front of us was barely standing. She’s a nurse, a white woman, and had just gotten off the night shift at an elder care home. “This is cutting into my sleeping time,” she said.

She all but told us she was voting for Obama. “We need a change,” she said. She told me that if the politicians saw what she sees every day in the health care industry, they would understand that, too.

She was still sitting and waiting a little over an hour after we arrived when they called my name — my ballot was finally ready. She sat slumped over with her head in her hands, about ready to pass out.

When all was said and done, I voted for two Republicans — Greg Bachman, for county engineer, and Drew Alexander, for sheriff — both of whom came highly recommended. I voted to fund the Clean Ohio program. I voted (after a fantastic and still ongoing back and forth on my post, “Ohio State-wide Ballot Initiatives,” below) to cap the interest rate on payday loans. I voted against the casino. I voted for the sewers-to-scholarships program.

Oh. I voted for Barack Obama for president, and Joe Biden for vice president. I have a strong sense I’m not the only one.

We left from Akron just after 2 p.m. for the Bruce Springsteen/Barack Obama rally in Cleveland, travelling in three cars, road-trip style. My wife and I, five friends, and a whole litter of kids. We parked in Ohio City and took the Light Rail into Cleveland. Arrived before 4 p.m.

When I’m 64, I probably won’t remember Bruce Springsteen’s set list.

When I’m 64, I doubt I’ll remember the specifics of Barack Obama’s speech.

I might not remember exactly where we stood, or what we spoke about.

But I will remember stepping out of Tower City Mall into the bright sunshine, and Meyer, our almost-four year-old, looking up and instantly spotting the Goodyear Blimp, hovering high above the Cleveland Browns football game.

I’ll remember holding Meyer’s hand, as he held his friend Sophie’s hand, and walking across the square toward the field, lagging behind, the buildings of the city rising up on both sides.

When I’m 64, I’ll remember how we spread the two blankets out on the concrete, near the veteran’s memorial — a mile or so from the stage, but near enough to a giant video screen — and surrounded by people wearing pins and shirts and hats, holding signs, eagerly awaiting a new tomorrow.

I’ll remember Meyer and Sophie and Seth and Martha playing Legos on the blankets, and eating Goldfish, as we shifted from foot to foot, waiting for the show to start. I’ll remember Baby Maren and Baby Jason, totally chill as the evening sky grew dim.

When I’m 64, I probably won’t remember exactly where the polls stood on this day, two days before the election.

But I’ll always remember the moment Bruce came out — “Hello, Cleveland!” — and how we picked our kids up and put them on our shoulders.

We wanted them to see. Whatever they could. Just a little bit farther.

I’ll remember holding Meyer’s ankles. I’ll think about how he flew his Lego airplane through the sky over my head, as Springsteen’s hand came down, and, at long last, he began to sing.

It was a lovely dinner, maybe 10 of us in all. For the most part, we steered clear of talk about polls; no one handicapped Ohio. Not even once.

In fact, the most memorable conversation, for me, had nothing to do with politics. Mandy Patinkin, who is in town as a volunteer for Barack Obama, was talking about the research he did, for his role as a physician on Chicago Hope. He had the opportunity to witness more than half a dozen surgeries — and he absolutely loved it.

What struck him most, he said, was the human body — on the inside — how incredibly similar we all are. We may be white, or black, or brown-skinned on the outside; we may be German or British, American or South African – but our hearts and lungs … our brains … are just about identical, to the untrained eye, from one person to the next.

On second thought, maybe the conversation was about politics, after all.

Our numbers: 37 doors; 17 conversations; 5 early voting pledges. Plus, three or four volunteers. Sixteen of the folks we spoke to were voting for Obama; one woman was undecided.

It was actually quite incredible meeting an undecided voter the Saturday before election day. More so because I would describe her as politically engaged; on top of things. We spoke at the door for maybe ten minutes, with her young son tugging at her leg.

My mother-in-law pressed her: What issues are weighing heavily on you? What are your concerns about Barack?

She said that frankly, when it comes to Obama, she’s concerned that he would be a target for assassination.

My mother-in-law quoted FDR: “Remember, we have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

I quoted Barack: “Don’t worry about me — I have the best protection in the world.”

At some point, she confided in us that she’s been getting inundated with mail — to the point that she no longer reads it. As she spoke, she reached down, picked up a handful of mailers, and handed them over. It was immediately clear that the GOP had targeted her with some nasty, nasty stuff:

Obama Rewards His Friends With Your Tax Dollars   … from the Ohio Republican Party, with photos of a smiling Obama pointing at Rezko, Allison Davis, and Kenny Smith. Open it and learn that Obama helped Davis “obtain a $20 million taxpayer funded project” and that he helped Smith land a $100,000 “taxpayer grant,” adding that Smith is now under investigation by the Illinois attorney general. The kicker, in big letters at the bottom: Barack Obama. Not Who You Think He Is.

Another one from the Ohio Republican Party has grainy words: Obama … Political Rewards … Rezko … Kickbacks … Land Deals … Fraud … and then, in huge letters: Who Is Barack Obama?

A third read simply, Inexperience in this Time of Crisis above the words: Recipe for Economic Disaster. Those words are not in quotes, but they are attributed to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, 9/20/07. On the front is an unflattering picture of Obama beneath the Wall St. sign.

It’s incredible, frankly, that this woman was still on the fence.

We did all we could to tip her over. My mother-in-law has a wonderful, impassioned approach; she starts out with: “I’ve been following this man closely for a year, and I can tell you, he is exactly who we need in this country right now.”

Then we handed her an early voting slip, thanked her, and left her to decide.

It’s a multimillion dollar ad buy by the National Republican Trust PAC, which will air through election day.

See the article, from Talking Points Memo, here.

We knew this day would come. And it’s coming at the end of what is easily the sleaziest, slimiest campaign of negativity that we have ever witnessed. If McCain wins this election, he will enter the Oval Office with his reputation in tatters, minus the goodwill of Congress and half the nation, including many in his own party.

Obama has spent millions keeping his largely positive message front and center, while defending himself from McCain-Palin smears. (I don’t intend to be hyperbolic here — it’s late — and I’m calling it as I see it. There is no equivalency between Obama calling McCain “erratic,” which is an accurate description, and the McCain campaign saying Obama “pals around with terrorists.” And in most every way that matters, McCain would represent a continuation of Bush policies.) Wednesday night’s infomercial was a part of Obama’s effort — an expensive part — and, by the way, 33.6 million people watched it. That’s 70 percent more than watched the fifth game of the World Series last night.

Only 52.4 million watched the first debate this year — so, a pretty good investment for Sen. Obama.

Hmn. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea afterall.

Obama has had to spend hand over fist just to stay ahead of the negative ads and campaigning. Now, recent news accounts indicate that his cash on hand, plus the Democratic National Committee’s cash on hand, is actually less, going into the final weekend, than McCain’s plus the RNC’s.

In other words: Obama, and other Democrats, need more, going into the final, crucial weekend.

So, for my Obama minute tonight, I gave two donations.

We gave to the Democratic National Committee, which directly helps Obama’s cause. www.dnc.org.

And we gave to Kay Hagan, who is running for Senate in North Carolina against Liddy Dole. For those who haven’t seen Dole’s latest ad, accusing Hagan (a former Sunday school teacher), or being “Godless,” it is one of the most despicable we’ve seen in the modern political era, prompting this powerful rebuke from Campbell Brown.

Just five days left. Give $5. Give $2.50. Or more if you can. Pick a candidate. Pick a cause and support it. It’s one of the ways we exercise our right to free speech in this country.

And now is the time to speak your mind.

UPDATE: From today’s NY Times. Looking for more evidence that Obama — not McCain — would run a tight, frugal budget? Please read this, about how the Obama campaign, while spending much more, has spent responsibly, even pinched pennies. In other words, when you do give to this campaign, your money is spent thoughtfully; it’s not wasted, on, say, clothing, or makeup artists. Here’s the kicker:

Mr. Axelrod [Obama's chief strategist] likes to joke that at the Obama headquarters, if someone waves a hand in front of the automated paper towel dispenser in the men’s room, a section of paper towel is dispensed; wave at it again and a note spits out, “See Plouffe.”

First, a bit of scene setting. The phone bank room was literally packed. Young, old, black, white. Sitting at a long table, dialing away. A long table packed with food, brought in by other volunteers, along the wall.

Next door, in the Democratic headquarters, it was also a hive of activity, with about a half dozen people putting Obama-Biden yard signs together.

I brought in some buttons that say “Barack Obama” in Hebrew. No sooner had I put them on the table than a local Ecumenical minister, a black man, maybe in his 60s, flashed a huge, gold-capped grin, and picked up a pin, admiring the Hebrew letters. Then he reached out, and, without saying anything, we shook hands. A black Christian minister from Akron, and a Jewish writer from Jersey.

Something’s happening here.

As I was walking out, I glanced up at the wall. The headquarters walls are crammed with posters and signs and newspaper clippings and maps, outlining territory, and letters from school kids — crayon drawings — along with a few photos of Barack and his family. But there, by the door, was a single sheet of people with the five-day forecast. Written on top: “Elect Obama, Rain or Shine.”

It’s been miserable here in Northeast Ohio this week. Snow, hail. Wind. Threatening to hit 32 degrees. When Dan Shapiro was here the other day, he jokingly (but pleadingly) said: It’s not going to be like this on Election Day, is it?

Democrats need turnout on election day. And the better the weather, the better the turnout.

Just today, the weather turned. Bright sunshine. Cool, but crisp.

According to that piece of paper in the local Akron office, Election Day will be mostly sunny, high of 59, low of 44, with a 10 percent chance of rain.

We’re waitin’. Waitin’ on a sunny day.

Dan, an observant Jew, has an uncommon breadth of knowledge about Israel and the Middle East. He studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Harvard, and at one point considered becoming a historian. (We have that in common — except for the Harvard part.) He worked at the National Security Council in the Clinton Administration, has a seat on the Council of Foreign Relations, and was a staff member on the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe and the Middle East, under Chairman Lee H. Hamilton.

He’s also a great guy. We used to be on the same JCC basketball team in DC. He’s got a decent jump shot, and can really clean up under the boards.

The event, sponsored by the Ohio Democratic Party, was, frankly successful beyond even my own high expectations. We had 60 people show up at the Shaw JCC, on a miserable, snowy, wind-swept night. (That’s a huge turnout in a community of only 3,000 Jews, this close to election day.)

Dan started around 8 p.m. and spoke for over an hour, without notes, about Obama’s staunch support for Israel, and his unwavering commitment to Israel’s security. He spoke about Obama’s record directly, without pandering. He answered every question we had for him — from questions about whether Obama would put pressure on Israel to negotiate with the Palestinians (answer: unequivocally no), to questions about Obama’s response to the Russian invasion of Georgia, to questions about his position on gay marriage. When Dan finished, he received an extended ovation, and then he stayed another half hour — until 10 p.m. – answering every question of every voter who approached him.

I know — because I invited them — that many in attendance where on the fence, or were McCain supporters. My sense is that Dan’s thoughtful, clear, and powerful presentation has at least a few folks reconsidering this morning.

(One previously undecided voter emailed me: “Im wearing my new Hebrew [Obama] pin!!!!!”)

I’ve written much on this blog about Obama’s strong support for Israel, his detailed plans for isolating Iran, and his emphasis on restoring America’s tattered reputation around the globe. See, for example: “Ross: ‘Obama Will Restore American Standing in the World,’” or “Obama: ‘Unshakable Commitment to the Security of Israel’.” It bears repeating, as Shapiro emphasized last night, that Obama wants to use the threat of serious, broad reaching sanctions against Iran, along with the enticement of carrots, like greater participation with the Western World, to get Iran to forgo its nuclear ambitions. He won’t take the military option off the table. But war would come with dire consequences for Israel — some 40,000 Hezbollah rockets are poised to rain down on the Jewish state from inside Lebanon — and so Obama would do everything in his power to get Iran to stop enriching uranium by other means, first.

(And note Thomas Friedman’s column in the Times this morning. With oil prices plummeting, Ahmadinejad is literally reported to be suffering from exhaustion, as Iran finds itself over-extended and suddenly without leverage. “If Obama does win the presidency,” Friedman writes, ”my gut tells me that he’s going to get a chance to negotiate with the Iranians — with a bat in his hand.”)

But, centrally, Dan Shapiro spoke to Obama’s deep emotional connection to Israel, a connection Dan saw first hand, accompanying Obama on his recent trip to Israel — a trip that included meetings with Olmert, Livni, Netanyahu, and Ehud Barack, as well as stops at Yad Vashem and the Western Wall. Dan noted that nothing could be more compelling, on the question of Obama’s commitment to Israel, than Obama’s own words on the subject, as captured by Jeffery Goldberg in the Atlantic Monthly article, “Obama on Zionism and Hamas.”

For people who still wonder if Obama gets it at the gut level, please read the article.

 Here’s an excerpt:

Obama and I spoke over the weekend about Hamas, about Jimmy Carter, and about the future of Jewish settlements on the West Bank. He seemed eager to talk about his ties to the Jewish community, and about the influence Jews have had on his life. Among other things, he told me that he learned the art of moral anguish from Jews. We spoke as well about my Atlantic cover storyon Israel’s future. He mentioned his interest in the opinions of the writer David Grossman, who is featured in the article. “I remember reading The Yellow Windwhen it came out, and reading about Grossman now is powerful, painful stuff.” And, speaking in a kind of code Jews readily understand, Obama also made sure to mention that he was fond of the writer Leon Uris, the author of Exodus.

Here are excerpts from our conversation:

JEFFREY GOLDBERG: I’m curious to hear you talk about the Zionist idea. Do you believe that it has justice on its side?

BARACK OBAMA: You know, when I think about the Zionist idea, I think about how my feelings about Israel were shaped as a young man — as a child, in fact. I had a camp counselor when I was in sixth grade who was Jewish-American but who had spent time in Israel, and during the course of this two-week camp he shared with me the idea of returning to a homeland and what that meant for people who had suffered from the Holocaust, and he talked about the idea of preserving a culture when a people had been uprooted with the view of eventually returning home. There was something so powerful and compelling for me, maybe because I was a kid who never entirely felt like he was rooted. That was part of my upbringing, to be traveling and always having a sense of values and culture but wanting a place. So that is my first memory of thinking about Israel.

And then that mixed with a great affinity for the idea of social justice that was embodied in the early Zionist movement and the kibbutz, and the notion that not only do you find a place but you also have this opportunity to start over and to repair the breaches of the past. I found this very appealing.

JG: You’ve talked about the role of Jews in the development of your thinking

BO: I always joke that my intellectual formation was through Jewish scholars and writers, even though I didn’t know it at the time. Whether it was theologians or Philip Roth who helped shape my sensibility, or some of the more popular writers like Leon Uris. So when I became more politically conscious, my starting point when I think about the Middle East is this enormous emotional attachment and sympathy for Israel, mindful of its history, mindful of the hardship and pain and suffering that the Jewish people have undergone, but also mindful of the incredible opportunity that is presented when people finally return to a land and are able to try to excavate their best traditions and their best selves. And obviously it’s something that has great resonance with the African-American experience.

One of the things that is frustrating about the recent conversations on Israel is the loss of what I think is the natural affinity between the African-American community and the Jewish community, one that was deeply understood by Jewish and black leaders in the early civil-rights movement but has been estranged for a whole host of reasons that you and I don’t need to elaborate.

JG: Do you think that justice is still on Israel’s side?

BO: I think that the idea of a secure Jewish state is a fundamentally just idea, and a necessary idea, given not only world history but the active existence of anti-Semitism, the potential vulnerability that the Jewish people could still experience. I know that that there are those who would argue that in some ways America has become a safe refuge for the Jewish people, but if you’ve gone through the Holocaust, then that does not offer the same sense of confidence and security as the idea that the Jewish people can take care of themselves no matter what happens. That makes it a fundamentally just idea.

That does not mean that I would agree with every action of the state of Israel, because it’s a government and it has politicians, and as a politician myself I am deeply mindful that we are imperfect creatures and don’t always act with justice uppermost on our minds. But the fundamental premise of Israel and the need to preserve a Jewish state that is secure is, I think, a just idea and one that should be supported here in the United States and around the world.

JG: Go to the kishke question, the gut question: the idea that if Jews know that you love them, then you can say whatever you want about Israel, but if we don’t know you –- Jim Baker, Zbigniew Brzezinski –- then everything is suspect. There seems to be in some quarters, in Florida and other places, a sense that you don’t feel Jewish worry the way a senator from New York would feel it.

BO: I find that really interesting. I think the idea of Israel and the reality of Israel is one that I find important to me personally. Because it speaks to my history of being uprooted, it speaks to the African-American story of exodus, it describes the history of overcoming great odds and a courage and a commitment to carving out a democracy and prosperity in the midst of hardscrabble land. One of the things I loved about Israel when I went there is that the land itself is a metaphor for rebirth, for what’s been accomplished. What I also love about Israel is the fact that people argue about these issues, and that they’re asking themselves moral questions.

Sometimes I’m attacked in the press for maybe being too deliberative. My staff teases me sometimes about anguishing over moral questions. I think I learned that partly from Jewish thought, that your actions have consequences and that they matter and that we have moral imperatives. The point is, if you look at my writings and my history, my commitment to Israel and the Jewish people is more than skin-deep and it’s more than political expediency. When it comes to the gut issue, I have such ardent defenders among my Jewish friends in Chicago. I don’t think people have noticed how fiercely they defend me, and how central they are to my success, because they’ve interacted with me long enough to know that I’ve got it in my gut. During the Wright episode, they didn’t flinch for a minute, because they know me and trust me, and they’ve seen me operate in difficult political situations.

The other irony in this whole process is that in my early political life in Chicago, one of the raps against me in the black community is that I was too close to the Jews. When I ran against Bobby Rush [for Congress], the perception was that I was Hyde Park, I’m University of Chicago, I’ve got all these Jewish friends. When I started organizing, the two fellow organizers in Chicago were Jews, and I was attacked for associating with them. So I’ve been in the foxhole with my Jewish friends, so when I find on the national level my commitment being questioned, it’s curious.

“I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out, are they pro-America or anti-America. I would love to see an exposé like that.”

Thing is, it’s not 1950 anymore. The House Un-American Activities Committee is in the dustbin of history, where it belongs. Americans, by and large, are sick and tired of Republican scare, divide, and conquer tactics. The folks I know back in Jersey don’t tend to respond well when Gov. Palin, the GOP’s pick for the future, says in North Carolina that she likes visiting the “real America,” praising the “pro-America areas of this great nation.”

(Palin apologized last night in a CNN interview, saying she didn’t intend to suggest other parts of the country were less patriotic or less American. “You know,” she said, ”when I go to these rallies and we see the patriotism just shining through these people’s faces and the Vietnam veterans wearing their hats so proudly and they have tears in their eyes as we sing our national anthem and it is so inspiring and I say that this is true America, you get it.” She added: “I certainly don’t want that interpreted as one area being more patriotic or more American than another. If that’s the way it has come across, I apologize.” Honestly,  no, Gov. Palin – I don’t get it. At the rallies, you were clearly using patriotism as a wedge — between people, between voters, between red states and blue states – and I judge your apology last night to be further obfuscation and incomplete, at best.)

But I digress.

Bachmann had been on a glide-path to relection. As the Washington Post reports, after her McCarthy-esque comments, her little known opponent  Elwyn Tinklenberg raised $1 million:

The backlash from Bachmann’s remarks gave Tinklenberg enough donations to quadruple his television advertising, prompted the nonpartisan Cook Political Report to flip its take on the race from “likely Republican” to “tossup” and inspired a Republican who lost to Bachmann in the party’s primary to launch a write-in campaign.

My wife and I felt it was important to join this effort to kick Bachmann out of the halls of Congress. We gave a donation to Tinklenberg this morning. You can too, by clicking here.

And we didn’t stop there.

Because in North Carolina, Republican Robin Hayes riled up a crowd Saturday by channeling Bachmann, saying, “”liberals hate real Americans that work and accomplish and achieve and believe in God.”

Ahhhh, he finally said it. Not only am I myself lazy, Godless, and treasonous, but I hate all those on the other side of that line.

Of course, moments later, he denied ever saying it. And when a reporter quoted him, he kept right on denying it. (Check out this incredible string of updates from Politico’s The Crypt.) In fact, he denied it right up until the point in time when an audiotape surfaced, confirming that he’d said exactly what he was quoted as saying. When that happened, he suddenly claimed that he was perplexed that it had come out of his mouth, because he’d actually been “trying to work to keep the crowd as respectful as possible.”

That climb-down is almost Palin-esqe.

What happens to these Republicans when they get in front of the mic that they say things apparently diametrically opposed to what they really believe? Are they not aware that people now have video recorders on their cell phones? Do they really have the hubris to spew division in one breath, and deny their very words in the next? Do they not recognize the damage they cause?

Words create worlds. It’s in the Torah. Once uttered, words can’t just be put magically put back in a bottle.

Which is why my wife and I this morning made a small donation to Larry Kissell, Hayes’ challenger. And as the Post reports:

Kissell is making his second run at Hayes after coming within 329 votes of unseating the veteran lawmaker in 2006. This time, Kissell is better funded, as the national Democratic Party is putting more than $1 million into his race.

You can help, too, by clicking here.

Inspired, I decided to go for a trifecta.

I’m sure you all remember what happened to Georgia Sen. Max Cleland. Here’s a refresher, from the NY Times:

Six years ago, Democratic Senator Max Cleland was defeated by Republican Saxby Chambliss, who ran ads accusing Mr. Cleland of not being patriotic enough and of being soft on Osama Bin Laden.

The thing is, Mr. Cleland is a decorated Vietnam veteran, who lost an arm and two legs fighting for his country …

It was dirty politics at its dirtiest. Mr. Cleland, who gets around with the help of a wheelchair, struggled mightily every day with his war wounds. When he was campaigning and making television appearances, it took him an hour and a half to get dressed. But his injuries did not stop the ads — or some of Mr. Chambliss’s supporters from saying even worse.

After his loss in 2002, Mr. Cleland said he underwent treatment for depression.

Well, Saxby’s back on the campaign trail in what used to be the solidly Republican Georgia, asking for people’s vote. He’s again running harsh attack ads. But his opponent Jim Martin, ala Obama, is fighting back. And this time, Georgia voters are telling Chambliss, Not so fast. As the Times reports:

Until recently, nobody thought State Representative Jim Martin, Senator Chambliss’s Democratic opponent, could raise much of a challenge. Mr. Martin is not a flashy guy. He has the demeanor of a deacon, a far cry from Georgia’s history of Talmadges and other flamboyant politicians.

But polls have started to show Georgians almost split on this race (some are even suggesting that Mr. Martin is ahead). And the national Democratic Party has moved money in over the last few weeks.

We gave a small donation to Martin this morning, to let him know we’re pulling for him in Akron, Ohio. (You can too, by clicking here.)

Something’s happening. It’s happening all across the country.  The kinds of jingoistic attacks that seem encoded in the GOP DNA — attacks that instilled fear in my heart four years ago — are backfiring, from Georgia, to North Carolina, to Minnesota, to the places in between.

Something’s happening, and it has to do with the fact that we are, at last, sick and tired of being told who is different from us and why we should hate and mistrust them.

Something’s happening. And I think it’s safe to say that whatever it is, exactly, it gathered steam four years ago, when Barack Obama stood up at the DNC, looked over the dais, straight into millions of living rooms across the nation, and said:

Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters, the negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes.

Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America — there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America — there’s the United States of America.

The pundits, the pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I’ve got news for them, too:

We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don’t like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the Red States.

We coach Little League in the Blue States and yes, we’ve got some gay friends in the Red States.

There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq.

We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America. In the end, that’s what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or do we participate in a politics of hope?

Yes, we do.

Extrapolating these results out, I think we can all safely expect an Obama landslide on Election Day.

(Hey — I’m a creative writer, not a statistician. There’s a reason.)

It was another one of those fall days ripped from an Ohio Tourism brochure. High sun. Chilly, until you started walking, until you stepped out of the shadows of the houses and into the sunlight.

We set out around 11:30 a.m. — just after Meet the Press — and, I think it’s safe to say, we were propelled through the streets of Beachwood with Colin Powell’s endorsement at our backs.

People were, by and large, glad to see me. Even when they didn’t have time to talk, they let me know they appreciated the work I was doing. I spoke to one guy, in his doorway, for 15 minutes. I asked a 59-year-old woman if her daughter and son-in-law, who lived with her, were Obama voters, too.

“They better vote for Obama,” she said, “or else they’re out of the will.”

Perhaps my most satisfying conversation, though, was my last one — with a seventy-something McCain voter.

I started out by speaking to his wife, an Obama supporter, at the doorway of their modest ranch house, shaded by a low-slung roof. I’m happy to talk about Obama’s positions on Israel, I said.

“I don’t trust him on Israel,” the man said, unseen inside the house.

I answered his wife. Obama’s a great friend of the Jewish state.

“I don’t trust him on Israel,” the man said.

I heard Obama speak in Cleveland to a small group of Jewish leaders, I said. Obama said he would work tirelessly for a safe and secure Israel. He repeatedly spoke of the importance of Israel as a Jewish homeland. He has AIPAC’s stamp of approval. And a perfect voting record on Israel. He introduced a bill in the Senate to sanction Iran.

She invited me inside.

I’m not going to change my mind, he said. He sat at the living room table with his bare foot up on a chair — said he was nursing some ailment or another. Apologized for it. His kids, he said, were working their tails off for Obama, despite him.

You’re not going to move him, his wife said.

Still, we engaged in a spirited back and forth. He complained that Obama was going to be a tax and spend spread the wealth president. I told him I didn’t think so. Obama believes that trickle down economics has been class warfare against the middle class, and he wants to right that wrong. Further, I said, Obama is not a panderer. He was booed, after all, by the teacher’s union, for advocating standards for educators. He lost the progressive wing of the party when he agreed to immunity for the telecom companies. He supports gun ownership, and backed the Supreme Court ruling that called a DC law banning handguns unconstitutional.

I told him that McCain, in picking Palin, had in fact proven more tightly tied to his party’s extreme wing than Obama.

The man had a curt reply: Politicians pick the person who will most help them win. Obama did the same thing. End of story.

No, I said. If Obama wanted to pick the person most likely to help him win, he would have picked Hillary. Even Tom Delay and Newt Gingrich said as much. Obama, I said, picked the person he felt would help him govern, while also, hopefully helping him politically. No guarantee, though. Big, material difference.

His wife shook her head, smiling.

The man smiled, too. I haven’t voted for a Democrat since Adlai Stevenson, he said, and I’m not about to start now.

You’re man is going to win, anyway, he added.

Clearly, he had no idea who he was talking to.

I wouldn’t count on it, I said. The polls are contracting. The swing states are a dead heat.

Trust me, he said, you’re going to win. But, I tell you, you are doing the right thing — you can’t assume anything. You have to play this one through to the bitter end.

His wife went into the kitchen, came back with a copy of David Brooks’ column from the New York Times last week, in which the conservative columnist kind of gives a grudging stamp of approval to Obama. Take this, she said, it’s excellent. I’d already read it — but you don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

I don’t like either of them — Obama or McCain, the man admitted. Truth is, he said, if Hillary had won — I might have actually considered switching parties, to vote for her.

Now we’re getting somewhere, I thought.

I love the political process, he said. I love elections. I only hope I live another four years, so I can be here for the next one.

From your lips to god’s ears, my friend. I’ll stop back in 2012.