Trial Post

Sitting in an Obama/Dem office in New Jersey, two weeks before an election, is weird. Voter registration is closed. The state is irrelevant. The closest "swing" state, where local residents can easily drive if they want to canvass or phone bank, is also irrelevant (Pennsylvania). And nobody wants to make phone calls for a Congressional race. Especially for a blind Jewish rabbi. Seriously.

So mostly people just come in and take Obama/Biden signs. Or bumper-stickers that fit neatly over Kerry/Edwards and Gore/Lieberman. I never understood the point either of these. They both make some sense pre-primaries. Get on the bandwagon early and reap the benefits of looking like a political Nostradamus in November. But two weeks out? They don't convince anyone to join your cause, you look like someone who just made up his mind yesterday (i.e., an idiot), and you seem wholly unoriginal. Not to mention you look mindnumbingly stupid if your horse loses. Though I guess that's not an issue in 2008.

That is to say, my town is littered with Obama signage now. With a sprinkling of Lautenberg and Pascrell. Frank Lautenberg is seriously on death's door. He's 84, and makes McCain look spry. All of his ads (why does he think he needs to run them?) are about how he loves kids. Showing kids playing, yelling, marquee-text reminding us he backed SCHIP. I don't think he's ever done anything important.