I Canvassed All Day And All I Got Was A Wedgie

Written by: Thomas Janowski on Oct 12, 2008 3:02 PM EDT

Linked to groups: dfaROCHESTER

Linked to campaigns: Obama for America

First some background.  I was finally able to join our group, dfaROCHESTER, on an out of state trip to campaign for Barack Obama.  Originally, I thought we were going to Erie, PA.  But there was a last minute change and we headed to Meadville, PA instead.  At the Meadville Democratic Committee headquarters we were given instructions to head to Cochranton, PA to do our canvassing. 

From http://www.cochrantonboro.org/main:

Chartered as a Borough: April 5, 1855

Population: 1200

Square Miles: 7.55

From Wikipedia:

Cochranton is a borough in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was recorded as 1,148 in the 2000 census.

The racial makeup of the borough was 98.78% White, 0.44% African American, 0.09% Native American, 0.26% Asian, and 0.44% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.09% of the population.

From epodunk:

2006 elections: In the gubernatorial race, Pennsylvania re-elected incumbent Democrat Ed Rendell over Republican Lynn Swann, with 60% of the vote. For Senate, the state elected Democrat Bob Casey over Rick Santorum, with 59% of the ballot.

Presidential politics: Cochranton is in Crawford County, which supported George W. Bush in the last two presidential elections. According to unofficial vote totals for 2004, Bush received 21,785 votes and John Kerry received 15,856 votes.

In the November 2000 election, Crawford County supported Bush. Countywide, 18,858 people voted for Bush and 13,250 voted for Gore. Nader received 854 votes.

I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed my canvassing experience in Cochranton, PA.  We knocked on the doors of undecided Democrats and independents.  As my fellow dfaROCHESTER members know, I do not usually have good experiences canvassing, especially in my own town.  And even though I was nervous that northwestern PA was going to be very conservative, that is not what I found. 

The overwhelming majority of people I spoke to are no longer undecided and are 100% behind Obama.  I had some incredible conversations with senior citizens who were open minded enough to think about the young people who have their lives ahead of them.  These seniors weren't thinking about themselves, they were thinking of their sons and daughters and grandchildren.

Some voters, still feeling unsure about Obama, were willing to give him a chance instead of giving McCain the benefit of the doubt.  Those who were still undecided had very significant reasons to be undecided.  Charlsie, 76, still operates her beauty salon in the backroom of her house.  Her husband passed away in 2007 and she misses talking to him about her presidential candidate selection.  She talked about sitting down with a calculator last week to figure out how much value her 401K had lost...it was a 6 digit number!  The field coordinator in Meadville told us to use Social Security and how McCain still favors privatization as a talking point.  I told Charlsie about this and I believe she will vote for Obama.

Then there was the reaction of younger voters that was encouraging on the one hand and a warning on the other hand.  Josh, 22 years old, was surprised I was out doing door to door for Obama because, as he put it, "no one is going to vote for McCain."  I informed him that there were, in fact, many misguided citizens who planned to vote for McCain and that it was his responsibility to vote and get his friends to vote. 

Overall, I had a great experience canvassing among the people of Cochranton, PA.  What I heard from the voters there was overwhelmingly positive for a Barack Obama presidency. 

As for the wedgie I got while canvassing...it's not what you're thinking.  A wedgie or wedge is, I assume, a regional food.  It consists of a 9 or 12 inch diameter pizza crust, that was previously half baked.  It is topped with the cheese of your choice and put under a broiler to melt the cheese and toast the crust.  Then add toppings of your choice on half of the crust and fold the other half over to form the top.  Then it is cut in two. 

I had a vegetarian wedgie and while I enjoyed it, it was a bit strange.  The toppings were black olives, lettuce, sauteed onions and pickles. 

After eating lunch, I began to notice the signs around town proclaiming that a certain restaurant had the biggest wedgies in town.  Got to love it.  At least the wedige sounds more appealing than Rochester's own Garage Plate. Maybe not.

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