deployment day 3: hope on the front lines

I just wanted to share a couple stories wtih you from the phone bank tonight.

First, I got this household:

Does that name look familiar? Haha. No relation, but I thought it was a funny coincidence. When I called, the person on the line was speaking all in Spanish, so I had to get someone who could communicate with them. Boy, am I sooo glad we called them back. The family is Cuban, and they said they are all voting John McCain because they've seen what socialism looks like and what it can do to a country. The woman talked for sooo long, she was so enthusiastic about McCain. And it reminded me of a lady I saw a the rally this AM who had a shirt that said "McCubans for McCain" and when she walked in, she said "I just pray to my Lord every day that he wins!!" There is SO much enthusiasm here for McCain, across all different demographics. It's so encouraging!

Then, I got to speak to a man about his support of McCain. He said "we always vote Republican, you can look me up, I donated $1000 this year." Haha. But then what really made me happy..."we have about 100 family and friends and we are ALL voting John McCain." YAY! Sure, we get our fair share of no answers, answering machines, hang-ups, etc...but when we get calls like this, the whole dynamic of our room changes and everyone can feel the change in the air.

Ok one last phone story...I talked to one woman and asked her about an additional voter in her household. She said unfortunately that her daughter was currently voting for Obama, but that she was fighting for her to vote McCain. I wished her luck and told her I knew she could win that fight! I love encouraging people and it was great to share the struggle with her and give her a little bright moment in her day. It's not just us volunteers. Everyone is and needs to be getting out the vote for McCain. It doesn't matter where you are, if you're voting for McCain, do whatever you can to get even more votes for him. Each one counts, and we need every one we can get!

And the whole time I was at HQ, people were outside waving signs. Cars were honking all day and there was tons of cheering going on. (although there were some meanies who flipped the bird or cussed out some of our volunteers - what is up with that?! I never see Republicans treating others so badly) It's like a big party, everyone is so pumped. I'm nervous about tomorrow, but I have a lot of hope that McCain is going to take this state! :)