Obama table in Madison: October 27 Edition

[zulchzulu]

It was a cold, blustery, overcast autumn day (until about 11:30 am) with lots of people from all over the globe walking along and choosing from all kinds of locally grown, baked, crafted and political flavors. The Obama table is one feature to many at what the New York Times mentioned "The Dane County Farmers' Market in Wisconsin is now recognized as the largest in the nation, and is still growing." There are two tabling days left for the fall season.

The night before the tabling, I made sure the weekly war scorecard was updated and very visible.

Here's this week's sad news:

Weekly War Scorecard

Cost of Iraq Occupation:
(running total):
$463,461,491,721

American Deaths:
3,839

American Wounded:
28,276

Iraqi Body Count:
1,096,367

As of October 27, 2007 at 12:00AM

Sources:
www.iraqbodycount.net
www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths.html
www.defenselink.mil
www.antiwar.com/casualties
www.costofwar.com



Driving to the event was a little daunting, being that it was still dark enough to have to use the car headlights with the foggy, overcast, windy morning not trying to be very inviting. The first winds of Thor were in the air and it was finally wind breaker time at least.

Once the table was set up and the large sign was raised in the 10+ knot steady wind with a bit of rain, someone stopped by from Chicago who loves Obama and said "it's good to see you tough it out!" The usual five other tables in the area were not there yet and only one more would arrive a few hours later.

The cold, the wind, the intermittent rain...this is when it's time to actually go out in the streets and do grassroots efforts. It's easy doing it when it's sunny and still. When it's raining a little and you have gusts of wind to send things flying and make you look for a way to protect yourself from the cold, that's when you realize people actually seeing that you're serious.

The crowd at the market was a little thinner than usual because of the weather. Still, quite a few people stopped by to grab information or a couple bumperstickers. Fortunately, there would soon be a bigger crowd of people who were going to the UW Badgers football game later in the morning.

People from Iowa who were volunteering for Obama stopped by. So did some people from California, Missouri and New York. We were giving away bumper stickers like candy, with many people wanting a couple to give to their friends or relatives.

Since it was so cold and windy, a lot of people just would stop by quickly, but the best part of about that was their appreciation of people being out in crappy weather.

There was really just one nut case that stopped by the table. He wreaked of alcohol. Kind of some car salesman who was perhaps fired the day before... He walked up and yelled "why should I vote for this guy?" I asked what issues he was concerned about. He yelled back "I have no issues!" followed with "why should I vote for this guy?" I asked him why he didn't have any issues that he cared about. He yelled again "why should I vote for this guy?"

A crowd started gathering, amused.

I asked him about health care reform. "Ah, it's fine! I have Medicare and I hate socialized medicine!" I told him the Medicare could be categorized as so-called "social medicine". He looked mad at me and then retorted "why should I vote for this guy?" I told him that he was pretty apathetic if he "doesn't have any issues" that he cares about. "Oh, now you're name-calling...calling me apathetic..." I told him that he was wasting him and my time by just standing there screaming. but not wanting to engage in a discussion.

He pounded his fist on the table and screamed "why should I vote for this guy?" He then tried to turn over the table until someone from the Park Police asked him to leave the area. He soon disappeared in the crowd.

Remembering what it was like in Iowa in 2004 before the voting, I thought how hard it is for people to get out of bed and just get enthused enough to go out in the cold weather and show their support. That's when it counts most.

One more Obama table outside next week... I can't wait!

[zulchzulu]

1. I forgot to mention...

...there was absolutely no mention of any talk about the South Carolina concert issue from anyone. I know there have been some stories about that event in some media channels, but it appears to be a story most people either weren't concerned about and/or cared about.

A couple people I knew (who are a great gay couple) from working on ill-fated Fair Wisconsin (http://www.fairwisconsin.com/index.php) stopped by and we talked about all going to Iowa soon. Neither of them knew anything about the "Donnie" story. I had a document with what Obama had said about the situation and they took it and a couple bumper stickers.

[phen43]

2. Sounds great!!

What a fine day it sounded like!!!:)