Report from a Pittsburgh Canvasser!

[EmilyAnne]

Well, all in all it was a great day. My feet and hands have finally thawed out, and I'm ready to report.

The Barack Obama HQ in Pittsburgh officially opened today at 11am. By 11:45, over 500 people had already signed up to volunteer their time for canvassing, calling and anything else. It was a very exciting scene. There were children, elderly people, white, black, pakistani, etc. By 11:30 they had also run out of buttons, t-shirts and bumper stickers.

Getting to the HQ in East Liberty isn't easy, by the way. Its in a very urban site without a parking lot or garage anywhere nearby. So, any people who drove to the site were forced to trudge through a lot of ice and yucky grey snow. Still...over 500 people in 30 minutes! Wow.

My group and I were lucky to get the last canvassing packet available for our area. And, just like that. we were off. Those listed were all people who were not registered as Democrats or Republicans. There were a few people who told us that it was none of our business who they were voting for, one sweet elderly woman who shook her fists in a really cute Rosie the Riveter way and told us she was a Clinton Woman, and the rest....all for Obama! Five people were interested in volunteering.

We went to a different neighborhood for lunch at a little Peruvian cafe. They were selling a Clinton buttons at the front counter. We simply thought that the establishment was supporting Hillary, but one of us asked if they had any Barack Obama buttons. The woman told us they had sold out of them days before, that they had been selling out the Clinton buttons 6:1! She is voting for Obama, but, obviously, doesn't hate Hillary. Otherwise, I suppose she wouldn't be selling those buttons. It was a reminder that the DU is not necessarily representative of the state of the Dem party.

The only hostility we experienced was an old man who told us that he wouldn't vote for a Democrat if we gave him a vote, which was pretty weird since, well, he DOES have a vote already. Its not such a radical offer. Oh well. We could tell he thought he was pretty clever, so we smiled and told him to have a great day.

[Divernan]

1. S'Liberty's not too far from my home. Got a phone number & street address?

Thanks.

I'm doing a MoveOn GOTV phone banking to Texas tomorrow afternoon (for Obama of course) from somebody's home in Churchill. There will be 9 of us talking away on our cell phones. I think MoveOn's got 2,000 such parties around the country.

[EmilyAnne]

3. I think I'll do the phone bank tomorrow, too. I speak Texan, after all.

I moved from Austin recently, grew up half in Houston and half in Sweetwater. Good luck to you guys.

[Flabbergasted]

2. Thanks for your hard work. KR

[babylonsister]

4. Great report-rec'd! Thanks for your work, and the impressive post!

GOBAMA!

[TwilightGardener]

5. Thanks for your work! Pgh is my native home--glad the turnout was so good!

[AlinPA]

6. Thank you for the work and the report. Curious if the team canvassed Bloomfield and what the

support was like there. (Down Liberty Ave. a mile or so)

[bicentennial_baby]

8. I used to live right next to Bloomfield, in Friendship!

:hi:

[EmilyAnne]

11. I love Bloomfield. We stayed in Highland Park today. I'm sure some people were sent out to

Bloomfield. Hopefully, in a few days, the HQ will have more of an idea of areas covered today and areas that need to be covered. I'll find out about Bloomfield.

[AlinPA]

12. Bloomfield is an old established neighborhood, with an Italian heritage,

and is more diverse now. Try lunch at Del's.

[EmilyAnne]

14. I just ate there for the first time last week. It was great. I also like Damico's.

Are you from Pittsburgh?

[AlinPA]

17. Indiana County, east about 65 miles. Near Chicago now.

[FrenchieCat]

7. Thank you for your report!

It is not cold in California, so I appreciate what you are doing especially because of the weather there! :thumbsup:

[Raven]

9. Good work, EmilyAnne!!! Would you do it again? n/t

[EmilyAnne]

13. Absolutely! I WILL be doing it again. I signed up to carpool to Ohio on March 4th. I'm not sure

what the game plan is there, but I have the day off, so I figured I should just go and see what happens.

I think I'll do phone banking tomorrow and some canvassing next weekend. I live in the neighborhood that was assigned to me, so it will be easy to hit up a street here and there.

[stillcool]

10. Thank You!!

I love hearing stories like yours. Thanks for walking the walk!!

[Yael]

15. Thanks for the report!!

[bicentennial_baby]

16. Where was the Peruvian cafe?

:)

[EmilyAnne]

18. Its in Shadyside, upstairs from Pamela's. It looks like a boutique from the outside, so its easy

to miss. Its pretty good.

[bicentennial_baby]

19. La Feria!! My *favorite* Pgh restaurant!! w00t!

I used to live around the corner on Howe St, behind the other side of Walnut. I knew you were talking about La Feria! Great work today! :toast:

[HowHasItComeToThis]

20. VOTE OUT REPUBLICANS AND REPUBLICAN'S LIGHT

VOTE FOR THE REAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY.

[AlinPA]

21. Channel 4 (WTAE) just had a 20 second blurb about the East Liberty office for Obama!

It was on at 6:10, and showed a crowd of people at the office.

[Cha]

22. Great well written

report, EmilyAnne.. Thanks to the volunteers in Pittsburgh.

Not Latina but really like this logo..

[grantcart]

23. thank you for your work and thank you for your report

if you have any additional reports pls post them with pictures if possible I love these anecdotal stories