I woke up early this morning, so excited for tomorrow. (Anxious too). I used to envy my parents and other people who grew up in the 60’s when people seemed to care about things bigger then themselves. I grew up in the 80s and 90s and 2000s and all these decades have been about “Me.” I feel so lucky and overwhelmed to be part of something bigger, something that has strangers coming together, the country buzzing, the world watching.

Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this project, shared their time and hopes and support. I hope this is just the beginning.

- Tanit

Halloween hasn’t been the same for me since I left San Francisco. So I guess I’m OK skipping out this year and saving the door to door knowing for tomorrow in NH.

In the meantime, I’m loving this website: www.momsforbarackobama.org
Simple and beautiful.

Happy Halloween!

Sara Faith-Alderman of the Boston Phoenix covers our project in this lovely little review.  She manages to make my rambling 45 minute interview with her sound like I can actually speak in complete sentences.  Thank you Sara. 

Read the article here:  http://thephoenix.com/Boston/News/70356-Redeeming-the-Image/

Someone  (I think our friends from the band, Goh) have created the first mock-Sarah video:  My Name is Mo.

We love it!  You can watch it here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0KsPunAXUU

Here’s the link:

http://thephoenix.com/BLOGS/phlog/archive/2008/10/16/my-name-is-sarah.aspx

So, I’m writing this slightly after the fact, but yes three new videos are up:  “Sarah PA,”  “Sarah NH” and “Sarah OH”.  We hope people will send them as “calling cards” of sorts to family and friends, and especially people in swing states whose neighbors may be Undecideds.

VIDEO LINKS:
Pennsylvania:http://snurl.com/4cnu1
Ohio: http://snurl.com/4cnvm
New Hampshire: http://snurl.com/4cnuu

I’ll admit, I’m tempted to just sit back right now, with Obama ahead in the polls.  But not quite yet. 

Our first video, Sarah PA video is up on the site! The project’s evolving beyond just “watch this video” and more into: ask someone who’s Undecided to watch this video and write to Sarah.

Sarah PA has graciously agreed to email with people who are on the fence and want to write to her about why she’s supporting Obama. (There’s a comment link right below the video. ) So this is really about developing a conversation between Undecideds and Obama supporters. After the last elections, there was too much misunderstanding and blaming and maybe not enough effort to understand what really mattered to swing voters.

More videos will be coming. In the meantime, here’s how you can help us reach Undecided voters:

- Watch Sarah PA

- Send the video to someone you know in PA

- Post the project in your social networking group

- Make your own “My Name Is Sarah” video (or my name is Mo or Gus or Arlo…)

Thanks!!

Woke up this morning, still obsessed with getting into the heads of Undecided voters and figuring out how to “message” to them.  Which is a presumptuous thing, to think I can; but, I’m sure this comes from my related obsession with advertising.  I used to work in advertising and I love it.  I’m one of those people who mutes the regular TV show and turns up the volume during the ads. I love to figure out how to speak to people in 30 seconds (clearly not evidenced in my rambling blogs), even if I have nothing in common with them.  Guess that’s a bit creepy.

So many of the people we spoke to on the road in PA, OH, MI and IN were Undecided, or said they were.  I began to categorize them:
1)    The people who said they were Undecided because telling us whom they were voting for was too personal.
2)    The people who said they weren’t voting because they didn’t follow politics, didn’t think it mattered and didn’t like either candidate.  I put these people as voting for McCain, only they’d probably never make it to the polls.
3)    People who said they were undecided because, after taking one look at us, figured we’d be voting for Obama, and perhaps wanted to avoid some confrontation, so said they said they were Undecided.
4)    People who said they were undecided but were really not voting for Obama because he’s Black, and felt, I think, guilty or awkward about admitting this.  Maybe because they would have voted Democrat otherwise.  *I’d rather these people than people who say they’re voting Obama and then change their mind at the polls.
5)    People who were really and truly Undecided because they wanted change, but responded to McCain’s perceived Father-figure persona and felt maybe he was the best choice for caring for the country right now.
6)    People who were really and truly Undecided because they wanted change but were fundamentally Libertarian and so were torn between disgust for the current administration and a mistrust of Democrats.

This is the Undecided world as I see it.  If people have other categories, I’d love to hear them and add them to the list….

It’s funny how sometimes a week can go by so quickly, and other times it can stretch out forever.  We’ve been back several days from the road.  Getting caught up, back into routine (as much routine as you ever have when you’re a freelancer).  I remember sitting in a library in Thetford VT a couple weeks ago with Danielle and Tony, looking at a map and figuring out which states we should hit on the film tour.  Now, amazingly, that part of the project’s over.  Some of the states we visited that seemed like they were solidly undecided, have been moving steadily toward Obama – others not. Seems to change every day.  Anyway, it fascinates me how a project can move from an idea to something you’re in the middle of, to something you look back on.  We’re not at that final point yet.  The footage is in LA right now with Jake, whose editing it.  We’ll begin releasing the series early next week, asking people to send the Sarah PA ad to anyone they know in PA, and so on.  NPR is considering doing a story on the project  - which would be great.

Lots to say and nothing to say about the debates last night.  I think the people who love Sarah P still love her and the people who don’t, don’t.  Really, in my mind, she’s quickly becoming irrelevant.  It’s all about the Undecided Voters.  They’re my obsession.  When I listen to debates, the ones last night or the ones last Friday, I’m no longer listening for what I want to hear, I’m trying to listen for what I think Undecided voters want to hear.  When Biden mentioned understanding what it’s like to be a single father – I said, yes, right here is where he’s actually connecting to undecided voters.  As with Obama’s final words last Friday, I felt Biden needed a clearer, simpler message to articulate who his ticket is and what it stands for.  Again, something that the Undecided voter can walk away with…one sentence that says, I understand you and I’m on your side.  And that, I believe is all about the economy.  In the Heartland right now, as well as on the coasts, the war, sadly, is a distant, distant second.  So, one sentence that says, I know how hard things are for you right now, and we’re going to make them better.

And suddenly, it’s Fall.  Yesterday, we drove into Bennington VT headed to NH and traded open skies and Mid-western farmland for rounded hills of bright orange and yellow.

OK, eight days straight in a mini-van and I begin waxing poetic every change I get.

Our final Sarah on this tour is from Keene NH, where residents seem pretty evenly divided between Obama and McCain.  We filmed Sarah and her daughter, Emily, picking apples.  I guess there’s been a lot of rain this past week, so the apple orchards have been unvisited and the trees were heavy with McIntosh and Cortlands.  We spoke with a woman named Judy, who owns the orchard.  She is, I believe, typical of NH “Undecideds” in that she leans toward Libertarian, so identifies more with the Republicans; but she also has a son in Iraq and is fed up with the current administration.   She seems to want change, but also seems to have built a life around Libertarian values, feeling, perhaps that to vote Democrat would contradict many of those values.  It seems that many of the NH and New England Undecideds are caught between their Libertarian roots and the desire for a new, different adminsitration.

My grandfather was a small dairy farmer.  Alden Clifton Flagg Jr, relative of the man who drew the famous Uncle Sam image.  He was a Republican but probably fundamentally a Libertarian.  He and my grandmother voted Republican their entire lives.  My grandmother who is now 93 is, for the first time, voting Democrat.

Kevin films Niagra falls

Return to New England!

Sarah NH with road-weary crew