There are less than five days left until the election. A series of events that started back in December of 2006 is finally about to come to a conclusion. By next Tuesday, we will know which candidate is headed to the White House.
While Tufts is in a solidly blue state, students' efforts in New Hampshire are undoubtedly important. Consider this: In 2000, former presidential candidate Al Gore lost New Hampshire by 7,211 votes. Had Gore's campaign been able to get more voters out to the polls, this country would have never faced eight agonizing years of a Bush presidency.
Fast-forward seven and a half years. Sen. Barack Obama is slated to win January's New Hampshire primary given the momentum from his unexpected Iowa victory. All of the polls have him leading. Former Sen. John Edwards has even gone so far as to say that Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) is no longer a contender in the race. Against all odds, Hillary defeats him handily, shocking voters and the media alike. This unlikely outcome changed the face of the entire primary season, and nearly prevented Obama from achieving the democratic nomination.
The point is that no matter what the poll numbers are, and no matter how large the electorate is, the actions of individual volunteers are essential to an electoral victory. Take a look at this example, when grit and determination translated into success. During the primaries, I volunteered to knock on doors for Obama's campaign in my home state of Pennsylvania. I partnered up with a man named John Toth, who had helped run our newly elected congressman Patrick Murphy's (D-Penn.) successful 2006 campaign. The win had come as a shock to the local media: Suburban Bucks County had been absolutely dominated by Republican candidates for decades without a hint of a Democratic comeback.
So, naturally I was curious as to how Murphy — an Iraq War veteran — and his relatively greenhorn campaign team had managed to unseat a popular, charismatic congressman with backing from the county's political establishment. Most would say it was dissatisfaction with the war and the President that year, but Toth disagreed. "We just plain worked harder," he explained. According to Toth, every day Murphy's team would canvass from morning till sundown and then do office work late into the night, often not leaving until around 10 p.m. "I used to drive by Fitzpatrick's [Murphy's opponent] place and see people leaving at five," John said, "You can't run a campaign like that." Indeed, the local papers had made a point of covering the campaign's steadfastness throughout the season, with the Bucks County Courier Times running a story on the veteran's determined canvassing routine, including a photo of Murphy taking a break from the brutal regime in his office, feet up on the desk, holes in shoes á la Adlai Stevenson.
When Murphy did win in November, he did it by the slimmest of margins, just 1,518 votes. To give some perspective, that's out of 249,817 votes in total. Gore lost by about five times that margin in a state with about double the population. The point is, as Toth told me, "People lose when they get lazy."
As of early October this year, predictions had placed the Electoral College at a 269-269 tie, with New Hampshire in Sen. John McCain's column. This only goes to show that we as students at Tufts have both an opportunity and a responsibility to take action in influencing this election. This could be the state on which the entire election hinges, and our efforts could be just as pivotal. Take into consideration the 7,211 votes by which Gore lost, or the 1,518 by which Murphy won, and at the same time picture the roughly 1,000 houses that Tufts and Brandeis students canvassed on Saturday alone.
And, while I speak to all Tufts students, regardless of political orientation, I would particularly like to appeal to fellow Obama supporters. It utterly surprises me how many students I talk to are adamant in their support for Obama, yet how few of those students have taken action in this election. Opportunities abound for participation. In this coming week, there will be even more, with both the Tufts Democrats and Students for Barack Obama asking students to act, be it spending a few hours making phone calls or a day knocking on doors in New Hampshire.
Tufts, with less than a week left until this election, keep in mind the historical importance of this process. Seldom have we seen so much enthusiasm or so much at stake in a single campaign. The election of '08 will be etched in history along with '80, '68 and '60. Obama and McCain will be names tantamount to Kennedy, Roosevelt and Reagan.
Contributing does not require an agonizing commitment. No matter what level of participation you have, the feeling of participating is amazing, and every volunteer you meet will be overwhelmingly grateful and welcoming of your support. Even if you are not a member of either the Tufts Democrats or the Students for Obama groups; even if you have never done any political volunteer work before, you are more than welcome to take part in campaign activities. This is one of those rare opportunities to have a once-in-a-lifetime experience that is both free and without prerequisites. Visit the Tufts Democrats website if you are interested in volunteering for Obama. Whether you come to New Hampshire for a day or for the weekend, whether you make three calls or three hundred, you will be able to say you had an impact on an event that will have an immortal presence in American history.
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Jack Miszencin is a freshman majoring in political science.
