A Question for Missouri Du'ers or anyone who wants to give advice

I signed up to do the Drive for Change through the Obama website, and I was contacted by someone to volunteer on Tuesday at the St Louis County office in Affton. St Louis is over a 2 hour drive for me. The office in Cape Girardeau, Limbaugh's hometown, is an hour's drive closer to where I'm at, but maybe my time would be more effectively spent up there in St Louis.

I know very little about the different areas of St Louis except for what I've read on Wikipedia, but I saw this blog post on the Daily Kos yesterday saying that they need more volunteers in the North County office. Wikipedia says that the South County where Affton is located voted 70% for Bush in 2004 and is the most homogenous area of the city. The "homogenous area" bit makes me a little uncomfortable, but I could probably deal with it.

Do you think I should just trust that I've been assigned to the place I'm needed most, or do you think maybe I should switch to an office closer to home like in Cape Girardeau or maybe to North St Louis Co.?

Any input is appreciated.

You can go to the Obama website and they have all the info there...

Go here. There is an icon "MAKE CALLS"
http://www.barackobama.com/index.php

If they don't then move on to the next one.

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/mooffices

I'll give the Cape office a call tomorrow.

Thanks.

really, ANY place you go to find even a few votes is important. But I think you will be surprised by how many in the Affton area are "soft" Republicans who are willing to vote for change and against the Republican brand.

If I hear you correctly, it's a straight shot up I-55 and 255 to Affton.

I'm over here in Illinois so my usual route is up 57-N to 64-W and then on from there.

As I said, I really don't know much about the different sections of St Louis, so when I went to Wikipedia after I got off the phone with the volunteer and saw the 70% figure for Bush in 2004, I kind of freaked a little. My part of Illinois is more red state than blue so I thought I might be getting a break in St Louis. You're right that every vote is important, even in the more Republican areas. That'll be how Obama/Biden gets over the top in Missouri.

One, if you need to volunteer closer to home, by all means call them because I'm sure they can use you.

Second, I heard today that they are using Claire McCaskill's plan. Part of that is targeting certain Repulican areas to keep them even, and then swamping with St Louis and KC. So that's why they may be sending you to South County. Check out those numbers for Claire and see if she didn't do better in there. They may be having a hard time getting volunteers because the local Dems don't consider it useful to volunteer in a 70% red area.

Whatever you do, you will be working in one of the most important states and I really think Missouri is going to surprise everybody and go blue. You don't want to miss being a part of that!

I think it would make sense for Obama/Biden to follow her plan.

One of the main things I've been debating with myself about this was that if I'm going to volunteer in a more Republican area of the state, whether I maybe shouldn'tjust go to the area that's less of a drive for me.

I thought that if they lost MO and I didn't help in some way, I'd kick myself.

I know you will have to stay on message, but know this about the MO voters who are going to be open to hearing what you have to say. Social Security is very, very popular there among people who are not wealthy. If I were to make one point to the people in Heartland of America, it would be to stress that McCain supported Bush's plan to tie SS to the stock market, while Obama wants to save it by putting a payroll tax of 2 to 4 percent on income above $250,000. A lot of people don't know that income over the first $102,000 (or so) isn't taxed for FICA or Social Security. Obama wants to suspend the tax at 102K like it is now, then pick it up again at a lower tax rate after $250K. If there's a chance to explain that to the voters there, especially anyone over 50, then you might be able to swing some over to Obama. Even in Limbaugh's hometown.

Keep up the good work! I think Obama will carry Missouri, with help from people like you.