Obama's momentum in North Carolina

I wish I could blog daily right now but I think I need to cut myself a little slack. In addition to my Mojo Mom book revisions, I am still recovering from my being sick, and a large part of my brain is obsessed with the election.

I am a proud Obama supporter and visiting the prediction site FiveThirtyEight.com has gotten better every day this month, as Obama has caught a new wave of support. North Carolina is a major swing state, and it has recently trended from light pink to light blue.

(Does anyone else remember those old-fashioned weather teller postcards that would turn blue for sunny weather and pink for rain? My visits to FiveThirtyEight.com are starting to remind me of that!)

We are a true swing state, with a Democratic-majority state government, but the state hasn't voted for a Democrat for President since 1976. I moved here right before the election of 2000. The state has changed a great deal even since then.

One metric I haven't heard anyone discuss is the strength of volunteer commitment and passion for each candidate. I can tell you that the grassroots Democratic action here in North Carolina has been amazing, ever since it turned out that our May primary was going to matter after all. I've encountered volunteers registering voters at least four times in the past month. We may be waging an uphill battle but we are giving it our best shot.

Internet engagement a key tool for grassroots engagement. Let's check out the number of volunteer hosted events that anyone can join by logging into the candidate's web sites:

Upcoming Obama events within 25 miles of Chapel Hill, NC: 106

Upcoming McCain events within 25 miles: 1

(Listed by the search results as 2, but it's the same event posted twice)

106 to 1, that is a margin Obama volunteers can be proud of! And by the way, if you go out farther into the red areas of our state, 100 miles from Chapel Hill, Obama still commands an impressive lead in events, 203 to 6.

Four weeks to go, and early voting starts here on October 16!