Thoughts from Kansas

Obama's big bet on Nevada:

a secret weapon for the Democrats may be the legions of Bay Area liberals who have been making weekend migrations to Reno to canvass for Obama. Although the Obama campaign was cagey about the numbers, Alise Moss, 53, a healthcare consultant from Sparks, Nev., who has hosted several groups of California volunteers at her house, claimed that on a recent weekend the campaign had 400 volunteers show up. "We love those crazy Californians," said Moss with a laugh. "California's navy blue, and they don't mind coming over here and knocking on doors, and all those rejections."

If they can help get enough new Latino voters interested, they may help paint Nevada a rare shade of blue come Nov. 4.

Let me tell you, I was among those 400+ volunteers a couple weekends ago, and Nevada rocks. We were knocking on doors in trailer parks, in RV parks, and in military housing that's been converted to duplexes. A lot of houses had been foreclosed. A lot of people were angry. And I don't recall anyone coming to the door wanting to vote for John McCain. We were instructed not to go inside people's houses, but I got a lot of friendly offers of a seat to chat, and spoke to a lot of people who were waiting for the debates to make up their minds.

But how were they making up their minds? By listening for who would bring them change. And it's pretty clear that McCain can't even deliver pocket change, and this country needs a whole lot more. Nevada needs a whole lot more.

Am I going back out to Nevada? Heck yeah. And I encourage anyone else interested in traveling to a swing state to go to the Obama webpage, select your home state, and look for a link to "Drive for Change." Southern Californians are heading to Las Vegas, I know New Yorkers heading out to Pennsylvania, and and the campaigns in New Mexico, Colorado, Virginia and Ohio wouldn't turn away any offers of assistance.

In Nevada, voting starts on October 18, which means we're less than three weeks from the start of voting in a key battleground state. New Mexicans can start voting early on the 18th as well. Now is the time to get involved. John Kerry lost Nevada by 20,000 votes, but Democrats have gained a 50,000 registration lead over Republicans statewide. All we have to do is turn out those new registrants, and Barack Obama will win Nevada. And there's a decent chance that if he can win Nevada, he'll win the White House. So get to it.