After witnessing what I did this evening, there is no doubt in my mind that Obama can take Ohio, and big.

Cincinnatians who signed up on the Obama website were emailed by the campaign early today. The campaign wanted us to know that they had secured a location for their Cincinnati office, and, apologizing for the extra-short notice, wanted to let us know they were having their first official Organizational Meeting tonight, at 6:00 p.m. Since they were still having the heat turned on at the new headquarters, and expected big attendance, the meeting was held at Friendship Baptist Church, about 5 minutes from downtown.

When I started to get close to the church, maybe two miles away, I hit ridiculously heavy traffic. It's an urban area and it's normally congested at rush hour, but this was ridiculous. When I got about five blocks from the church, it was pure gridlock, and I could see that all the side street parking was filling up, so, being late and irritated, I grabbed a spot and decided to trek through the ice and snow. So many people had that idea that we all started walking up the hill, and chatting, and the crowd just got larger. When I made it inside, it was already standing room only with TV crews and all. A very festive atmosphere!

I decided to go up front and lean against a wall, when a very nice young gentleman got out of his folding chair and gave it to me. I looked around at all the people... young and old, fathers and daughters, mothers and sons, black, white, Asian, Latino, gay, straight... and even some rather out-of-place Republican-looking men in suits. I noticed that the back of the church was now filling up, people were crowding in, and many were practically jammed against the doors. People just kept on coming. The room was overflowing and buzzing and cheerful.

The meeting was called to order and a lovely young woman named Bettina Tsongas (yes, Paul's daughter!) came up to the microphone. She practically had tears in her eyes. She said of all the states she'd been to, this was the most amazing organizational crowd she'd ever seen. The campaign staff all came up to the mic and talked about how overwheliming we were, they sincerely seemed touched.

I won't go into the details of the meeting, but when it was wrapping up, Bettina told us that they had made 700 copies of signup sheets, and they had run out.

In all my years of political activism and volunteerism, I'd never seen anything like it. We weren't coming to a rally, and we weren't coming to vote. We were coming to offer our time and our support. And to do that, just that one simple act of participation, we sat in a traffic jam on a miserable February day, we slid across treacherous ice, and ruined our best work shoes in the grey city snow. And we did this, with less than 24 hour notice, in the most incredible numbers I've ever seen for a primary election. A primary! And in Cincinnati, the Republican bastion of the state! I've never even seen a crowd half its size for the first volunteer meeting for a general election!

Here's hoping the support in Ohio outside our GOP enclave is even greater. What an incredible, and encouraging kickoff to what promises to be the most intense two-and-a-half week Primary battle this state has ever seen.