Following the larger organizational meeting held on Wednesday for the Oregon Obama campaign, four of us met this afternoon to work on web and web-related items. And golly, they looked to me as their guide for getting this part right, which is both cool and appropriate. I've been doing this for a while, and though I'll never sell myself as an expert, I do have some idea of what to do.

For me, the #1 thing to do is to put forward what I think would work best, get feedback from the others on what they need, and then synthesize that. Of course, we have to talk things over, I have to explain why I'm doing certain things (and not doing other things), they have to clarify their goals, we each have to discover where we misunderstand and then clarify that, and whatever I end up doing in the next couple of days may only be tentative when I start getting feedback.

And you know what? It's fun. I love working with other people on a project like this. I love small groups focused on a common goal, no one need to be right all the time or having a big chunk of Real Truth to defend to the death. All four of us came with goals and questions, and above all, all four of us want to elect Barack Obama president. We want to help make Oregon one of his best, key states.

And now, at last, the work is really underway. We'll be heading out to public events around Portland like the Clinton Street Festival (and Parade?). We'll be getting meetups going. House parties, tabling, letters to the editor, and in the not-too-distant future, a visit from the candidate (we hope). I do a lot of my work on my own, writing and futzing with webpages and all the rest. I mostly prefer that, but linking up with others and knowing I'm on the team with them — it's great.

People bitch about politics. They should try this, home-made grassroots politics. Can't be beat. That's the hope, anyhow.