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There are 9 days — NINE DAYS! — until the election.  Do you know where your yard signs are?  How about your polling place?  Have you offered to give rides to some of the folks who work with you — or your neighbors — or friends — or family to go and vote? 

For a window into the odd world that is campaign spending for the DCCC and the RNCC, the WaPo has a slice of insight into the folks who are ultimately responsible for money decisions on behalf of both party operations.  Very interesting stuff, keeping in mind that it is written by VandeHei and Cillizza, and that both parties are spinning like crazy and trying to psych out the other side by revealing nothing and yet hinting at things that may or may not be true.  (H/T to TeddySanFran for the article link.)

Hilarious.

And although I obviously disagree with the decision on lack of spending in the OH-2 (hello, kick Mean Jean's butt, thanks, and give Wulsin a hand!), the sheer magnitude of the balancing tests that both sides have to perform with limited resources being spread out over the whole of the country must be some insane spreadsheet disco.

It is one of the reasons that we decided to try and step up to the plate and fill a little of the void that the DCCC and the DSCC was leaving behind.  There are so many progressive candidates that were getting shoved to the sidelines because Rahm's DCCC and Schumer's DSCC were not pushing these candidates as much as we thought they ought to be in districts that we felt could be competitive with a little help.  Take a peek at our Blue America candidate list and see how many of those races are highly competitive now — and tell me that real people taking some initiative into their own hands in this nation can't make a difference.  (That, and the fact that Howie is a genius!)

The lesson is that we cannot wait for someone else to do the work.  We have to all pitch in where we see a need — the hell with waiting for someone else to tell us what to do, because that has not worked int he past and I'd still be sitting here waiting for my call-back if I just sat on my hands and so would you. 

And while we're at it, we're still trying to buy some ads in Tony Trupiano's district — so if you have a fiver to spare, we'd sure appreciate a donation to the Blue America PAC via our Blue America page to bring those ads home.  The donation has to go to the Blue America PAC, not to Tony, because we cannot mix funds due to election law requirements — so if you can toss a little change in the Blue America PAC kitty , we sure would appreciate it! MODERATOR NOTE: The ad buy has a deadline late today, so if you are planning to contribute, please do it now!

Take a look at the competitive races map that the NYTimes has put together, and you'll see just how tight this match-up is this year in a whole lot of districts — and how crucial each and every spending decision and GOTV operation could be to the overall final numbers.

AdNags has a NYTimes article today discussing the differences between the DNC and GOP respective GOTV apparatus — and the folks on the outside of the party who are trying to make a difference in the calculation, especially on the democratic end of things with GOTV efforts.  Labor and MoveOn.org have stepped in to fill the party void — and folks like all of us are trying to step up and help to fill the breach.  (AdNags also has a little snarky snippet on the NYTimes political blog that is getting quite the pushback from readers, in case you are interested.  Here's a thought — next time, try not being condescending to the thought process of people who actually vote and are fed up.  H/T to reader LindyH for the link — amusing read.)

This year's election has a very interesting dynamic.  Just take a peek at this article on AlterNet that reader T- highlighted:

Former Bush I and Reagan official Bruce Bartlett lambasted the administration earlier this year with his book "Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy," which was soon followed by longtime conservative activist Richard Viguerie's "Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause." There are a dozen of them churning out columns and op-eds condemning Bush's profligate spending and pillorying his "compassionate," "Big Government" conservatism. Even former congressman Joe Scarborough — MSNBC's cut-rate version of Bill O'Reilly — got into the act, devoting a segment of his show to the fundamental question, "Is Bush an idiot?" and writing that he'd prefer "an assortment of Bourbon Street hookers running the Southern Baptist Convention to having this lot of Republicans controlling America's checkbook for the next two years."

A lot of this is finger-in-the-wind prognostication because, frankly, everyone loves a winner and at the moment George Bush is screeching loser from every pore. Which bodes well for the election outcome — but ONLY if we turn out our vote in droves.

Which brings us to the fundamental question, nine days and counting from the election:  what are you doing to help get out our vote?  You want some ideas?  We have them.  Or try clicking on the MoveOn.org ad in the upper left corner of the blog and make some GOTV calls from home today.  Just ask egregious — it's easy and painless and every call could get us one vote closer to a kick ass majority!  Or ask any number of other readers who have also pitched in with calls — for individual candidates or for MoveOn — because live contact really does make a difference.

Better yet, head down to the local Democratic party headquarters in your town or to a candidate office near you and offer to canvass or give rides to the polls…whatever it takes.  It is going to take every single one of us, running straight through to the finish line to bring in a victory on November 7th.  Conventional wisdom is that GOTV operations can make a difference in races that are within one or two points of each other.  That's the Missouri Senate race all by itself.

If you have been thinking about writing a letter to the editor in your local paper about a particular candidate, now is the time.  Make a call into a local talk radio show.  Talk with your co-workers, your family, your friends and your neighbors about the importance of voting — and about who deserves their votes.  Do it now. 

What are you doing to kick some GOP boo-tay today?