A REPUBLICAN GHOST INSIDE THE CLINTON MACHINE

For the first time since I first voted for president in 1972, I have donated money to and participated in a political campaign (rather than just pretending I'm participating with Facebook rants).

It's been educational. "The ground game" is now more than a phrase to me. As Mark Twain allegedly replied when asked if he believed in infant baptism, "Believe in it? Hell, I've SEEN it!"  

I've done three events.

The first was the opening of the Clinton headquarters in center city Bethlehem, PA. It is the second Clinton campaign headquarters in the Lehigh Valley alone. At the time it opened there were only TWO Trump campaign organizations in the entire STATE.

For the second event, two days later, I did an hour and a half of telephone work, calling registered Democrats asking them if they supported Hillary for president.

If they said 'no,' we simply thanked them for their time.

If they said 'yes,' we used a scale to estimate their level of commitment and attempted to get the most committed to volunteer for the campaign.

Then, on Saturday (yesterday) I was one of about fifteen drivers for canvassers. Close to fifty volunteers from New York City arrived on a bus to canvass. New York is considered unreachable by Trump so the Clinton campaign is using those resources to get out the vote in the suburbs of Philadelphia, including the Lehigh Valley.

Drivers dropped off their teams who then knocked on doors asking folks if they intended to vote and – if they did – had them fill out 'commitment cards' such that follow up could ensure that they were registered and could make it to the polls.

While this was going on, back at headquarters, volunteers were registering walk-in voters, doing data entry on the data drivers were bringing back from the field and ensuring canvassers had the forms and cards they needed. At all three events at headquarters there was an ASTONISHING amount of hot and cold food, deserts, and snacks as well as bottled water.

Now, here's the thing.

I've described THREE DAYS at one of TWO headquarters in the Lehigh Valley ALONE.

This type of activity (as well as rallies and get-togethers at people's homes) has been going on for the last three weeks and will continue daily through the election.

That A LOT of people volunteering A LOT of money, in-kind gifts of food and water, and time DAY AFTER DAY AFTER DAY.

And it's happening throughout the battleground states and into some traditionally red states as well.

So the next time you hear about Hillary Clinton's ENTHUSIASM gap, take it with a grain of salt.

Donald Trump's campaign has almost NONE of this, relying almost exclusively on one-off events with no follow up and television mayhem.

I'm pretty sure that while this won't be a Hillary slam-dunk in the popular vote, I am anticipating a WIDE lead in the Electoral College.