"Hi, I'm with the Secret Service"

Let me be frank for a moment. Being a democrat in Indiana and at times being a voter in Indiana at all has seems a moot point for Hoosiers. Campaigns don't stop here. Analysts call Indiana red early in the day and move on. Or so conventional wisdom holds, but this year things have been quite different. The candidates and family members have made more than seventy Indiana campaign stops and nearly five percent of the state 200,000 people registered as democrats this year bolstering gains made in the last seven years by the party in Indiana which has only voted democrat three times in a century and twice voted against Woodrow Wilson despite the fact that his Vice President was from Indiana.

In adition to working here at Current I juggled two other part time jobs as you can find in my profile. One at an Imax theatre and the other at a nearby park in Indianapolis. It was only my third day back on the job in the park at the Garfield Park Arts Center, I was running a few minuites late because of traffic and I wanted my boss to know I had gotten in, the first words I hear when I get to her office are from two campaign staffers "Senator Obama will be ariving in the park....." I was understandably taken aback. The Senator had chosen the Arts Center and the Park as the place for an exclusive interview with the today show as well as a town hall meeting and a series of small radio and print interviews. The stop was a secret and one we were asked to keep, my boss wasn't even able to tell her daughter and I kept my exceptionaly large mouth shut about the stop as well which is hard working for a news network, but when you have someone hold out thier hand and say "Hi, I'm with the Secret Service, we need to do a security sweep." it makes one heck of a lasting impression on you.

Afterwards Barack and Michelle took the time to speak with us breifly and snapped some photos. He even had time to sign a few books for us while we gave him a piece of artwork from our after shcool childrens art program. That's me at the back to the right of the Senator and Michelle. It was quite a surreal experience to say the least.

To make things even more complicated this week when I sat down to watch the interviews there was a "Hillary for president sticker on my door and a "Hillary the Smart Choice" sign inside my house. My grandmother had been front and center at a rally with Bill Clinton in Indianapolis and my cousin, her nephew who is a local union leader gave them to her after the rally and tonight she and the Arts Center both made it onto the television. I was stunned, it was pure punditry, a Grandma at a Hillary rally and a Grandson working at an Obama campaign stop. It was as if every political article on current were jumping from my screen and into my living room today and its an experience that is very strange for Hoosiers who though often well versed in politics are very used to watching politics from a distance. Its an experience that will likely be reflected in a record primary turnout.