This is my Palin bounce, the event that's shifting my writing plans and priorities: tonight I know for sure that this election will not be an easy coast to victory for the Democrats, that it will be won only if those of us who care get out and fight. John McCain and Sarah Palin have taken the lead in the polls. If you've been reading my blog entries, you know that my big issue for the past couple of months has been getting started on the book I've contracted to write for FSG, The Undressing of America. But right now I can't worry about the book. In less than two months we Americans will vote in a presidential election that I believe will be tremendously important for this country. I don't believe that John McCain is a "change agent." I believe he will perpetuate the policies of the Bush-Cheney administration, and that if he dies, President Palin will be even worse. I believe that an Obama victory will bring hope for a national renewal, but even if that's too optimistic, I believe it will bring hope for simple sanity. I believe this election matters profoundly to the future of this country and the world, and I believe that a McCain-Palin victory is a real possibility.

I'm not thrilled with the way Obama and Biden are running their campaign. They're still way too nice, way too cautious, way too slow to respond to Republican attacks, doing exactly what destroyed Kerry and Gore. Obama and Biden seem neurotically compelled to praise John McCain to the skies before they say anything against him. Obama is still too vague on the issues, and he seemingly can't help himself from doubling back to old statements, second-guessing and criticizing himself. Hillary Clinton, based on her performance earlier today, is obviously not going to be the fierce anti-Palin warrior I hoped she would be. (And who can blame her, sitting on the biggest "I told you so" in American political history?) I don't think this election is going to be won by the brilliance of the campaigners. It's going to be won, if it's won at all, by the army of volunteers. As Obama himself said, "This election isn't about me. It's about you."

So. As of tomorrow morning I will shift my energies away from the book and toward the campaign. I'll still pay the bills, still get my kid to school, still walk my dog, still upload chapters of the books I've already written with Will Jacobs. But the work has to be stripped down to what will sustain daily life while leaving time and energy free for volunteering. I've been hesitating over a job, but I'm going to sign the contract tomorrow: writing a series of early-readers chapter books based on a Japanese cartoon. They'll go pretty quickly and they pay pretty well. I've got some comics work I can hustle, too, with a good dollar-to-hour ratio. I know I'll still work on The Undressing of America when my mind goes there. I'll probably still blog about it occasionally when things occur to me. But it's going on the back burner. So is the political blogging, because what this campaign needs is not me thinking and opining but me raising money and registering voters, unless I experience something in the campaign that seems important to pass along, or my fellow volunteers think my time will be better used here than on the phone.

As I've been thinking about this, I've wondered a couple of times if this was just an excuse to get away from the rigors of writing a difficult book. But I really believe that for me to let anything non-essential pull me away from the Democratic campaign at this moment would be irresponsible and selfish.

After all, the problems of one little narrative non-fiction writer don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.