DATELINE: Oakland, California

It’s D-Day eve, Mundane Monday, Calm Before The Storm Monday, and the most intense of the 22 migraine-intense battles going on when the polls open tomorrow morning is the contest for California’s massive haul of 370 pledged delegates - particularly in the absurdly tight Democratic race. Hillary Clinton had a substantial lead in the state for months, but thanks to a recent surge from Obama, the electoral junkie’s four favourite words still play tantalizingly on the tongue: too close to call.

Arriving in San Francisco in mid-afternoon, we visited the legendary McSweeneys store and writers’ workshop - 826 Valencia. Lee, the self-confessed political geek behind the desk, was wearing an Obama badge, and ready to do some “get out the vote stuff” the following day. We leave the store and a guy walking ahead of us is carrying an Obama banner. We drive through the Mission District in the rush hour and a solitary guy holding a huge homemade banner bearing the legend ‘Si se puede - Obama 08′ is waving it in the midst of a crowded intersection. Given this rash of ad hoc, last minute campaigning, it’s ironic that the two official Obama events we have lined-up for the evening are MIA. The first, a wine and cheese event in wealthy Commercial Avenue, is nowhere to be found. We approach the house it’s supposed to be at, and it’s only partially lit, with a distinct lack of Obama signs outside. The place is also disconcertingly quiet - and if there’s one thing we’ve learned on this trip it’s that groups of Obama supporters cannot be left alone for more than five seconds without chanting something. Nervously, we ring the doorbell, and a gruff-sounding guy answers on the intercom:

“Hello?”
“Er, yeah, is this the Obama wine and cheese event?”
“No. Wrong house.”
“Okay, sor-” click. We tip-toe back to our car.

Next, the supposedly boombox-soundtracked Obama ‘visibility event’ on 4th street was neither visible nor audible, and thus pretty much as abject a failure as you could get. Ho hum. A good opportunity to rest up at my cousin Sam’s house in Oakland ahead of the big day, and talk to him and his wife Yael about the election. Sam has been let down by electoral politics before - most notably when door-knocking for John Kerry in 2004, only to see Bush re-elected, to his dismay. But this time, he’s pretty excited.

“For once, my vote actually counts for something!” Normally the combination of being a registered Green and a resident of a state with a late primary date has rendered the situation otherwise (and please, let’s spare a thought for the voters of South Dakota and Montana, who don’t get to vote until 3 June this year). Both Sam and Yael will be voting for Obama, both of them like his willingness to say something - however nebulous - about tackling global warming. “But Obama’s not actually that progressive” Yael says. “I mean, what are the actual differences between Obama and Clinton, policy-wise?” she asks, semi-rhetorically. We mull on this: the differences are really more in tone and character. And perhaps more importantly, electability.

“Well that’s it. If they’re up against John McCain… those Christian conservative voters who don’t like McCain, and were maybe going to stay home on election day [in November], will come out just to vote against Hillary, they really see her as the antichrist.” Obama, meanwhile, consistently does well among Republicans and independents, thanks in part to his determination not to couch things in terms of ‘us’ and ‘them’. It’s surprising, given Obama’s centrism, that he has come out in favour of granting driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, which is a huge issue in California, especially among Latino communities, but is also likely to incense the right. “I’m really pleased about that,” says Yael. “It shows he’s not pandering.”

The migraine is brewing, the troops are going over the top, and we’ll be right here, in the eye of the storm, in the heat of the battle, mixing metaphors like Tom Cruise mixing Manhattans in Cocktail.