McCain, Obama supporters in Georgia rally

With little more than a week remaining before Election Day, Georgia supporters of Barack Obama held public rallies Saturday while fans of John McCain took more individual approaches by making phone calls and knocking on doors.

Both sides warned of dire consequences should their guy lose and the other guy win.

“God can’t be happy with the way we’re operating” the country, Laura Turner Seydel, Ted Turner’s daughter and an environmental activist, said to a cheering crowd at a “Women for Obama” rally on the steps of the state Capitol, the scene of one of several Obama rallies Saturday.

Some of the state Democratic Party’s stars were there — U.S. Senate candidate Jim Martin, former congressman and Atlanta Mayor Andy Young, U.S. Rep. John Lewis and Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin. Later Saturday, former President Bill Clinton was to be in town for another, private event to help raise money for Martin’s campaign to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss.

Also taking the microphone were Obama supporters such as Stephanie Blank, wife of Home Depot founder Arthur Blank, and stream of local and state elected officials. They sang and vowed to “turn this state blue.” Recurring themes were health care, the environment, the economy and the war in Iraq.

“Stay dedicated. Stay passionate, because it’s never going to go back to the way it was,” Seydel to a sign waving crowd of mostly women.

Thirty miles away in Lawrenceville, in the Gwinnett County headquarters of the Republican Party, Daphny Meagher and other volunteers were working the phones, focusing on what she described as “undecided, swing-type voters.”

While some placard-waving McCain supporters staked out busy street corners Saturday, the GOP emphasis in Georgia was on calling and knocking on doors of neighbors.

Mike Beaudreau, who organized the Gwinnett volunteers, said the Republicans depend on local party leaders to decide what to do. “They know how to do it better,” Beaudreau said.

Meagher said she volunteered to work for McCain — the first political campaign for the 61-year-old — for five hours Saturday because she opposed Obama’s proposal to raise taxes on those earning more than $250,000 a year.

“A majority of the people I’ve spoken to have already voted for McCain or are planning to vote for McCain,” Meagher said.

Is she reminding people to vote?

“I don’t think anybody could possibly forget they need to vote,” she said.