What is it that people say when they stand up to speak at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings? My name is... and I have not had a drink in five days, or five weeks, or five months or five years.

Well my name is Chris and I have not had a day without politics in nine months. Of course, it is not like I could or would want to give up this election addiction. I work in politics and this is our version of a 4 th quarter game with the score tied. Right now the whole world is watching, and everywhere I go when I tell people what I do for a living they at least feign interest as they lament the fact that it can be so negative.

Here is the truth about working in campaign politics. It is not nearly as dirty a business as people think, but it also not nearly as glamorous as people think. Working in politics is about grinding it out as though you were running sprints in pre-season practice. Working in politics means not sleeping, not eating, and not returning your friend's calls. It is demoralizing and it is sublime all in the same hour. It is being invited in for dinner and having the door slammed in your face at houses right next to each other. It is about dancing around and issue one minute and then all of sudden standing up for principles the next. It is about trying to reach out and listen to people, and bothering people while they are eating dinner. Most of all, politics, when done right is about the community coming together to be bitterly divided.

I am not sure if anyone wants to hear more about politics when we are already over saturated with a twenty-four hour news cycle of superficial coverage and a steady stream of attack adds. However, at the end of a 14 hour day on the campaign trail I am so hopelessly addicted that only thing I can think to do is writing about politics and watch The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.

Therefore, over the next six weeks I am going to share insight on what life is real like on the campaign trail. I will share the dirt when there is some, but hopefully I will share some ideas of how we can move away from the ugly partisan politics we see on news. I have been working on this campaign for 264 days so far and there have been an almost equal number of moments of disillusionment and inspiration. There are 43 more days and I can promise you that this race has only begun.