"Let’s play a game," my husband said while driving the other day. "The first one to spot a McCain bumper sticker wins."



Days later, dozens of Obama bumper stickers have floated by, but we’re still playing.



I wonder why that is?



Part of the answer might be found in a recent CNN poll that found that even the people who say they’re going to vote for McCain in the fall aren’t that fired up about it. In the same poll, a majority of Obama supporters described themselves as "extremely" or "very" enthusiastic about voting for him.



And there’s certainly a marked difference in the way the two men have conducted their campaigns.



Obama’s efficient online organizing and fundraising, including the use of social networks, peer groups, online communities and online-to-offline activism, has won raves for revolutionizing the modern presidential campaign.



This week, amid reports that his campaign is in disarrray, McCain shuffled his top advisors in just the latest such move he’s made in the last few months.



I haven’t heard much about the McCain campaign on the ground in New Mexico — except of course for McCain’s private fundraiser at Albuquerque car dealer Ken Zangara’s house on July 14 and a carefully-screened town-hall appearance in the city the following day.



But the Obama campaign’s much-vaunted organization is beginning to manifest itself here in New Mexico. I saw it myself the other day when I attended an Obama house party in Albuquerque, one of 40 planned for that day in New Mexico and one of 4,000 held nationwide.



I found out about the party after an Obama volunteer called and asked me to attend. Others who attended parties found out online, on Obama’s Web site, or by word of mouth.



The party I went to was run by Max Suderow, a 20-year old native of Lexington, Mass. who currently attends McGill University in Montreal, Canada. (He turns 21 on Election Day, Nov. 4.)



Suderow is one of about 80 Obama volunteers and paid staffers who are swarming all over New Mexico, heavy on heart and talent but light on home cooking and places to stay.



Suderow is part of an army of 3,600 so-called "organizing fellows" nationwide, aged 18 to 60, who work for free, donating their time, muscle and brain power to the Obama campaign. The house party Suderow helped organize was held smack in the middle of a sweltering Saturday — primetime for busy city people to be otherwise engaged. But about 40 of us showed up — between workouts and games and gardening and dips in the pool — to talk to others about how badly they want to help bring about a change in our country. We soon found there was no real agenda for the meeting; no signs, no stickers, not one picture of the candidate anywhere — just a bunch of strangers already united in purpose. At the urging of the organizers, we formed small groups and shared our reasons for being there.



I’m a hard case, but I have to admit I was inspired as I listened while people of all ages and colors, many wearing obviously homemade T-shirts depicting Obama, shared their hopes and fears for our country.



Several of those at the meeting were nowhere near old enough to vote.



A 15-year-old boy whose mother dropped him off in a battered old pickup said he was worried about global warming.



Another woman said she was concerned about changes to the telecommunications industry that had occurred or had been proposed under the Bush administration.



An elderly woman said she lives in a trailer park with 400 other senior citizens and wanted to know how she could host her own house party.



And we were all thrilled to discover that among us was a real-live Obama delegate, Albuquerque attorney Pameyla Herndon, who will cast her vote for Obama at the Democratic National Convention come August.



The organizers passed around sign-up sheets and encouraged us to share our contact information with each other. (I recieved several follow-up emails from fellow attendees.)



They never asked for money for the campaign, but instead implored us to share whatever we could — whether it was providing housing or cooking meals for campaign workers or donating office supplies for the campaign. They asked for this in addition to such traditional campaign volunteer duties as canvassing, phone-banking, or being deputized to sign up new voters.



It was all very grass-roots — with one little twist.



There is no Obama campaign headquarters in New Mexico yet, so the young organizers gently advised all of the old-school folks who came expecting to take home a yard sign or sticker or t-shirt to log onto mybarackobama.com and buy their own. Buy them in bulk if you want, they said, and hand them out to your neighbors, your classmates, your friends.



Apparently, campaign signs and stickers, once the easily-acquired currency of any political campaign, have taken on a new dimension.



Those Obama stickers and shirts and signs are at a premium out in the real world. If you really want one of them, you’re going to have to take a few steps out of your way and go online to get them. Or design your own, as a surprising large number of people are doing.



It’s a new way to campaign, a new way to motivate people, explained the young organizers.



And judging from the relentless parade of Obama stuff I see out there, I’d say it’s working pretty well.