Image Right Rawl addresses Spartanburg Democratic Convention.

The tour was uphill because it ran from South Carolina s coast where the historic gardens of Charleston are greening towards an explosion of Azaelias over the sand hills and through the State Capital to the manufacturing cities of the Piedmont. We gained over a thousand feet in elevation in the course of the day.

It s also uphill because Vic s opponent Jim Waterloo Demint is constantly reported to have a campaign fund of over three million dollars. Our fund which has doubled in the last 24 hours is a few million less. Some people conclude the incumbent s lead in special interest cash exempts DeMint from having to run a real campaign.

The day began with the campaign website went online with flikr twitter and youtube feeds. You can view it's evolving content at www.vicrawl.com.

READ THE EXTENDED TEXT TO FIND OUT HOW THE TRIP WENT

In Charleston we began the campaign in front of the Lonnie Hamilton County Building where the words public service are cut into the stone above the rotunda entrance. Vic currently represents the people of Charleston County as a member of County Council there. On a Monday during working hours 75 supporters appeared to encourage Vic.

Everything we learned in the 2008 election was working for us that morning. Social networks we ve built and interconnected recruited participation. The closets of equipment we ve accumulated produced the PA system and set up gear. The Welstone Campaign training Vic Took three weeks ago showed up in how the event was set up how we interacted the media and in the stray we made sure that the American Flag Vic served for 26 years in the National Guard was visible in the background.

Harlan Hill (in bow tie in image on left) our 19 year old web wizard was working our brand new HD video camera with his laptop slung over his shoulder. Experienced friends like Kurt and George stepped forward to handle signing people up to go on the mailing list. Fellow County Council members Colleen Condon Curtis Inabinett and twenty others volunteered to stand behind Vic Holding rally signs in support of the campaign.

We lingered long enough to pack up hug our friends and make sure all the equipment got in the Car. Harlan had our first still images on the www.vicrawl.com website before we passed Summerville.

Charleston Kickoff Announcement with Vic Rawl

Soon Vic Rawl for US Senate will have an office with desks on which heavy probably donated computers will sit plugged into the wall. However Vic s white Ford truck with its brand new magnetic Vic Rawl Our New Senator signs is doing fine for now. Harlan had the website fully updated before we got to Columbia while we were moving from the back seat of the car.

Those pictures and the substance of our tweets were showing up in the media within minutes. We were on twenty different websites blogs and electronic editions of print media before the 1 pm press conference. Cell phones were ringing. We were checking the campaigns online calendar.

I m beginning to wonder what you can do in an office that the inside of a white Ford Freestyle can t do better.

We had a great crowd at Democratic Headquarters in Columbia. I knew people had been scaling up the effort there but to see the rooms full of people driving the computers pushing out the mail and connecting people across the state was impressive. Carol Fowler greeted us. More of our friends were waiting to hold rally signs and smile.

This was a sit down presser. Vic made his stump speech and was warmly received but it was the questions which made this stop special.

My favorite was the question about the books. Vic hasn t read all of them as Sarah Palin told Katie Couric but he has read over 150 books since the last election. Vic was asked if he had read The Family Jeff Scarlet the expose about the C street group that provided DeMint and several other senators with a sort of right wing dorm near the US capital. They re allegedly powerful but not in perfect control. It is said that in the C street house they planned how to save Mark Sanford s marriage and how John Ensign could allegedly purchase the forgiveness of his mistresses husband with 98 Thousand dollars.

We had been trying to get Vic to read the book but he s working through quite a pile which has included Blackwater an expose about the overpriced privatization of the war effort in Iraq and Naomi Klien s the Shock Doctrine about how events like Katrina and the near collapse of the global economy are exploited.

The campaign staff would like to thank the media for getting Jeff Scarlet s book to the top of Vic s reading list. We would like to thank the supporter who presented us with a paperback copy of the book in the parking jot after the press conference. It saved us a skip to Barnes and Nobel. That was good because Vic doesn t have a Kindle yet and Rawl for Senate likes to keep moving.

We lunched at Jillian s. I asked the waitress if we could have a table with good Wi-Fi near a power outlet. Between uploads we had salads for the old guys and burgers for the young guys. By the end of lunch Google Alerts told us we had a major article on Politico and in the Examiner. Content from the Columbia presser was showing up around the internets before we had finished. Phone calls were coming in. Quotes were going out. Our tweets were showing up in newspapers. Vic s pictures were popping up on blogs.

People wanted to talk. Vic got a chance to listen in person online on the phone and in tittle updates which flashed around the effort like fireflies at dusk.

Image Left Spartanburg Convention.

At the Spartanburg Democratic convention we pulled into the parking lot beside the Jim Rex for Governor War wagon and down the lot from the Sheheen Field team. We re on good terms with everyone even our primary opponent. DeMint unites a lot of people in the way he disappoints South Carolina.

The Vic Rawl banner went up on the High School Auditorium stage. The speeches went out to the Spartanburg Democrats including Gov. Jim Hodges and Congresswoman Elizabeth Patterson. Rex reported a lot of progress on education but the opposition prefers to promote failure. The lifetimes of work of teachers Mark Sanford wants to furlough have given South Carolina s students the nation s greatest gain in High School Graduation rates. Sanford and DeMint would rather push vouchers by promoting failure. When South Carolina gets it right DeMint and Sanford won t talk about it much.

We also heard from Frank Holleman running for Secretary of Education and Robert Ford running for Governor.

We had gotten warm receptions in the Lowcountry and Midlands but in Jim DeMint s backyard they cheered louder and longer. We got it all on video.

We got out of Spartanburg late and plunged into the dark towards the Greenville Convention. We missed a call in to the David Mack radio show in Charleston in the disruption but we ll hit them back next week.

In Greenville (Image left) Marilyn Hemmingway other activists and a stressed county party leadership held the convention together while we made a wrong turn and arrived late at the back side of the huge center. We finally found each other. Vic delivered a shortened version of his remarks and the Greenville Democrats gave us the loudest cheers of the day. They made us promise to come back. The local Fox station waited for a television interview and people leaving told us they had heard about Vic on the radio that day.

As we headed back to Columbia for a morning strategy session with friends references to the campaign and more coverage was beginning to pop in on the media websites. Harlan was sending out another set of images from the back seat. Vic was answering calls from supporters across the state.

Everyone thought a spot post on the day was a good idea. As we rolled downhill on I-26 I began to plan this post which on our hyperlinked online G3 powered video enabled mobile effort I regard as the last heroic stand of the written word.

Vic met a lot of people Monday. He answered their questions and listened more than he talked. When he did talk it was the same solid do it now and make it matter approach to reality he had as a judge.

What we heard was too much fear and anger. There is too much work out there in South Carolina from the classroom to the factory floor that is unrecognized and inadequately rewarded. DeMint s planning his own tour across the state next week Mark Rubio who s running for Senate in Florida. Maybe DeMint should leave Mark in the sunshine state and listen to his constituents instead.

South Carolinians are worried about their kids their jobs and what is happening to their communities. They re not afraid of sacrifice and hard work but they want to be sure it enriches their lives not some powerful group of strangers. They want to feel good about being Americans and South Carolinians again. They want a new Senator.

William Hamilton www.wjhamilton.com is an attorney from Charleston and a volunteer with the Rawl for US Senate Campaign. Statements made in this post do not necessarily represent the views of the candidate.