A Day of Action for Obama Campaign in Arlington

As people streamed into the park around the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial in Rosslyn to watch the fireworks across the river in Washington, volunteers wielding clipboards asked them if they were Obama supporters, and if they were registered to vote in Virginia.

"Voter registration is the most important aspect of our efforts," said Patrick Fitzsimmons, a volunteer summer organizer for the campaign to reelect President Obama.

In addition to Virginia voter registration forms, volunteers had "I'm in" campaign forms for supporters to fill out. These forms will allow the campaign to recruit volunteers and keep track of supporters.

Fitzsimmons said they were looking for more than 35 recruits from the hundreds of assembled residents and visitors.

The drive was part of a canvassing blitz by the Obama campaign to register and talk to potential voters out and about for Independence Day celebrations. Nine such events were held across Northern Virginia, with many more across the country.

"We all understand that Northern Virginia is important to winning Virginia," said Fitzsimmons. Likely to be a swing state in the 2012 election, he said, mobilizing the "very blue" region is key.

"Our hope is that we organize ourselves out of a job," said Fitzsimmons. The core group of early organizers like Fitzsimmons, 1,500 volunteer summer organizers across the country, are working to mobilize more volunteers as the campaign advances, eventually organizing neighborhood-level volunteer groups, he said.

The campaign, known as Obama for America, will try to rally the same kind of grass-roots support that was key to the 2008 victory, beginning with the early effort to re-mobilize volunteers from the last campaign or mobilize those who already support the president.