Iowa reporting in
Post below begging to hear from Iowa has turned up a caucus goer–or as we have been calling them caucusasians!
UPDATE: David Cochran, 2nd Iowan reporting in, is on comments below. Sound like a rousing blow for discussion, debate, and democracy!
Here’s Koch’s report:
Posted by
on January 4th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
I went to my first caucus last night, even though I’ve been able to vote for over —let’s see—3 or 4 decades…(Yikes!)….anyway, my 18 year old son was going (for Obama) and I was undecided but had been impressesd over the years with Biden and Dodd.
We went to Irving Elementary School and people were streaming in at 6:15, looking for their ward (or precinct—I’m not versed in these details). We were directed to the location for our precinct (the library) and when we went in there were 60 some people there, with supporters for a candidate congregated together. Hillary and Obama had the biggest groups, Edwards a smaller one. There were 3 people at a table with the Biden poster up. The organization of this caucus process was a bit lax. As we stood around waiting for the event to begin, my guitar teacher, a Biden supporter, walked in looking for the precinct listings. He wondered if I was supporting Biden and when I told him i was undecided he urged me to go Biden. He noted that BIden’s plan to bring order to IRaq had passed the Senate.
As we talked, a Richardson supporter came up asking if i would support Richardson. She needed more supporters to make Richardson viable. But since my guitar teacher (and colleague here at University of Northern Iowa) had found me, I took that as a sign (I’m hopelessly naive about political convictions!). Our precinct captain had just been asked to organize the caucus a few days ago. He had done this sort of things for years but had been absent for several more years, so he plodded along. When the real caucus began, we Biden supporters numbered 7. So supporters from the other candidates approached us asking us to join them. The man in our group who was use to caucusing went to the Hillary group to see if their extra people would join us to make us viable (we needed 12 supporters to get 15% of the number of supporters).
One Obama guy asked me what issues i was concerned about. I had so many, i didn’t know where to start. i said, “Iraq and education.” he then went into a spiel about Obama’s plans. Eventually I said, “who knows what he can do once he’s in office. At this point, I think we need to keep up the exchange of ideas and so I’d rather join with another small group to make them viable. So we have 3 groups discussing things. I think the words we need to give us better understandig of our problems are yet to be expressed and will only be expressed if we discuss things.” The Obama guy liked that. It ended up the Richardson people joined us and so Biden got one delegate for the county convention.
I left with the impression that it is easy to get involved in politics—just go to a caucus. I could have become a county delegate. And you see all sorts of people there, grumpy children of God, rude children of God. Those precinct caucuses in more depressed areas must really be a revelation. One’s patience would be tested, but i think you would have impressive expereinces of human solidarity and hope (and frustration). I tell students that their liberal education should be showing them how to be civic leaders. I better walk the walk more.
I had a great time. Same location, the local YWCA, but twice the people as 2004. We all went into the gym. My youngest son wanted to go with Edwards since that was the last candidate he met. My oldest wanted to leave and go to the GOP caucus to support McCain since that was the last candidate he met.
My wife and I went to the Obama corner with some friends, and it was amazing as more and more people streamed in and our corner kept filling. Clinton and Edwards were also strong, but not as many. After we learned the magic number for viability, 54 in our precinct, everyone started working on the Biden, Dodd, and Richardson folks, as well as the undecidedes. Most Richardson folks came over to Obama before the first official count was even taken, while most of the Dodds joined the Bidens in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to reach viability. As each person broke off and joined the larger groups, cheered erupted.
It was a great scene—a warm gym, all the neighborhood kids playing a game of tag in the middle, and around them folks persuading, debating, doing quick math on sheets of paper, trading promises of delegates, and so on.
We were ultimately down to three viable groups who qualified for delegates, but dividing them up was still an issue given the math formulas used. For awhile our Obama group was one person short for qualifying for an extra delegate (and denying that delegate to the other two). When my neighbor from across the street, whose husband clears the street’s driveways with his bobcat after big snowfalls, walked across to our group to get us over the line, it was awesome.
In the end, we ended up with 5 delegates, Clinton with 3, and Edwards with 2. Then we grabbed the kids and walked out into the snow (our cell phone ringing from friends in other precincts with word of similar Obama totals).
This is so cool! Thanks for posting, you guys. I haven’t been this proud to be an American since I don’t know when. What a great country where the guy who drives the Bobcat makes the difference. And how great that you went with your families!
I seem to recall a horrid game from gym class in which a group inside a chalk circle tries to pull outsiders in, while they, in turn, try to pull the insiders out. The whole thing was utterly pointless, and it brought out the worst in everyone. Made about as much sense as the caucus system.