First Caucus
Well, that was a hoot.
It would appear that I live in the 5th Precinct in Coralville, and so my Democratic buddies and I were to caucus at Northwest Junior High. (Which was a little odd; that's where I'd done my student teaching.) So, off I went.
My goal was to caucus for Chris Dodd, whom I think would be a swell president. He's smarter than Barack Obama, more experienced than Hillary Clinton, and has better pet causes (and, come down to it, better hair) than John Edwards.
So.
(Did it matter that I don't have an Iowa-issued ID? Nope. They didn't ask to see any documentation that I actually live in Coralville.)
The previous record for humongous caucuses in 5th Precinct was 120 people. Typically, it's like half that. Last night, there were 388. So.
Now, here's the way a caucus works. People huddle in "preference groups", and a couple of rounds of this, your preference group has to have 15% (that would be 59 people, in this case) to be considered "viable". Then the folks in charge --and we had a really friendly, competent guy in charge; go 5th Precinct!-- apportion the delegates (in our case, 8) to the viable groups in some sort of proportionality.
Out of the 388 people, the very large majority were for Clinton. Guess how many were there for Dodd. Yep; me. So I was made chair of the Dodd group. I found this hilarious. Someone had even put Dodd literature and banners in the Dodd room, but had not bothered to come to the caucus itself. Anybody want a Chris Dodd yard sign; I now have half-a-dozen.
Well, so I wandered over and joined the Biden group. They had twelve people.
Now, people from other groups can try to poach people. The Edwards people politely knocked, asked for support, offered to answer any questions, and left. Same with the Obama people. The Clinton people were obnoxious. They barged in, several times, and just talked at us. Hilary is the most experienced candidate. Hillary has been vetted; all her faults are on the table. Hillary is experienced. Hillary brokered a peace deal in Ireland. Hillary will lead the country in a new direction. Hillary is so terribly experienced. Hillary will get all the troops out of Iraq in 60 days. Hillary has energy. Hillary has so much experience. (Never "Senator Clinton". Always "Hillary".)
We asked them to leave. They just kept talking at us. Finally, we got ornrey. Don't try to snowball second-tier supporters, people. We didn't come down in favor of someone like Joe Biden (or Chris Dodd) as a lark, or because it was trendy, or because we were only superficially familiar with the race. (And for Heaven's sake, don't try to tell a Biden group that Hillary is the most experienced candidate.) Incidentally, telling people that sticking with their preferred candidate "is like throwing the election to the Republicans" doesn't win you any points either.
After the first round of grouping, Richardson had about 15 people. (Biden supporters apparently don't like Richardson at all. It seems he stretches the truth in debates. Who knew?) Kucinich had 7. (Seven! Sigh.) Clinton had about 150.
So the Biden people decided to try for making "undecided" viable. "Undecided" means you send a delegate to the national convention who can make up his or her mind there. It would send a signal.
Nope. Not enough people wanted to do that. We were again wooed by Edwards, wooed by Obama, and bombarded by Clinton, particularly by her campaign chair, who's a professor at the University of Iowa. She's going to fix Pell grants! I asked how, when that's congress's purview. I asked why she hadn't already introduced such legislation. I told him to go away.
It's my opinion that Hilary Clinton has gotten a lot of enthusiastic supporters who see her personally and are moved by her personality. They talk about her warmth, her caring, her energy. But they haven't looked at her policies. So they fall back on "experience", which I think is code for "she understands this stuff, so I don't have to."
But her campaign chair and other vocal supporters wre so obnoxious that, not only did they gain no one, but people in her own group started drifting away.
The Obama people were one person shy of sewing up a delegate. The Obama chair promised that anybody in the undecided camp who would be countd for Obama would get to be a delegate. No takers. No takers. No takers. Finally, I said, "What the heck; sure!" And I was offered the opportunity to be a delegate to the national Democratic convention.
Thanks, but no. That sounds like Somebody Else's Idea Of A Good Time.
End result: Obama, 4 delegates. Edwards, 3 delegates. Clinton, 1 delegate.
It would appear that I live in the 5th Precinct in Coralville, and so my Democratic buddies and I were to caucus at Northwest Junior High. (Which was a little odd; that's where I'd done my student teaching.) So, off I went.
My goal was to caucus for Chris Dodd, whom I think would be a swell president. He's smarter than Barack Obama, more experienced than Hillary Clinton, and has better pet causes (and, come down to it, better hair) than John Edwards.
So.
(Did it matter that I don't have an Iowa-issued ID? Nope. They didn't ask to see any documentation that I actually live in Coralville.)
The previous record for humongous caucuses in 5th Precinct was 120 people. Typically, it's like half that. Last night, there were 388. So.
Now, here's the way a caucus works. People huddle in "preference groups", and a couple of rounds of this, your preference group has to have 15% (that would be 59 people, in this case) to be considered "viable". Then the folks in charge --and we had a really friendly, competent guy in charge; go 5th Precinct!-- apportion the delegates (in our case, 8) to the viable groups in some sort of proportionality.
Out of the 388 people, the very large majority were for Clinton. Guess how many were there for Dodd. Yep; me. So I was made chair of the Dodd group. I found this hilarious. Someone had even put Dodd literature and banners in the Dodd room, but had not bothered to come to the caucus itself. Anybody want a Chris Dodd yard sign; I now have half-a-dozen.
Well, so I wandered over and joined the Biden group. They had twelve people.
Now, people from other groups can try to poach people. The Edwards people politely knocked, asked for support, offered to answer any questions, and left. Same with the Obama people. The Clinton people were obnoxious. They barged in, several times, and just talked at us. Hilary is the most experienced candidate. Hillary has been vetted; all her faults are on the table. Hillary is experienced. Hillary brokered a peace deal in Ireland. Hillary will lead the country in a new direction. Hillary is so terribly experienced. Hillary will get all the troops out of Iraq in 60 days. Hillary has energy. Hillary has so much experience. (Never "Senator Clinton". Always "Hillary".)
We asked them to leave. They just kept talking at us. Finally, we got ornrey. Don't try to snowball second-tier supporters, people. We didn't come down in favor of someone like Joe Biden (or Chris Dodd) as a lark, or because it was trendy, or because we were only superficially familiar with the race. (And for Heaven's sake, don't try to tell a Biden group that Hillary is the most experienced candidate.) Incidentally, telling people that sticking with their preferred candidate "is like throwing the election to the Republicans" doesn't win you any points either.
After the first round of grouping, Richardson had about 15 people. (Biden supporters apparently don't like Richardson at all. It seems he stretches the truth in debates. Who knew?) Kucinich had 7. (Seven! Sigh.) Clinton had about 150.
So the Biden people decided to try for making "undecided" viable. "Undecided" means you send a delegate to the national convention who can make up his or her mind there. It would send a signal.
Nope. Not enough people wanted to do that. We were again wooed by Edwards, wooed by Obama, and bombarded by Clinton, particularly by her campaign chair, who's a professor at the University of Iowa. She's going to fix Pell grants! I asked how, when that's congress's purview. I asked why she hadn't already introduced such legislation. I told him to go away.
It's my opinion that Hilary Clinton has gotten a lot of enthusiastic supporters who see her personally and are moved by her personality. They talk about her warmth, her caring, her energy. But they haven't looked at her policies. So they fall back on "experience", which I think is code for "she understands this stuff, so I don't have to."
But her campaign chair and other vocal supporters wre so obnoxious that, not only did they gain no one, but people in her own group started drifting away.
The Obama people were one person shy of sewing up a delegate. The Obama chair promised that anybody in the undecided camp who would be countd for Obama would get to be a delegate. No takers. No takers. No takers. Finally, I said, "What the heck; sure!" And I was offered the opportunity to be a delegate to the national Democratic convention.
Thanks, but no. That sounds like Somebody Else's Idea Of A Good Time.
End result: Obama, 4 delegates. Edwards, 3 delegates. Clinton, 1 delegate.