Could Obama have won Iowa due to bullying other caucus goers into switching sides?

[goldcanyonaz]

I don't recall anyone bringing this up after he won Iowa.

For anyone who hasn't been to a caucus, you have to be very strong to not be run down by the bully mentality of other caucus goers.

New Hampshire is a primary where voters get to vote in private, where than can vote their heart.

Food for thought.

[Fresh_Start]

1. I'd believe that caucus is a more emotional voting environment

rock concert, football game, etc ----- which results in excessive emotions.

But I don't know what went on in the Iowa caucuses. We don't know if Obama had more vocal supporters or Edwards.
But I wouldnt' think it be a great environment for considered voting.

[HeraldSquare212]

2. Well, as someone pointed out, you could vote for a second choice in Iowa

but not in NH, so he probably did get a fair number of second votes. But bullying? These are neighbors, not strangers in an alley.

[Fresh_Start]

8. Bullying is the wrong concept: crowd psychology is closer to it

and we well know from psych studies that the majority of people in a crowd will do things they wouldn't otherwise do

[Colobo]

3. No.

[Occam Bandage]

4. I was wondering why he was providing his supporters with "Obama '08" baseball bats.

:eyes:

[sandnsea]

5. They might have bussed in illegal voters

and used Republican operatives. According to some posts around here, as I recall.

[no name no slogan]

6. Have you ever even BEEN to a caucus?

Please....

[Clarkansas]

7. VOTE OR DIE!

To answer your question: no.

[debatepro]

10. Contrary trend reports

There are reports that Obama supports went over to edwards in order to get him more "delegates". I am trying to find the two reports I read now but in one case edwards wasn't even viable and obama had a ton of extra support that they leaked over to make him viable. I will look for the reports...

[wyldwolf]

9. yes, and he used thugs from Diebold to do it.

[nevergiveup]

11. Yeah sure,

I heard he infiltrated each caucus with Chicago gang-bangers. With all due respect I think this is a stupid post.

[goldcanyonaz]

13. gang bangers? My post isn't any more stupid than the countless other threads around here.

It's something that I have been wondering and others have mentioned it as well. So I asked.

[Adelante]

12. Obama won on the first alignment, so no

As for bullying in a caucus during the realignment, it's how the caucuses work, though it could better be called convincing than bullying. It's Iowan politics and maybe your heart has to be stronger to stand out in the open in front of God and all and still stand strong for your candidate.

[debatepro]

14. Obama supporters helped Edwards to undermine Clinton in caucuses

This is from a comment that I thought was telling:
On Second Choices
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/1/4/151447/3389
underwhelm on Fri Jan 04, 2008 at 01:14:27 PM PST

It is more complicated than that.

I'll give you an example. At my precinct's first count, we had (roughly) Obama: 155, Clinton: 54, Edwards: 32, Other + Uncommitted: 51.

After the second count, it was Obama: 153, Clinton 66, Edwards: 60.

However, all 12 of the Richardson supporters moved en masse to Obama during realignment. He clearly was their second choice, yet he wound up with fewer supporters because some people who supported him in the first instance moved to support Edwards to give him a delegate.

All that is a very round about way of saying that Obama may have gotten a great deal of second-choice support... but some people who supported him as a first choice voluntarily exercised the option of making a second choice knowing the size of Obama's victory.

In fact, in an instant-runoff voting system, Obama's victory would have been larger than it was. People would not have been able to see the outcome of the first round of voting and adjust their strategy accordingly.

Clear as mud?

[grahamhgreen]

15. Kucinich and Richardson told caucies to vote for Obama - this was the difference

Unless the voting machines are rigged. What do they vote on in NH?

[MGKrebs]

16. 57% of his support in Iowa came from those under 30.

That is a large percentage of your support in one basket. If you can't get them to show up in big numbers, there will be trouble.

[More Than A Feeling]

17. I didn't see any bullying in my precinct, and if there had been it would have been ineffective.

The Richardson/Dodd/Biden/Kucinich supporters stayed with their candidate and held out until the very end.

[Renew Deal]

18. No, he won the first ballot.

But your racism is duly noted.

[LostinVA]

19. I said the same thing to Haruka on the phone a few minutes ago

As Is aid in a thread earlier, machines aren't the only way to rig an election.*

*I don't believe the caucus was rigged.

[bullwinkle428]

20. No one attempted to persuade, let alone bully anyone into

switching their positions from ANY of the candidate "camps" in my own caucus precinct. Mine included over 500 participants, so the "strength in numbers" was there if anyone was so inclined...