An Iowan's Caucus

[Hardrada]

I got about ten letters off in the mail and then went home to retrieve my cell phone and then went to the Edwards HQ in town where I made phone calls to get out people who would caucus for Edwards. Roberta and I then went over to the high school with a card table and food (shrimp, cookies and some Mexican-style snacks my wife had made) and then left once again to pick up some elderly ladies who had been repugs but decided to go for Edwards. They and my wife got off at the entrance (east rear door of the Maquoketa HS) and I parked the car and went in myself. Long lines waiting to go in and I had to fill out some forms. Finally took a seat and saved a space for my wife. Caucus began and we counted people. 120 in our precinct. The Obama folk had more people and the Hillary people were tied with us but we got enough people from the unviable candidates to get two delegates for Edwards. (Two for Obama, two for Edwards and one for Hillary C. in our precinct). It took some time to figure out how to do this and the caucus chair had to call Des Moines to make sure it all was OK. My spouse was elected to go to the county convention as one of these. I mainly sat and observed the Hillary people who seemed perhaps a bit puzzled at their lack of strength. Obama people were ticked that they did not get three delegates. Later we went to a hotel bar in town where the Obama young volunteers were noisily celebrating. We stayed there about an hour. I drank some 7-Up and watched the results on TV and then we decided to head home to a quieter atmosphere where we watched Huckleberry and Mitts give their speeches. Obama had a big speech too but I was tuned out and busy checking the Internet to see how the Iowa caucus was being reported on the world stage. An interesting day, indeed.
My main reason for going was to help wreck the Campaign of the Hillbots and it seemed to work so I don't have to see all those awful DLC hacks anymore and creatures like Madeline Albright. And we did succeed in tripping up the Inevitable Hillary.

[Anouka]

1. Thank you for reporting back from Iowa.

What was the usual age of the delegates? Were the 'second tier' a presence, or nearly invisible? How informed was everyone who came?

[Hardrada]

2. A wide age spread but the majority were boomers as is often

the case. A fair number of younger people too. Second teir was about 7 people out of 120 or so. People seemed quite attentive and knew the issues. A number of resolutions were brought up to the caucus chair also to be acted upon at the county convention.