Yesterday I observed a Democratic caucus meeting in Iowa, which was a very interesting process to watch. It is one thing to read about it or watch the media try to explain it, but it is entirely different to experience it firsthand. It was especially interesting to walk around and listen to people as they tried to persuade their neighbors to vote for their candidate (and at least one lady even started yelling at people). It was also interesting to watch as the groups attempted to gain the fifteen percent needed to remain viable and gain delegates. In the caucus I attended, Obama received about half of the votes, followed by Edwards and then Richardson. No other candidate--including Hillary--reached fifteen percent.
After the caucus, I attended two victory rallies--those of Republican winner Mike Huckabee and Democratic winner Barack Obama. Both are excellent speakers and the crowds at both were very excited because of the results. The latter had more people, but the former had Chuck Norris. Below are a couple of photos from the evening and others that I took can be found here.
How cool! I'm jealous. Did you have to do anything special to get to observe? I would LOVE to go watch sometime.
ReplyDeleteSurprisingly, you just have to show up. There were lots of observers, including members of the press. I would recommend checking it out in four years. I hope to make a return visit then.
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