The Next Caucus

Last weekend T volunteered to attend the next level of caucusing with me. Therefore, early on a Saturday morning, we headed down to a local high school (an hour early to be sure and get parking) to attend my district caucus. We were not the only people to arrive early, and by about quarter to the hour, there was a huge crowd outside the glass doors. We happened to be standing near the front, so when a caucus official stuck her head out to grab a volunteer, she happened to pick us.

We spent the next several hours signing people in who wanted to run for the delegation to the state caucus. This in turn gave us the chance to chat with a Clinton staffer who's spent the last several months driving around the country working for the campaign. I was very impressed with her intelligence and dedication (she gets almost nothing for the work but room, board, and gas money), but more on her later.

After our volunteering job ended, we joined the crowds of waiting people listening to speeches. The speeches were really there to make you not mind the waiting so much. It seems it takes a loooong time to figure out how many delegates are there, how many alternates are there, and how many alternates need to be credentialed to become delegates. This process took literally about five hours.

The one thing that really disturbed me about the experience was the behavior of the Obama supporters. I did not hear one Clinton person say a nasty thing about "the other side" but the Obama people would actually walk up to you and be rude. They booed speakers, carried on, and generally behaved like rabble. As T said "the main thing to remember that we have nothing in common with McCain." Obama may say he wants to bring people together, but his supporters REALLY haven't gotten the message.

Finally, we were called into our respective voting areas, and the voting for state level delegates began. More than 50 people put their names in the proverbial hat, but only 12 could move on to state. We all gave ultra-short speeches about why we should go, and then we marked our 12 choices on a ballot. By this time it was 4pm, we'd had no lunch break, and T and I both had somewhere we needed to be that evening. We left without hearing the final result (I didn't make it :( no surprise there).

All in all, I'm glad to have had the experience. I still have the county caucus coming up, and then my participation in the nomination process will be over. The saddest part of the whole thing was being unable to accept the invitation from that Clinton staffer to attend an after party for volunteers. The main guest at the party? Sean Astin otherwise known as Samwise Gamgee. How cool is that? I wonder if Frodo is for Hillary too?