Reader, I Caucused.

Happy New Year, Sixers!

Greetings from the great state of Iowa, where I, a freshly minted Democrat, have freshly participated in the caucus process. By now the results have been called and everyone's thinking ahead to New Hampshire. Well, not everyone. You, Sixers--surely you're still in love with this jewel of the middle west, this town which used to be your home (once upon a still and snowy time)--surely you'd like to know what went on in those rooms last night. Especially in precinct 23, which is where I live (at).

Well, the caucus was dope. I joined 540 other Dems in the auditorium of City High, and together we decided some things. Pictured: my nifty caucus gear. The evening's agenda (lengthy), my nametag (cheesy, yet endearing), and my caucus card (awesome). That and my Iowa address made me unstoppable: I was a caucus-goer.

Over the next two hours, things were done. Votes collected. Barack Obama (my pick for the nomination) won 4 delegates from our precinct, Edwards received 3, and Clinton got 1--a picture that, it turns out, was reflected statewide. In our precinct, the Clinton campaign struggled to attain viability after the first round of voting, which surprised me. It was only in the second round that she ended up with 87 nods, which put her just over the evening's benchmark of 82. Caucus math involved plugging the number of votes into a special formula that revealed how many delegates each candidate should receive. Skills involved included addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Unfortunately precinct 23 didn't have any third-graders on staff to do the figuring, which is why our caucus lasted the full two hours. By the time I arrived home, Obama had already been declared the winner.

There was nothing left to do but raise a glass to the man.
It's the first time in my brief career as a voter that someone I voted for actually won the day.
I have to admit, it was sweet.

So. Are there any Sixers out there with their own memories of the caucus?
And more importantly: are any of you in New Hampshire, South Carolina, Michigan??

Until soon,

\KP