Iowa Caucus

Wednesday a.m. - 2nd St. Cafe, Fairfield - John Edwards on the campaign trail ---->

It was the largest caucus I have ever been to - 264 people! I proudly stood and organized for John Edwards, the most progressive viable candidate. We spilled over into the aisles and it was hard to get the count as we were clearly the largest group.

We had to pull chairs from the Biden table, where one lone hold-out sat until it was obvious no one else was going to join him. I love Biden - he is a great leader and we SO NEED him. He clearly has the most expertise with regards to foreign policy and deeply understands what is needed to solve the mess we have created in Iraq, but Edwards got me on the heart level from the first time I saw him when he came out and straight out apologized, giving me exactly what I needed to hear - that he deeply regretted giving GWBush the authority to go to war with Iraq. He acknowledged his mistake and acknowledged that he would not continue to defend it.

Tonight, we got 4 out of the 8 delegates allotted to our precinct, Obama had 3 and Hillary only 1. Sometimes I feel that caucusing in central Fairfield is a bit like being a voter in San Francisco - it is just a bit more to the left than the rest of the county or the state or the country, for that matter, and I often forget that what feels like a real upset (Oh yeah for Edwards) turns out to be a local blip of demographics, highly educated baby boomers nestled in our more liberal pocket of the world.

Before we even walked out the door, we had heard the real results - that the state had already been called for Obama, with Edwards and Clinton in a dead heat for 2nd. Richard, who had caucused for Obama, was happy. So was Nathan, who had insisted on coming out to observe. He's only 11, but he is an avid follower of the political scene. Nathan and Phoebe got to sit right at Obama's feet this summer at a huge rally in Ottumwa and got to shake his hand and Nathan has been solidly for Obama from that moment on. Phoebe, on the other hand, was swayed by me to support Edwards, and was pleased to ask him on Wednesday morning what his favorite color was when she shook his hand before getting back on the campaign bus. "Blue," he said. Would you have expected anything different?

It was a grand night though - very exciting and especially gratifying to see so many young people participating in the process. Many people were caucusing for the first time ever.

The one remaining Kucinich caucus-goer made a statement that she would continue to stand for Kucinich viable or not, and would never do anything BUT that. We all applauded her, as we know her as Kucinich's biggest supporter and kind of a local eccentric and we love her for that, but unfortunately we had to move on. She had made a valiant effort to recruit, but her cohorts had defected quite early in the game - some many weeks ago.

Our cluster of Edwards supporters were many of the tried and true seasoned veterans of this precinct, friends and neighbors that I know will always be thoughtful and well-informed, the usual suspects I've seen reliably at caucuses over the years and many new faces also. Thanks to all who came out!

I get to go to the county nominating convention in March as a John Edwards delegate... of course, by then things will be over after Super Tuesday, Feb. 5th, but it doesn't matter. Iowans have our process and we are proud of it.

The speeches tonight were fabulous. I am still backing John Edwards, and still believe he is the best man for the job, but I have to give Obama high marks for a blow-out powerful speech. His cadence, his simplicity of words, his energy and charisma are something I have not witnessed since Bobby Kennedy in 1968. WOW! It was impressive. Yes, he's got the charisma. He will clearly have MY vote if he wins the nomination and after the clear victory tonight, it is looking more and more like he will.

Just last night at our Edwards organizational meeting, sitting with Daniel Sheehan talking about RFK and 1968 and someone asked Daniel what would have happened had RFK not been assassinated. This brought back a whole flood of memories and disappointments and sadness from that mess of the Chicago convention to Nixon's election and ensuing years of Vietnam, Watergate, etc. etc. etc. It was an interesting though useless digression of "What ifs..." almost unbearable to look back on now, especially where we have landed NOW. So I think the message of HOPE is appropriate and welcome and desparately needed.