I just got back from the district caucus, where I was a delegate for Obama. We ended up with 52 delegates for Obama and 15 for Clinton, which is (I think) what we started with.
It was the tenor of the event that impressed me. Everyone was civil, there were no credentials challenges, as I had read about in Texas. There were a lot of party unity calls from the set of speakers (our mayor, Greg Nickels, Jim McDermott, and every single local state rep) There was even a formal resolution to the effect that we are behind not only voting for Democrats at all levels, but never elevating the candidate of the opposition in our rhetoric. That was the closest we came to addressing the campaign tone and tactic of triangulating with Republicans. That resolution almost did not pass, because there were some who didn't want to see Brian Baird, a pro-Iraq war democrat, included in that unity value.
I had a chance to talk with someone at the credentialing desk, who said most of the Edwards and uncommitteds changed to Obama, and two Obama delegates changed to Clinton. She didn't witness any Clinton delegates changing, but she wasn't the only one staffing that desk. There was no challenging of anyone's credentials by either campaign.
I was inspired by a story about resolutions, responding to the idea the that they are a good exercise in putting beliefs into words, but not really all that important or useful. Apparently one of the district stalwarts, David Edelman, introduced a resolution some years ago about our use of depleted uranium in weaponry and that resolution worked its way up the ranks until it actually ended up in national legislation. Can that happen? Yes, it can.
Hillary's campaign sent Sean Astin (Sam Gamgee in Lord of the Rings) as a surrogate who got to speak for three minutes. He was pretty gracious to Obama supporters and said very complimentary things about him, even saying he would stump energetically for Obama if he is the candidate. Somehow I missed hearing him say "Barack Hussein Obama" in those remarks. That was strange in context. (Later one of the candidates for delegate to the State Convention ran on an anti-Hobbit platform)
This being Seattle, there were a lot of Latte Liberals for Obama stickers on display. Also this being King County, there was a huge display of support for Darcy Burner and for a resolution adopting into our district platform the Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq. I think she will get a lot of volunteers from the 36th. The other huge support item was the resolution for immediate restoration of habeas corpus. There was a significant lawyer contingent in the delegates who kept Constitutional issues front and center.
Approximately 330 delegates signed up to campaign to go on to the next level. Some dropped out when they saw the numbers, but we probably listened to 280 20-second speeches. The cross section of people and demographics, coupled with amazing skills, was a revelation. All ages (one candidate asked for our votes for her 71st birthday present next week and two high school seniors gave very articulate pleas for our support), races (African-American, Asian-American, Native American, Hispanic, Filipina, along with a number of immigrants from various places), quite a few people from labor, education, and healthcare, campaign veterans and newbies, lots of military veterans and family members, feminists, lawyers, physically challenged, you name it.
Huge turnout, amazing delegates, well run. Everyone gets a lot of credit for this one.