Boy is that flame bait or what! I have to admit I am new to politics and just learning about the machinations of the Dem party. I'll give you the disclaimer that I am campaigning for Dean in Washington, so you know where I'm coming from. I'm starting to understand why he said something negative about the Iowa caucus system. I know its one of the traditional methods to decide issues, but after reading about this person's experience there as an observer, I question's role in presidential contests. Got this e-mail from a colleague who went to Iowa. If your in Wa you may have received it to.
What happened at the caucuses we observed and both the caucuses attended by our friends in Iowa, and as it turns out at caucuses across the state, was that Kerry people got the direction from their campaign that if they had more than the number needed to get their delegates, they were to send supporters over to Edwards (or anyone else) to boost his numbers if it would keep Dean from getting delegates. Edwards and Kucinich teamed up to support each other also.
So in my imaginary caucus above, after the first count, Edwards, Kucinich and Geppy people would mostly go to Kerry and he would end up getting two delegates instead of one. Or they might move
around before the first count. Kucinich could send their people to the Edwards corner making him viable and the Gephardt people could go to
Kerry so that Kerry, Dean, and Edwards would each get one.
At our caucus site, there were 27 votes for Dean, 23 for Kerry, and the other candidates combined had 25 votes - but none of them
were viable on their own. What they wanted to do was to form an "undecided" vote. But they didn't understand the rules of the caucus (no one there seemed to) and since there was no "Undecided"
group in the first round, they couldn't create one in the second. If they had known that they would have formed the undecided group in the first round. As it was, nearly all of them went with Kerry who was the only anti-Dean candidate. So instead of Dean getting one delegate and undecided getting one delegate, Dean and Kerry each got one.
It is nearly impossible to win in Iowa if the goal of the other players is to team up and knock you out.
If nothing else, I feel like I'm taking hell of a good poli-sci class!
OT: Oh,Kos, does this mean your a Washington Insider now?