in my des moines precinct last night, i served as the secretary, while my husband was an obama precinct captain--rallying the troops and keeping everyone in the room while we went through several rounds of counting. i don't really like the caucus system necessarily, but i was proud of how my precinct handled it. we had a few glitches dealing with such a large crowd--could have used a bigger space, more pens, etc.--but nothing that calls the results into question.
as secretary, i handled a lot of the registration duties. at the end of the night, i was looking over the list of the new folks who either came out and registered for the first time as democrats or switched to dem from rep or ind in order to participate.
they also had to fill in a bubble saying who they intended to support--undecided was an option. i scanned through the pages (and i think we may have actually had more new people/party switchers than people who were already registered as dems in my precinct show up last night) and it was overwhelmingly, overwhelmingly, did i mention, overwhelmingly, the "obama" bubble that was colored in.
i saw several sets of neighbors who i know are moderate republicans, changing registration and then standing with obama, along with their home-from-college kids or eligible-to-vote high school kids. and when you scanned the obama side of the room--we had 3 times as many people as the edwards side or the clinton side--it was such a diverse crowd, in terms of age, race, type of job. more so than any other candidate in the room. made you feel good about going and standing up alongside them. my neighbor's mother went into her caucus torn between edwards/obama. but she said she looked at the obama supporters, and was so excited about the diversity of the crowd, that she had to go and join them. a second neighbor said her mother--already an obama person--felt the same way at her precinct in ames.
i don't care whether they are republicans, independents or folks who would consider themselves democrats but just had never participated before, i want their votes. and i was happy to have them last night. welcome, neighbors. i don't buy into the stuff i've read on this site and others about obama really being a conservative. all of our candidates have strengths, and all have weaknesses. but i don't worry about him abandoning the principles that i think he's held true to his entire life, just because he's able to pull some rep/ind voters over to our side.
i want to win the next election. and i believe--based upon what we saw here in iowa--that obama is the candidate who brings the most people to the table for the dem side--be they people who are registering for the first time, or ind/rep party switchers. this bodes well for the general.
did you hear us, new hampshire?