Just a quickie here because I'm off to help set up our precinct caucus place here in South King County, Washington State, which starts at 1 p.m.
My Dad is caucusing for Barack! We've had a lifetime of political discussions, and he, as the raised-in-Illinois Republican, and me, as his long-haired left-leaning scion, have always been on opposite sides of the equation. Until now.
In truth, we have reached more and more agreement in recent years - we both believe Iraq was a horrific mistake for which we'll be paying for years to come. We concur that in almost all respects, Bush is an idiot. But still, we have fundamental differences politically.
So why Obama? My Dad has - no kidding - for the last two presidential elections written in McCain's name rather than vote for Bush. But McCain was - at the time - both younger and less tied to the failed Bush policies than he is now. There is no small degree of anti-HRC - he may be hedging his bets here that if a Democrat wins, he'd prefer it wasn't Hillary. And of course, the Illinois thing runs deep - Cubs, Bears, Bulls, Blackhawks, the 'Fighting Illini' - and Barack gets some Illinois halo from that as well.
But mostly I think it's a desire to move past where we've been since the mid-nineties, the 'tear the other side down to build our side up' (we've had more than one argument as to where this started - I said Gingrich, he thinks differently).
Obama hasn't been the most progressive candidate in the race, but his ability to attract people - even 74-year-old lifelong Republicans - to me makes him the kind of President we need going forward.
PS - my Mom's also caucusing for Barack!
POST-CAUCUS UPDATE!
Back from the caucus now - and it was an apparent Obama landslide. Seriously, I never had any idea there were so many Democrats in our sleepy semi-rural suburb, but turnout was massive. We had over 24 people in our precinct - in 2004, the turnout was 6. Overall turnout for the 26 precincts at this location was well over 400. I'm glad the Fire Marshall wasn't among them : - )
We had 4 delegates to elect to the legislative district convention, and we broke 3 to 1 for Obama (and I was elected as an Obama delegate!). Even in our small precinct group of two dozen , we had 2 Republicans who came to the caucus, specifically to support Obama.
We didn't have an official tally at the end of the day, but I talked to as many people as I could, and my sense is Obama taking the caucus at least 2 to 1, maybe as much as 3 to 1. I found only a handful of precincts that split evenly, and a few more breaking to Obama by small margins (like 3 to 2). Most were 2 to 1, 3 to 1 or better. On the whole, a good day for Barack!