If you live in Texas and you voted for Obama and you caucused for Obama and you were elected as a delegate to the county convention, you know that this Saturday looms large. It looms large because Saturday is when the county conventions throughout Texas convene. It is Saturday when the outcome of the statewide caucuses will be ratified by the precinct delegates. It is Saturday when Hillary Clinton will discover, officially, that she was defeated by Barack Obama in the Lone Star state. Hillary may not like our quirky "Texas three-step" process...primary-caucus-county convention. But it is time-honored tradition here and the outcome is immutable.
After Saturday, Texas will be in the Obama column. He will have won the most pledged delegates...in a very BIG state.
Tonight, in precinct 335 in a tiny rural community 40 miles outside of Austin, 15-20 Obama delegates met to plan strategy for Saturday's convention. Taking nothing to chance, we organized a meeting held a private home. Most of us were relative strangers to each other. By the end of the evening, we were friends with a common mission, fired up once again and ready to go.
As the meeting got started, we went around the room and gave everyone the floor with some time to share why they support Obama, what their political background was and what this election means to them. Everyone in the room spoke extemporaneously and had some poignant, heartfelt story to share. This gathering was a metaphor for the Obama campaign itself...spontaneous, cerebral, passionate, patriotic. Everyone found a way to describe how Barack Obama touched them as no political figure in recent memory.
Almost all of the people in this room were middle aged white men and women. Most had been democrats all their lives but had gone into hiding in recent years. One or two delegates admitted sheepishly to voting in the past for Republicans. The one constant refrain spoken tonight was that we are at a "tipping point" and that this was our nation's "last chance" to get it right.
Most people have better things to do with their Saturdays than to spend them in a dinky ass county convention in podunk Texas. But nothing, nothing could be more important to this group of committed citizens. We will do our duty to elect Barack Obama no matter what it takes. We intend to do our part to change the course of history. The Obama delegates will show up Saturday en masse. Our voices will be heard. America will hear them and Texas will officially be Obama country.