I was up late last night, hanging out at polling palace after it closed to get the fresh results, watching and celebrating as the statewide results came in, and then waiting for the adrenalin to flush out of my system. It was a phenomenal, historic day in Wisconsin in so many ways.
First of all, you may have heard that we are having a rather wintry winter here.... Today's high is supposed to be something like 5 above. Crazy cold. Loads and loads of snow.
Despite the worst general road conditions that I can ever remember, temps in the single digits, and sidewalks packed with snow, Wisconsin citizens turned out to vote in incredible numbers. Those numbers voted Democratic, and they voted for Obama. John Nichols has a fine commentary on this in today's Capital Times:
Yet, when the votes were counted, the turnouts in the Democratic and Republican primaries were dramatically different. More than 1.1 million Wisconsinites voted in Tuesday's Democratic primary between Obama and Clinton. Only around 400,000 Wisconsinites voted in the Republican primary between McCain and Huckabee.
...
Wisconsin was not the first state on this year's primary and caucus calendar where Democratic turnout dwarfed that on the Republican side. There has been much talk about an "enthusiasm gap" that favors the Democrats.... But in Wisconsin, the phenomenon was magnified -- dramatically. More than 73 percent of Badger State voters who went to the polls Tuesday voted for a Democrat, while less than 27 percent voted for a Republican.
...
The Democratic trend was so lopsided that, while Clinton lost badly in the Democratic primary -- trailing Obama by a 58-41 margin -- she still got more votes than were cast for all the candidates in the Republican primary.
We saw all this in my local, small-town, southern Wisconsin precinct: About 1100 total voters. Of these 400--400!--were new registrations. That alone is incredible. 76% voted Democratic. Obama 530 (63%). Clinton 303 (36%). Late in the voting day, at 7:00 pm, the place was packed. I have not voted in any election anywhere that channeled such energy. The place was electric.
I had to chill out (so to speak). So I went skiing before heading down to the polling place to get the results. (Upload and insert gratuitous Wisconsin winter photos here):
My outing gave me a chance to step back and reflect on the intensity of the day. Yesterday's vote was an expression of pent-up energy and moveemnt. Wisconsin has been going through a quiet transformation over the last few years I think. Obama and this primary were perfectly poised to build upon and demonstrate that change. We are not a simple blue-urban, red-rural state. We fall into the pattern in some parts of the state, but we really do have a growing number of rural centrist progressives. And the hard-core right wing has been losing its traction in these areas. Not because the state Democratic Party is particularly effective at the local level -- it isn't. It's not just because of discontent. I believe it's because of the steady growth of quiet grassroots leadership in Wisconsin through the Bush years. Obama plugged right into that. There's a nice analysis of this, also in todays' Capital Times:
He may be from Illinois, but Obama "got" Wisconsin. That's the answer to the question: How did this relative newcomer to national politics win so dramatically over Hillary Clinton, a woman who has campaigned in Wisconsin steadily over the past two decades?
Obama came.
He listened.
He responded.
After the Illinois senator swept the Feb. 12 "Potomac primary" in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia, he started his Wisconsin campaign that Tuesday night in Madison. Obama remained in Wisconsin for most of the next week, campaigning in just about every corner of the state on a grueling schedule that had him up early and to bed late.
But it was not just hard work that won Wisconsin.
It was smart work.
Indeed.
I am so proud of my Wisconsin neighbors today. We're "unimportant." We're not very diverse in our demographics. We're struggling middle class and working class. We're cold and worn down by the long winter. But we had a chance to actually make a difference this time. We came out and lived up to our reputation for quirky independence. We voted for hope over fear, tomorrow over yesterday, a fresh start over recycled hyper-partisanship. And, on top of all that, we now have a whole new generation now engaged in a way they never were until now.
So, Obamans, as the trail leads out of Wisconsin, let's keep the momentum building. But be careful on the roads. Be aware of the conditions. There are icy patches there and it's easy to slip off the road. Just take it at a steady pace....