Tonight was the Iowa Caucus and the whole Blue family was there. Originally I wasn't sure about bringing the kids, but the husband was there and said others had brought so the kids and I headed over. As both Mr. Blue and I get into politics and they've seen us campaign in elections past they've heard bits and pieces about the caucus and candidates.
Apparently at the 2004 caucus for my city there were roughly 40 people total. Tonight there were over 300. About 80 of those were part of the county precinct, we were in the city precinct.
This was the first caucus my husband or I have been a part of it and it was pretty cool. There was much standing around and some boredom, but overall an interesting experience and good to get out there and represent ourselves. The kids were great, only a slight teeny tiny bit of whine or unrest and none of it was bothersome to anyone, which is a small miracle considering we were there for almost a few hours. They were able to be with us through the whole thing. It's pretty neat to have them learning these things and experiencing them at such young ages.
Both my husband and I were for Obama, unfortunately Hilary took my city. Obama came in second and Edwards was third. I was very happy to see Obama taking the state when we got home and saw the news.
There were two rounds of counts, the first where everyone went to their preferred candidate's area or to the undecided area. In our city with the turnout each candidate needed at least 31 votes to be considered viable. Biden, Kucinich, Dodd, and Gravel were out after the first round. At this point each side tries to get these votes to come over to the remaining three viable candidates. There were two undecided holdouts who ended up not choosing a candidate. I thought this was strange, but maybe there were hoping to be swayed and weren't or were just there to see how it works.
One of the common topics was that we were voting by choice this year and not by the lesser of evils, or the better of two but not optimum. There were ton of people who had never caucused before, from the young, to the old and it was really great to see so many invested in this. It was also really interesting to see how different people talked about or campaigned for their candidate either by being very vocal or quietly giving opinions, with facts or emotions. It was also a lot of fun to see the attempts to bring people over to each side and the hollering and cheering (which we were fully a part of) when someone was won over.
All in all a great experience and the kids really picked up on more and were more interested than I would've imagined. Although the five year old with his short attention span was really only excited about the cookies and the Biden sign he was convinced was an Obama sign that he brought home.
Apparently at the 2004 caucus for my city there were roughly 40 people total. Tonight there were over 300. About 80 of those were part of the county precinct, we were in the city precinct.
This was the first caucus my husband or I have been a part of it and it was pretty cool. There was much standing around and some boredom, but overall an interesting experience and good to get out there and represent ourselves. The kids were great, only a slight teeny tiny bit of whine or unrest and none of it was bothersome to anyone, which is a small miracle considering we were there for almost a few hours. They were able to be with us through the whole thing. It's pretty neat to have them learning these things and experiencing them at such young ages.
Both my husband and I were for Obama, unfortunately Hilary took my city. Obama came in second and Edwards was third. I was very happy to see Obama taking the state when we got home and saw the news.
There were two rounds of counts, the first where everyone went to their preferred candidate's area or to the undecided area. In our city with the turnout each candidate needed at least 31 votes to be considered viable. Biden, Kucinich, Dodd, and Gravel were out after the first round. At this point each side tries to get these votes to come over to the remaining three viable candidates. There were two undecided holdouts who ended up not choosing a candidate. I thought this was strange, but maybe there were hoping to be swayed and weren't or were just there to see how it works.
One of the common topics was that we were voting by choice this year and not by the lesser of evils, or the better of two but not optimum. There were ton of people who had never caucused before, from the young, to the old and it was really great to see so many invested in this. It was also really interesting to see how different people talked about or campaigned for their candidate either by being very vocal or quietly giving opinions, with facts or emotions. It was also a lot of fun to see the attempts to bring people over to each side and the hollering and cheering (which we were fully a part of) when someone was won over.
All in all a great experience and the kids really picked up on more and were more interested than I would've imagined. Although the five year old with his short attention span was really only excited about the cookies and the Biden sign he was convinced was an Obama sign that he brought home.
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2 comments:
Gravel is not out. MSNBC ran misinformation. Check www.gravel2008.us for more information.
Actually I meant Gravel was out as far as being non-viable in our city/county caucus. Not out of the race. :)
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