March 5, 2008

My precinct caucus last night was ridiculous. I followed postings all night long on the Statesman's website, and people were writing in from all over town about highly questionable procedures at the caucuses. My own experience included witnessing an incident in which an Obama supporter insisted on working the sign-in table for Clinton supporters, and deliberately asking for extra information in order to slow down our line. Some people were visibly irate about this and told the rest of us in line that we weren't required to write this info down and to not let this guy tell us otherwise. The precinct judge was called over, the man was asked to leave politely, but he refused. I couldn't believe it. Nothing like that was going on over at the Obama line.

It looks like Obama will win the Texas caucuses handily, which is no surprise. His ground crews are bullies and there are reports of illegally signing people to the list who weren't even at the caucus, or who hadn't voted (lots of reports of people just signing in without showing evidence of having voted in the primary). But the larger issue is, Clinton's base largely cannot make it out to these events - what about the working class folk who have night shifts, or child care issues, or transportation issues, or what have you? Obama's supporters tend to be college kids and well-to-do white folk who have no problem devoting 6 hours into the night on a weeknight to this process. Bottom line: the caucuses were a completely BOGUS process and I think Clinton should contest it. But then she would just be "whining." Just like a woman, right?