B3 note: The Iowans did it. They sent out last night from their caucuses a clear and unambigous message: they demand change, they anointed the first real black candidate for president as their change agent, they don’t see the Clintons as change agents, they want populism, they are suspicious of big money and attack ads, they don’t want another Bush in the White House, they facilitated the passing of the torch to the next generation, they provided a public laboratory in democracy for the world to see. And it was all a wonderful show. Here is the final summing up from Carolyn Schmidt, our now veteran citizen journalist operating out of of the real grassroots in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and an Obama caucus in a neighborhood elementary school cafeteria.
By Carolyn Schmidt
Cedar Rapids, Iowa–Some of us Iowans just follow our heart, I guess. We just LIKE Obama and the things he helps us dream about–not very practical, perhaps. Edwards did well too, though. The fact that he slipped past Hillary means big money isn’t everything, and I think the Romney defeat carries that message too. Iowans resent all that extravagant spending. And even many of the Republicans were turned off by Romney’s unrelenting, repetitive attack ads. Hillary was appealing to many, but when it got right down to it, they saw her as part of the same old Washington game-playing.
Edwards’ ads about “looking our children in the eye” and telling them that we sold out their future are very powerful. I trust he’ll continue with those across the country.
I was sorry Biden and Dodd didn’t do better, because they certainly both have impressive international knowledge and experience, but in the caucus system their supporters had to have large enough numbers in a given precinct to be viable. In our precinct, we had a record-setting 239 people crammed into an elementary school cafeferia (compared to 104 in 2006). Candidates had to have 51 voters/supporters to be considered viable. Obama drew 164 of those votes in the end, up from an initial 134 by the addition of Richardson and Biden supporters who switched to Obama when their count came out short of the viable number.
We had more black people there than I knew lived in our precinct and lots of young people–students 18 and 19, and young couples in their early 20s. The younger folks were nearly all enthusiastic Obama supporters. Even though extra long benches had been brought in in anticipation of an extra large turnout, probably 50 people or so spent the full two and a half hours standing or switching places with kind souls who took pity on them.