Our Iowa Caucus

Ok, friends, here's the quick and dirty of our caucus experience:

The Democrats of this Mork-Speirs family report to the Knox Presbyterian church down the road, the designated meeting space for the Democrats of our neighborhood zone.

The church is packed. Standing room only. The kid sitting next to me hands over a 64 page booklet of Barak Obama's platform.

I think we're breaking a fire code. I double check proximity to emergency exits.

The Hillary campaign gives out free food, making Aidan so happy but he's still an Obama supporter. ("Because he has the most commercials.") My son garners a bag of chips, five cookies, and one HOPE identification badge. Amanda commands two cookies, yet remains undecided.

They keep coming in. Through the church door. More and more.

We're lucky there's a pew for us. Others stand in this room and around the state.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome!" The friendly caucus chair opens the meeting. "There are choir bleachers up here if you're looking for somewhere to sit."

"Bear with us and this incredible turnout. This is happening all over Iowa."

People bring chairs up from downstairs. The meeting starts 20 minutes late so that everyone can get registered.

Caucus mathematics: to be a viable, a candidate needs the support of at least 15% of the total participants in the room.

We take a headcount, numbering off like school kids on a fieldtrip. 1, 2, 3. . .26 is me. . .the room claps at number 200. . .the total is 211. Sixty more than expected.

A little boy has to go the bathroom. His sister takes him.

You vote with your body at a caucus. We sit with the Obama people. After a second headcount we determine that our camp is up to 74 supporters who by now are sitting together in the basement fellowship hall, with no room in the sanctuary for this large of group. This allows us 2 delegates. We need 15 more people to get a third delegate, the count to be added to the state total.

"There's a group of undecided people in the hallway, who will go and invite them to the Obama camp?"

A black man.
A grey grandma.
A teacher from Aidan's school.
They all get up and go forth to chat with the undecideds. Everyone claps.

Biden and Richardson are not viable in this caucus. Their people start to trickle in. Clapping.

We've been here over an hour. Everyone is patient and good natured, waiting for the undecided to determine their clump of people, aka voting with their body. Mostly quiet chatter. Nintendos work great for a 2 hour caucus process. We just need a couple more people so we can eek out a third delegate. They come. We make it.

And you know the rest how it all turned out in Iowa.

Afterwards, we go to the private home caucus party in our family room, serving up TV news and popcorn. This evening of experiential learning is declared a victory as the kids are officially engaged with the presidential campaign. It's going to be a good one. Now, if we can just keep our candidate safe. The Charmer blog prediction: Mr. Barak Obama will have virtually no viable opponents. It's the rebound of the pendulum that swung so far over to the Bush administration.

Power to the people!

Goodnight friends and thanks so much for coming over to the Charmer blog.

With love, T