The Mechanics of Caucusing-The fate of the free world rests on this? Uh-oh.

[babylonsister]

The Mechanics of Caucusing by Michael Crowley
The fate of the free world rests on this? Uh-oh.
Post Date Thursday, January 03, 2008



Des Moines, Iowa--On a mid-December afternoon here, about three dozen Iowans met in a spacious empty room at the city's historical society. Greeting them was Gordon Fischer, a former state Democratic chairman who had been assiduously courted earlier this year by both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, before he backed the latter. Fischer was here to lead his flock through a "mock caucus"--a trial run of the Byzantine procedure Iowans will use to choose a winner tonight, and a ritual that the Democratic campaigns have repeated hundreds of times around the state this winter.

"Let's see a show of hands," said Fischer, sporting casual clothes with his silver hair and trim beard. "How many of you have not caucused before?" About half his audience raised a palm. Fischer urged the newbies not to be intimidated. "It's easy," he said emphatically. "It's not complicated. Sometimes my friends in the media say that it's arcane, it's mystical. It's not. It's really easy."

Easy? Tell that to Iowans, up to 90 percent of whom--despite the perhaps $50 million spent here to win their support--will likely sit out the most frantically contested caucuses in history. In 2004, with Bush hatred flaring and Iraq deteriorating, only about six percent of eligible Democrats bothered to show. And even in the waning days of this even more feverish campaign, which has left virtually no adult unmolested by a desperate candidate, many Iowans remain confounded and intimidated by the process.

After a Hillary Clinton appearance in Ames this week, for instance, one of her local precinct captains--whose job it is to corral and organize his or her candidate's supporters on caucus night--said he frequently hears from Hillary backers who have, well, absolutely no clue what's expected of them.

"They're like, 'Do I have to do something? Do I have to give a speech?'" he said. The next day, a local field organizer recounted the same experience, groaning: "These people don't even know what a caucus is!" He wasn't exaggerating: At one campaign's focus group, the Iowans present asked whether the exercise they were engaged in was the actual caucus.

Why the confusion? Well, the Iowa caucuses truly are arcane. First, they require physical clustering, an unfamiliar concept on its own, but more daunting when done in front of your friends, neighbors, and co-workers. This process is poorly understood even by many of the political reporters tasked with explaining it to the public. Gordon Fischer gently rebukes journalists who refer to Iowa "voters," noting that on the Democratic side no actual votes are cast. Instead, Iowans literally vote with their feet. At 6:30 Thursday night, perhaps 150,000 of them will show up at roughly 1,700 different caucus sites around the state--churches, schools, and other neutral locations, where turnout can range from the dozens to several hundred--and physically gather in different room corners according to the candidate they support.

more...

http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=bc3645bb-d255-43ce-b222-dccf74c1db27

[beberocks]

1. I'm so disgusted that only a tiny fraction of US voters should have such a big say

Too much importance has been given to the Iowa voters; no one should be written off as a candidate until some of the big states (like here in California) have a say. Go Edwards!

[fed-up]

2. thanks-have to admit I was too embarrassed to ask what Caucusing was...nt

[KingofNewOrleans]

3. He is inaccurate in his turnout number though

He says about 6% of Democrats turned out. The correct number is about 22%.