I got to our precinct about 5 p.m., children in tow, with some
degree of trepidation, primarily because I had never been a
captain before. I helped set up tables for signing in and new
registrations and met the other captains (myself for Biden).
In the previous week, I had written by hand a Biden postcard
to every registered Democrat in my district, about 550, and
hand-delivered (or paid out-of pocket for postage) all of them
in my (ha ha) spare time. This ate up a huge amount of time
which I might have been able to use making phone calls, but I
am not very good at cold-calling people, and besides, I was
getting quite annoyed with all the calls at my house.
The turnout was immense, according to my list, about 60% of
the registered Democrats were in attendance, about 315 people,
but everyone was in by shortly after 7 p.m. Of course there
were some diehard Biden supporters and a few more who lined up
with Biden from the outset, for a total of 11 or so. We
allied early with Dodd, for about 5 or 6 more. We needed 48
to be viable. At the first alignment, there were only two
viable groups, Obama and Edwards (not Hillary!). The second
alignment took a really long time. Hillary finally became
viable after much wheeling and dealing by her well-organized
and motivated organizers. I kept trying to make a deal with
Richardson’s captain, where we would join together and go for
an uncommitted delegate. They were close, so he refused. He
repeatedly refused. After spending at least 30 minutes both
trying to get others to join our group and attempting to hold
the Biden group together, with some assistance from the other
diehards, it became apparent we were not going to be viable.
Not even close. Counting Biden and Dodd supporters, we would
have had, say, 17 out of 315, or roughly 5%, but as everyone
knows, the threshold for “viability” was 15%.
What it came down to was a final stage where the 44 or so
Richardson supporters had to realign while everyone else
stayed in their group. I had gone to Obama with the
understanding I would be a delegate to the county convention –
the other Biden and Dodd supporters went either to Edwards or
to Obama, one woman had gone to Hillary, I’m pretty sure the
only one of our Biden/Dodd group. Almost everyone stuck
around for the phone-in of the results: out of 7 delegates, 4
for Obama, 2 Edwards and 1 Hillary.
Then, POOF!
Almost everyone disappeared. Obama’s captain was literally
scrambling to get people committed as delegates to go to the
convention. I was one of the four, they had to switch an
alternate to make them a delegate, and I’m not even sure if
there are one or two alternates for Obama. This was truly
jaw-dropping to me. I know for a fact that easily half, and
probably 80% of the Biden/Dodd supporters would have been very
happy to be a delegate or an alternate at the county
convention. Obama’s support is a mile wide and a micron deep,
it seems. Maybe it’s just me being a little shell-shocked
from the non-viability of Biden and Richardson’s guy being
obstinate. I suppose this whole Iowa caucus thing partially
served to validate the corporate media and pundits’ meme of
“the top tier” although it sure seems they got caught
overstating the level of Hillary’s support.
At the end, I got back onto the platform and central
committees for the county Democrats. There were two really
good resolutions we passed, all 12 or so of us that remained.
One was to repeal the Patriot act, and the other was to
abolish corporate personhood.
I hardly slept that night and had a bizarre dream about my
deceased wife. I was close to tears much of the next day, and
just spent. It still hurts like hell, but it is probably
therapeutic to share my story with you all. I have read DU
and the Biden Supporters Group (lurking, I guess it is called)
since the beginning, and feel a definite comradeship with you
all in the Biden group. Joe is a class guy, a real gem of a
human being, and I was privileged to meet him and his family.
Any ideas how long it will take to get over my disappointment?
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