atta_1408.jpgWhile my friend DeDurkheim played the honorable role of researcher/ journalist at my precinct, I actually participated in the wild, woolly, but mostly cramped and sweaty world of caucusing. I’ve generally avoided endorsing anybody, though I’ve written some about wanting to avoid at least the appearance, if not the reality of an American Oligarchy. So with 223 of my newest close personal friends we crammed into a space capable of holding about 180 and I caucused for Obama. It was a tough call between Obama and Edwards. As ever, despite the fact it was very, very, cramped and many must have felt claustrophobic, every person, no matter who they supported, was very cool. We're a polite lot here in Iowa.

The vote count in my precinct was similar to what the rest of the state did and as Jane said below, the way delegates, not votes, are counted on the Democratic side under reports how Obama actually did on the pure number of persons voting.

Also, while my precinct had 224 Democratic voters, DeDurkheim was working on the GOP as well and found that only slightly more than 60 had shown up for the GOP caucus, where Huckabee prevailed. Throughout Iowa this pattern continued, where Democrats had a 2 to 1 attendance edge, even though the GOP also set a record for turnout. In fact, Hubris Sonic at the Group News Blog shows the dimension of the Democratic Victory on that score:

Total Voter Turnout (approximate)
356,000

Percentage of total vote
24.5% Obama
20.5% Edwards
19.8% Clinton
11.4% Huckabee (R)

After that it was off to the amazing, and disappointingly dull, media center. Perhaps the Polk County Convention Center knows too well how to do this because with the results coming in, everything there seemed quite staid.

So we went to the Hy-Vee Convention center to the beating of drums, or perhaps it was the sound of Joe Klein wanking? It was really loud, but not unpleasant, so it must have been the former. Obama showed up to speak before a crowd that was as keyed up as any I’ve seen at a political event. And boy did Obama deliver, with a tremendous speech that hit all the right notes. When I saw it later it played even better on television. The hall was electric, and that was just when Joe Klein left, imagine what it was like when Obama was speaking.