In the aftermath of the caucuses III: Caucus night
I went to Lovejoy School a little early to scope out the territory. I was shown the three rooms supposedly being set aside for the Republicans, and quickly realized that- given the pictures and drawings and charts all over the wall- that putting up posters wasn't going to be terribly practical (usually at caucuses the candidates cover the walls with the stuff whenever they can, I guess as a psychological measure). On the way out I noticed a poster about astronomy, and had a very pleasant conversation with a teacher about it.
I went to the library, blogged a little, and then stopped at McCain headquarters for some yard signs (as it happened, ours were the only ones any candidate of either party had at Lovejoy).
When I got back to Lovejoy at about 6:15 (caucusers are told to be at the site by 6:30, since the doors are locked at 7:00), I immediately noticed that the parking lot was packed, that there was a long line to get into the building- and that the driveway leading up to the main entrance was obstructed by a bus.
My heart momentarily sank as the thought of all that Romney money and organization went through my mind. But no. They couldn't possibly have brought a whole busful of people! As it turned out, the bus belonged to Hillary Clinton, who had chosen to make her personal pitch at our caucus site.
We ended up in an entirely different room than I had been shown. In fact, there were two whole precincts meeting there. For all but voting purposes, though, we functioned as a single meeting. One ominous thing was that a hugely disproportionate percentage of the people in the room seemed to be wearing Ron Paul buttons and/or stickers. On one thing, everyone was agreed: nobody had ever seen a caucus with anything like this turnout!
I found a space on a magnetic blackboard for a McCain sign, and chatted pleasantly with my neighbors for a while. 7:00 came and went. Finally they locked the doors, and our temporary chair apologized for the delay, citing the number of people who had come out.
We began with the Pledge of Allegience, and the routine election of the temporary chair (a Thompson supporter) as permanent chair. Having been elected, she asked whether anyone wanted to speak on behalf of any of the candidates.
With which a Ron Paul supporter stood up, and solemnly informed us not only that the upcoming National ID card (which Congress has voted to issue in order to help fight terrorism and illegal immigration) was not only a grave threat to our individual liberties (an arguable position, I suppose), but was the Mark of the Beast foretold in the Book of Revelation, and that to receive it would entail eternal damnation.
He added that once inaugurated Ron Paul would bring the troops home from Iraq "next week."
Then I arose, and pointed out- to heartfelt and universal applause- the absolute necessity of keeping Hillary Rodham Clinton out of the White House. I then produced a copy I'd made of every poll recorded at Real Clear Politics over the past year of hypothetical matchups between Hillary on one hand, and Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, and John McCain on the other.
There had been about fifteen Huckabee-Clinton matchups. Huckabee won one of them.
There had been about sixty Romney-Clinton matchups. Romney had won two of them.
There had been about sixty McCain-Clinton matchups. McCain had won twenty-six of them, and tied six others.
"If you want to win this November," I argued, "John McCain is your candidate."
I pointed out (I doubt that the Paulistas got the hint) that we lived in the real world- and that it was a dangerous world. I pointed out that only one candidate- Sen. McCain- had the security and foreign policy experience to guide us safely through the perils of the next few years. I cited his heroism as testimony to his personal character, and pointed out that the war in Iraq in fact was at last beginning to show signs of success- in no small part because of Gen. David Petreus-, whose appointment had been urged by McCain, and the prosecution of a new strategy in Iraq which McCain had been advocating literally since the beginning of the war (I had meant to include Petraeus's answer to the question of what the effect of a withdrawal of the type advocated by Paul would have on the people of Iraq- "If you liked Darfur, you'd love Baghdad-" but it slipped my mind.
I concluded by pointing out that McCain was not only our strongest candidate, but our best qualified one- and the only one Hillary couldn't claim to be better qualified than.
A gentleman arose to say what a fine Christian man Mike Huckabee was. Another said a few wholly unobjectionable things recommending Mitt Romney. No fewer than three people spoke on behalf of Fred Thompson (not only a surprise, but an ominous sign; McCain's goal was to finish third in Iowa, days ahead of a likely win over Mitt Romney in New Hampshire). Somebody even gave a speech for Duncan Hunter.
Then the Paul guy got up again to say that he thought it was great that the first time he ever met Ron Paul, the candidate had been praying in public, and that this really impressed him.
The only sour note came when somebody (not, I'm almost certain, a Romney supporter) started explaining all the reasons why he couldn't vote for Huckabee. A few came from the Romney crime ad; most, though, centered around that Club for Growth ad showing (out of context) Huckabee's plea for additional taxes to fix Arkansas' collapsing infrastructure.
Then I got up again. Pointing to campaign-issued shirt, I observed that it did not say "Huckabee." Nevertheless, I pointed out that with catastrophically overcrowded prisons and roads and bridges all over the state at the point of disintegration and collapse, Huckabee had no choice but to drastically raise taxes if he had any ambition to balance the budget- which he did, every year he was in office.
This explanation seemed to satisfy the group as a whole. And when I added that we'd all had enough in past weeks of Republicans taking potshots at other Republicans, and that it was time to aim our metaphorical guns at the Democrats instead, the result was the loudest and longest applause of the night.
We voted on little torn-up scraps of yellow legal pad. Somebody objected- quite reasonably, too- that a person could easily have taken two or three and voted multiple times. As we passed the hat for the county Party, the question was informally discussed. But the voting went forward.
The "ballots" were collected, and a representative of each campaign was called forward to observe the counting. The result in our precinct was as follows:
In the other precinct, it went:
I was surprised at Thompson's strength, and frankly- no pun intended- appalled at "Dr. No's." Certainly never in a million years would I have expected John McCain to finish behind Ron Paul in both of the precincts that met in that room. About the only thing about the Paulistas that makes them less scary, of course, is their utter political innocence; they were almost sure, on the basis of the results in my precinct alone, that they were going to finish third statewide!
And they very nearly did. Thompson and McCain finished in a dead heat for third statewide, with 13% each. "Dr. No" got 10%.
The meeting slowly petered out as delegates to the county and congressional district conventions were recruited. I had forgotten that in order to be either one had to pay a twenty dollar fee (ten for alternates) the night of the caucus. In past years, some flexibility had been shown as to the timing of the payment; this year, they insisted on the money upfront.
As a result, if I counted correctly, three of the five delegates from our precinct will be Paul supporters. I shudder to think of them voting on a platform. I did get a resolution adopted- with their support- calling on delegates in the future to be assigned proportionally to the candidates, on the basis of their support (the way the Democrats do it); to let delegates pay their fees between the caucuses and the conventions in future years; and to use prepared ballots instead of scraps of legal pads the next time a caucus was held.
The conventions were memorialized to pass various specific platform planks, and we were informed that the volunteers to sit on the County Central Committee would have to call Ted Sporer, the County Chairmen, since forms for that election somehow had not been included in the precinct kits.
And with that, I drove downtown to the rally.
It was a catered affair- hamburgers and chicken wings- in a small room in the basement of a sports bar. It was reasonably upbeat; McCain, after all, had essentially tied for third statewide (Thompson was perhaps a couple of hundred votes ahead), and with Romney wounded, McCain's likely victory in New Hampshire looked even more likely. I wound up sitting at a table with McCain's Hanoi Hilton buddies, their wives, and Sen. Lindsey Graham. Pretty exalted company for a guy who had only done one evening's work for the campaign.
McCain's finish was generally adjudged good enough to prepare the way the expected breakthrough next Tuesday. A sense of satisfaction and optimism pretty much permeated the room.
But Ron Paul getting ten percent statewide still scares the living daylights out of me.
I went to the library, blogged a little, and then stopped at McCain headquarters for some yard signs (as it happened, ours were the only ones any candidate of either party had at Lovejoy).
When I got back to Lovejoy at about 6:15 (caucusers are told to be at the site by 6:30, since the doors are locked at 7:00), I immediately noticed that the parking lot was packed, that there was a long line to get into the building- and that the driveway leading up to the main entrance was obstructed by a bus.
My heart momentarily sank as the thought of all that Romney money and organization went through my mind. But no. They couldn't possibly have brought a whole busful of people! As it turned out, the bus belonged to Hillary Clinton, who had chosen to make her personal pitch at our caucus site.
We ended up in an entirely different room than I had been shown. In fact, there were two whole precincts meeting there. For all but voting purposes, though, we functioned as a single meeting. One ominous thing was that a hugely disproportionate percentage of the people in the room seemed to be wearing Ron Paul buttons and/or stickers. On one thing, everyone was agreed: nobody had ever seen a caucus with anything like this turnout!
I found a space on a magnetic blackboard for a McCain sign, and chatted pleasantly with my neighbors for a while. 7:00 came and went. Finally they locked the doors, and our temporary chair apologized for the delay, citing the number of people who had come out.
We began with the Pledge of Allegience, and the routine election of the temporary chair (a Thompson supporter) as permanent chair. Having been elected, she asked whether anyone wanted to speak on behalf of any of the candidates.
With which a Ron Paul supporter stood up, and solemnly informed us not only that the upcoming National ID card (which Congress has voted to issue in order to help fight terrorism and illegal immigration) was not only a grave threat to our individual liberties (an arguable position, I suppose), but was the Mark of the Beast foretold in the Book of Revelation, and that to receive it would entail eternal damnation.
He added that once inaugurated Ron Paul would bring the troops home from Iraq "next week."
Then I arose, and pointed out- to heartfelt and universal applause- the absolute necessity of keeping Hillary Rodham Clinton out of the White House. I then produced a copy I'd made of every poll recorded at Real Clear Politics over the past year of hypothetical matchups between Hillary on one hand, and Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, and John McCain on the other.
There had been about fifteen Huckabee-Clinton matchups. Huckabee won one of them.
There had been about sixty Romney-Clinton matchups. Romney had won two of them.
There had been about sixty McCain-Clinton matchups. McCain had won twenty-six of them, and tied six others.
"If you want to win this November," I argued, "John McCain is your candidate."
I pointed out (I doubt that the Paulistas got the hint) that we lived in the real world- and that it was a dangerous world. I pointed out that only one candidate- Sen. McCain- had the security and foreign policy experience to guide us safely through the perils of the next few years. I cited his heroism as testimony to his personal character, and pointed out that the war in Iraq in fact was at last beginning to show signs of success- in no small part because of Gen. David Petreus-, whose appointment had been urged by McCain, and the prosecution of a new strategy in Iraq which McCain had been advocating literally since the beginning of the war (I had meant to include Petraeus's answer to the question of what the effect of a withdrawal of the type advocated by Paul would have on the people of Iraq- "If you liked Darfur, you'd love Baghdad-" but it slipped my mind.
I concluded by pointing out that McCain was not only our strongest candidate, but our best qualified one- and the only one Hillary couldn't claim to be better qualified than.
A gentleman arose to say what a fine Christian man Mike Huckabee was. Another said a few wholly unobjectionable things recommending Mitt Romney. No fewer than three people spoke on behalf of Fred Thompson (not only a surprise, but an ominous sign; McCain's goal was to finish third in Iowa, days ahead of a likely win over Mitt Romney in New Hampshire). Somebody even gave a speech for Duncan Hunter.
Then the Paul guy got up again to say that he thought it was great that the first time he ever met Ron Paul, the candidate had been praying in public, and that this really impressed him.
The only sour note came when somebody (not, I'm almost certain, a Romney supporter) started explaining all the reasons why he couldn't vote for Huckabee. A few came from the Romney crime ad; most, though, centered around that Club for Growth ad showing (out of context) Huckabee's plea for additional taxes to fix Arkansas' collapsing infrastructure.
Then I got up again. Pointing to campaign-issued shirt, I observed that it did not say "Huckabee." Nevertheless, I pointed out that with catastrophically overcrowded prisons and roads and bridges all over the state at the point of disintegration and collapse, Huckabee had no choice but to drastically raise taxes if he had any ambition to balance the budget- which he did, every year he was in office.
This explanation seemed to satisfy the group as a whole. And when I added that we'd all had enough in past weeks of Republicans taking potshots at other Republicans, and that it was time to aim our metaphorical guns at the Democrats instead, the result was the loudest and longest applause of the night.
We voted on little torn-up scraps of yellow legal pad. Somebody objected- quite reasonably, too- that a person could easily have taken two or three and voted multiple times. As we passed the hat for the county Party, the question was informally discussed. But the voting went forward.
The "ballots" were collected, and a representative of each campaign was called forward to observe the counting. The result in our precinct was as follows:
Huckabee 24
Paul 15
Romney 8
Thompson 7
McCain 6
Hunter 1
Giuliani 1
In the other precinct, it went:
Huckabee 23
Thompson 11
Romney 6
Paul 4
Hunter 3
McCain 3
Giuliani 0
I was surprised at Thompson's strength, and frankly- no pun intended- appalled at "Dr. No's." Certainly never in a million years would I have expected John McCain to finish behind Ron Paul in both of the precincts that met in that room. About the only thing about the Paulistas that makes them less scary, of course, is their utter political innocence; they were almost sure, on the basis of the results in my precinct alone, that they were going to finish third statewide!
And they very nearly did. Thompson and McCain finished in a dead heat for third statewide, with 13% each. "Dr. No" got 10%.
The meeting slowly petered out as delegates to the county and congressional district conventions were recruited. I had forgotten that in order to be either one had to pay a twenty dollar fee (ten for alternates) the night of the caucus. In past years, some flexibility had been shown as to the timing of the payment; this year, they insisted on the money upfront.
As a result, if I counted correctly, three of the five delegates from our precinct will be Paul supporters. I shudder to think of them voting on a platform. I did get a resolution adopted- with their support- calling on delegates in the future to be assigned proportionally to the candidates, on the basis of their support (the way the Democrats do it); to let delegates pay their fees between the caucuses and the conventions in future years; and to use prepared ballots instead of scraps of legal pads the next time a caucus was held.
The conventions were memorialized to pass various specific platform planks, and we were informed that the volunteers to sit on the County Central Committee would have to call Ted Sporer, the County Chairmen, since forms for that election somehow had not been included in the precinct kits.
And with that, I drove downtown to the rally.
It was a catered affair- hamburgers and chicken wings- in a small room in the basement of a sports bar. It was reasonably upbeat; McCain, after all, had essentially tied for third statewide (Thompson was perhaps a couple of hundred votes ahead), and with Romney wounded, McCain's likely victory in New Hampshire looked even more likely. I wound up sitting at a table with McCain's Hanoi Hilton buddies, their wives, and Sen. Lindsey Graham. Pretty exalted company for a guy who had only done one evening's work for the campaign.
McCain's finish was generally adjudged good enough to prepare the way the expected breakthrough next Tuesday. A sense of satisfaction and optimism pretty much permeated the room.
But Ron Paul getting ten percent statewide still scares the living daylights out of me.
Comments
LOL!
What would be a proportionate percentage of people wearing RP gear be?
In a representative republic, isn't the actual percentage the proportionate percentage?
Seriously, thanks for the inside look. I wondered what it would be like.
Yes, it is a dangerous world, so why not go around irritating it by jabbing pointy sticks in its general direction and rattling sabers all around it.
The thing is, with your quaint caucus system, I can't be sure that "mark of the beast" dude wasn't a plant.
FWIW, McCain would be my reluctant 2nd choice. He wouldn't dismantle the overseas empire, but I think he would be able to manage it the most competently. Plus he wouldn't torture anyone. If he wins, does everyone get chicken wings?
I'm afraid the guy wasn't a plant. I don't know why anybody would plant him. And besides, he seemed to be the leader of the Paulistas in the group. I would feel better if I could convince myself that he was a plant.
And if you want your chicken wings, you have to vote for McCain.