Ok, who's watching the caucus? The early polling results from caucus attendees are starting to come in and they are fascinating. Dean, who has been pretty much trumpeted as the candidate who has made best use of the internet and who appeals most to young voters, came out with the same or lower numbers of people who came out to attend who were young and/or said that the internet was a large factor than Kerry. Dean campaigned at high schools (you can vote in the caucus if you will be 18 in November) so I just find it pretty shocking that he didn't pick up more young people.

Last week, Edwards looked like he was facing political death and he was polling down in the 2's and 3's and now he's neck and neck. There has never been a nomination race that's been this close at this juncture. I know I'm beating the dead donkey here with all my politics stuff, but I am so excited!

Interestingly, there was something like a 20% jump in the number of young people attending caucuses. I wonder what that's from?

since you obviously know the deal with all the politics/election stuff (and i reluctantly admit i'm not too sure how this all works), what's the difference between a caucus and primary? and how come you can vote in a caucus if you'll be 18 for the elections?

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art16013.asp

A caucus is a town hall style meeting where voting delegates to the convention are elected and topics are discussed by voters, a primary is simply a popular election where you can vote for a candidate. Since in a caucus you are selecting a delegate who will vote later for the nominee, you just have to be 18 before the general election. You're sort of submitting your vote in advance. Another interesting caucus quirk is that some states allow voters to re-vote, so if you liked Dean at first but decided Kerry was better later on, you can actually change your vote; You can't do that in a primary. It's a very needlessly complicated thing, huh?

Gephart just went and plain DROPPED OUT! Crazy!

Wow. I was just looking at the percentages the washington post has up, and dean didn't really do all that well, given the hype. Neither did Gephardt, and the two of them were supposed to be battling it out.

I'm rooting for (in this order): Kerry, Clark, Edwards. I have a soft spot for Kucinich too, but there's no way he'd win the general election.

There's something about Howard Dean that I find rather sleazy and offputting.

Catherine

Oh, and I see that turnout was relatively high too. Yay!!!

Catherine

I will admit to not paying much attention to Iowa because I'm most interested in Clark's campaign. But I'm totally surprised that Dean came in third. I mean, not surprised that he would end of losing. If it were him against Bush, I think he'd lose. But coming in 3rd after being talked up in the media as the front runner? That's pretty surprising.

thanks for the answer before.

views on the kucinich's "alliance" with edwards? if you haven't heard about it, check out:>http://edition.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/01/19/elec04.prez.edwards.kucinich/

some people are calling him a sell-out by agreeing to encourage his supporters to swing over to the edwards camp to get enough votes to be viable.

but i see this as a great opportunity for kucinich to end up as vp...

ETA: good point silverfish, but at least he has a couple delagates as bargaining power at the convention.

also, can anyone fill me in on what a "brokered convention" means? i've looked it up, but i still don't get it.

to choose kucinich as a running mate would be suicide for edwards. it will never happen.

Question - why a caucus? Why Iowa? Why not every state?

I wish I could participate in one! And I say boo on every every democrat in Iowa who could have gone out but chose not too.

A brokered convention would occur if no candidate has a clear majority of delegates at the convention, Then they would have to trade delegate votes in order to gain voting control (Or more accurately, to release delegates from their voting duties to enable them to support another candidate). They would negotiate to drop out of the race and trade their delegates to another candidate for political favors. For example, Kuchinich could trade his voting delegates to Edwards in exchange for being the VP. It is unlikely that the race will be so close that this is necessary, but it could happen. I would have said it was unlikely Dean would come in a distant third a week ago too.

Now Gephart has some delegates that he obviously isn't going to be using so it will be interesting to see who he endorses when he releases those delegates.

This has been yet another exciting US social studies diatribe from Mishymisu.

wow! what an event!

mishymisu- i know you're happy! and edwards did gain serious momentum... i'm so excited. we've got a long way to go... i'll be right there with ya watching. you're not driving me crazy with your politics. i love it! (and if edwards doesn't do it for me - i'm not going to be upset with kerry as pres.) ;)

Dean obviously peaked too soon in Iowa. And he was somewhat neglecting it in the week running up to the caucuses. In fact, he was in Georgia Sunday morning, while Kerry and Edwards were working it in Iowa...I get so excited about this stuff!