Current mood:

tired

Being Part of History
Caucused in our new precinct for the first time last night. Last time they had 13 people. This time they had over 200. The split for Senate District delegates (at the county convention): 15 for Clinton, 20 for Obama. More than I expected for Obama in a neighborhood that seems skewed to the older side.

By the time delegates were selected, things had cleared out to the point that everyone that wanted to be a delegate became one. J and I stayed for the resolutions. But when we got kicked out of the school at 11pm, J went home to rescue the beasts and get some sleep (her mom's coming to visit today). I went on with the group to Denny's to plow through the rest and finally have dinner. We wrapped up around 2:30am (whew!).

The best parts:
- Meeting more neighbors.
- Liking the neighbors that I met, even if they preferred the other candidate.
- Having everything be smooth. After hearing about contentious neighborhood association meetings, etc., I'm happy to live in a precinct where folks were working together cooperatively.
- Having an "iPhone moment" during the resolution phase -- to look up details of an act -- via the Denny's wireless network. It changed our opinion on the resolution from skeptical to supportive.
- Getting educated about state computer systems and alternative energy from neighbors that work in those areas, as we worked through the resolutions.

Next day regrets:
- Realizing that I should have proposed a resolution to help control candidates like Gene Kelly, who perennially run on their names and then do no campaigning. I'd been bitching that "the party" should change their rules to rein folks like him in (his name is enough to sometimes win primaries, or at least cause run-offs, but the lack of campaigning means he's a sure loser in the fall election). It didn't hit me until this morning that the caucus was a place where a party member could bring up the issue to "the party". D'oh!