Fred,
It's good to see that you haven't run out of opinions. When I first read your latest column my initial reaction was that it must be an April Fools joke. But alas as much as I hate to admit it I think your conclusion may prove to be fact. This is based on my personal experience this past weekend where I saw democracy in action or probably more accurately in inaction.
To put last weekend in context, I have to go back the Texas primary on March 4th. As I'm sure you are aware Hillary won the popular vote (probably based on Republican crossovers) but that vote only counts for 2/3rds. The other third of the delegates are based on the results of the caucuses which most Texans didn't even know existed leading up to the primary. I've been in Dallas for over 20 years and I know that during that time I have voted in several presidential primaries (though I probably only had one choice that counted) and I never remember hearing about a subsequent caucus. Well on March 4th, during voting I was informed that I needed to come back in the evening, after the polls closed, to the school where I voted to participate in the caucus. Walking up to the school that evening, I still didn't know what I was getting into. I was aware of the Iowa caucuses where people meet in homes and politic for their candidate so I was wondering if I was headed for one large donnybrook or what. As it turned out, there were 400 to 500 people from two precincts not knowing what they were doing crammed into the school gym that got hotter by the minute. Fortunately, there were a couple of people who did know the process and were able to finally corral the Clinton and Obama camps into their respective lines to sign in. After the sign in was complete, the lists were counted and the number of delegates was determined. I don't know what our precinct's popular count was but Obama definitely got more out for our caucus and this was fairly true statewide (the Republican crossovers didn't show). As hectic as our caucus was, it was a piece of cake compared to some locations where people couldn't get into their respective locations and left in frustration.
Anyway I digress, after the count in our precinct, it was determined that Obama was entitled to 12 delegates and Clinton 7 delegates to the upcoming senatorial convention at the end of March. While after signing in many of the people left, I decided that after standing around for 2 hours that I'd stick around to witness the rest of the process. At this point the few people who did know something of what was supposed to take place gathered the Obama and Clinton camps into their respective groups to select their delegates. When the head of our group initially asked who would like to be a delegate to the senatorial convention it appeared that we didn't have seven people who were that committed, so I raised my hand to be a Clinton delegate. Apparently, as we stood around, more people received the spirit and we had more volunteers than spots, so I said that I'd be willing to be an alternate rather than an actual delegate. I thought that would show commitment without being committed. Only then did I find out that the alternates were also expected to show up at the convention to be ready like an alternate juror.
As it turned out, I received a call last Friday night from one of our movers and shakers informing me that one of our delegates wasn't going to be able to attend and that they needed me to be a delegate. So instead of sleeping in on Saturday morning, I was up before the crack of dawn to get ready to do my civic duty. I'd been informed that sign-ins would begin at 8 and that the convention would start at 11. They had also said that if you wanted to, you could attend one of the committee meetings that were going to convene at 9. I figured that it might be interesting to attend one of the committee meetings and that I'd beat the crowd by getting there around 8. Unfortunately, I wasn't alone in my thinking and as soon as I got off the freeway I was in a traffic jam that would rival Shirley Highway [Fred's note: that a busy thoroughfare in the Wasnington, DC, metro area.] on its worst day. After moving less than a quarter mile in twenty minutes, I found a side street that had parking and jumped at it (walking was definitely faster). However, once I got to the Gymnasium where the convention was being held, I found 3 to 4 thousand people milling around waiting to sign in. I immediately found a guy with our precinct sign but found that he and the rest of his group were Obama supporters. They said I could join them and I did for a while until I saw other groups repeatedly push forward ahead of this group. I finally decided to go with the flow which wasn't flowing very fast but at least was making creeping progress.
After about two hours, I finally got signed in, received my credentials, and found our section in the Gym. 11:00 a.m. came and went and it was obvious that the convention wasn't ready to start. At about 11:20 the Chairwoman announced that there were still several hundred people waiting to sign in and asked for the group's indulgence. Finally about 11:45, the show got on the road, that is to say that the Colors were presented, the pledge was said, and the National Anthem was sung. Then begun the speechifying by various politicians; each commenting on the large turnout and talking about the need to unify once the candidate was selected (yeh right). At one point they asked all those who were attending their first convention to stand and it was obvious that 90% of the audience were new to this procedure.
After a couple of hours of speeches, things finally got interesting as we heard the report of the credentials committee. In our convention there were over 200 precincts represented and it was obvious that there were more Obama supporters than Clinton supporters. The chairwoman of the Credentials committee started by announcing that there had been 12 challenges and proceeded to discuss the first challenge and its result. We then heard from a person concerning the dissenting report. We were then asked to vote to either accept the credentials committee's ruling or the dissenting report. Voting for the committee's recommendation would have resulted in Obama losing a delegate. However, there was widespread confusion on what was being voted on and it had to be explained several times and resulted in several votes. They initially tried to do the voting by voice vote but it became readily apparent that this wasn't going to work in such a crowd. They finally had people stand but failed to instruct alternates that they could not participate, so the challenge won. On the second challenge, the credentials committee prevailed even though this also involved the loss of a Obama delegate. Fortunately, at this point, the voice of reason prevailed and an individual pointed out that these challenges involved a handful of delegates and that in the end result the net gain or loss of delegates would be negligible. There were still people wanting to go through each challenge separately but the majority of the audience was tired and wanted to get on with why they were attending the convention in the first place. Apparently at one convention the credentials committee meeting got so contentious that local police were called to make sure that things didn't get out of hand.
The reason most of us were there was to select delegates and alternates from our respective precincts to attend the state convention in Austin in June where they would eventually select 67 delegates to go to the National convention in Denver. I don't know how many delegates were selected from our senatorial district to go to state but I understand that the district will ultimately only get 4 delegates to the National convention. Our precinct had 19 delegates which allowed us to choose one delegate and one alternate to the state convention and since there were 12 Obama delegates they ended up choosing the delegate and the Clinton camp got the alternate (big Whoop). We could have saved a lot of time and money by merely holding a precinct meeting in our neighborhood and making the delegate selection there.
Apparently in one precinct the Obama camp, which were in the majority, put forward several names and split their vote while the Clinton camp voted as a block for their nominee. That resulted in the Clinton nominee being selected as the delegate from the precinct. When the Obama camp realized they had screwed up they wanted a do-over. I don't know what ultimately happened but the rules said there was to be only one vote.
I don't know what time the convention finally wrapped up but I decided that by 5:15 that I had had all the fun I could take for one day. Based on an article in the paper the next day it seems that as chaotic as our convention was that it was one of the better run meetings.
The one thing that is obvious to me based on my participation in the process thus far is that regardless of who wins the Democratic nomination, the number of Democratic voters in the November election will be down from the primary numbers. If Obama is not the ultimate nominee, I believe the Black voters will stay away in mass and if Obama is the nominee, a sizable portion of Clinton backers will either stay home or back McCain. Now if Clinton makes another bonehead misstatement (Lie), that could move her supporter to Obama. Obama, on the other hand, could burn the flag or condemn the U.S., and the African-American community would still figure that he had been screwed if Clinton subsequently received the nomination.
The only salvation I see in all of this is that while McCain may win the White House, I think the House and Senate will become more Democratic and we'll have gridlock for another 4 years.
Hope you're doing well.
Bill
Published April 4, 2008.
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