Blogging The Caucuses

The countdown has started for Thursday night's festivities. Des Moines is crawling, literally crawling, with famous and lesser known media-types following around the candidates and their campaigns. No, I am not referring to any of the middling quadrumvirate, though Res Ipsa will be pining away the next several days while the rest of us live the life of Riley on better beer than we normally drink on the $53.38 that has been thrown into the till over on the left. Maybe we can even upgrade to wine with real corks.

I expect all of us and others to be posting about this subject matter over the next several days but let me just address a couple things about caucuses. First, contrary to the popular reports in the press, people don't have to stand up in front of their neighbors and make a stump speech. That said, despite the faults associated with a caucus as opposed to a primary, it really is an energizing event to attend. While people don't have to make stump speeches, it is fascinating to watch the precinct captains and neighbors bargain for the support of people whose candidates can't get the threshold numbers--why this whole second choice phenomenon is huge.

As for me, other than the fact that I want to support Dodd for his recent fillibuster, I would be supporting Obama or Edwards. I expect that all but the top three will not get their numbers, so where does that leave the other three? I will leave that speculation to people like Matt Stoller. All that said, I am scratching my head at the way Obama has been running his campaign in the 11th hour--like he is listening to consultants a little too much.

Finally, and until tomorrow, the last misconception I will address is Stoller's assertion:

My next post will start with 'I was talking to a cab driver,
and he told me that Iowa is flat.'

Have you ever been to Nebraska?