What Caucus Night is Really Like in Iowa

Along the way, I talked to a woman with a violet GUEST ribbon. (Most of the guests were either media or interns working for specific candidates; the latter had cell phones in hand and were watching AP results roll in from across the state.) But this woman just seemed intrigued. It turns out she is from Sri Lanka and in grad school here. She asked some questions about the delegates and what happenes next. As I tried my best to answer, she looked at me like I was a bit nuts and said, “I can’t believe you people do this!” It was the exact same tone I used on my first visit to France when faced with a Turkish toilet.

Although 540 people packed into our school gym in ’04 (it was exhilarating), 710 proved just annoying and HOT. There was a seeing-eye dog who patiently withstood the entire scene, though he was doubtlessly tripped over and nudged many times. Someone passed out cookies around 8:00 p.m. I would have given anything for water. The little kids and babies seemed to hold up pretty well though.

By the time Andrew and I made it back to the gym and chose to throw ourselves in with the Edwards folks—mainly because Obama was clearly in the lead and didn’t need our assistance, and by going with Edwards, we’d deprive Hillary of a few potential votes—it was too crowded to take photos and I’d lost my mojo. The Hillary camp started chanting for how many votes they needed to be viable, and eventually pulled it out and then some. Our precinct lost about twenty people over the course of the night—probably claustrophobes or menopausal woman who’d overheated—so when all was said and done and the math was completed, with not one but two laptops brought in for the occasion, we had five delegates for Obama, four for Edwards, and two for Hillary. And the undecided? They got none.

I’m hoping that my mailbox is EMPTY for a long time, and my phone doesn’t ring again until November.