It's always fascinating to me how that works. Being from NYC, you pretty much never get to meet a single candidate. Well, unless you pay $1000+ to attend a gala fundraising dinner with 500 other people, at which time the candidate will rush in, talk for 15 minutes, and if you're lucky, you get to quickly shake hands.
Please do continue to share your experiences, Cilla. I love hearing about it. And it does amaze me how in other parts of the country, people actually do get to gather for lengthy periods of time in very small groups with each of the candidates.
I know some people think that places like Iowa and New Hampshire shouldn't have so much influence, but I have to tell you, we take our role very seriously. We don't pay to meet candidates, they spend the money here to get us to go to their events. The Truman Club dues don't even go to candidates, they support the local party headquarters.
No candidate is immune from tough questions asked face to face with everyone patiently staring at them waiting for an answer and people will remember what they said, how well they handle situations where they really don't know the answer, etc. I like this time best because very few people have actually committed to candidates and the national polls mean nothing. We go see all of them and then we seriously discuss the differences.
Richardson calls it a job interview and that's really what it is. He said yesterday that he used to think that Iowa shouldn't have this much influence, but that here people don't want to shake hands they want answers and that's really a good thing. He tried to end his larger event with a softball question from a young girl, I think she was 14. She asked "When you pull all the troops out of Iraq, what will you do to stabalize the Middle East?" There was a long pause and he said "How old are you?" That's Iowa.
The caucuses in January are really quite fascinating. The room is divided up by candidate and you count heads, literally. It's no secret ballot. Everyone knows who you support. There is a percentage cut-off that you need for a candidate to get a delegate. If you don't have enough for a delegate for a candidate then you can try to talk people into coming over to your candidate or the others can speak to encourage you to join them. It's also a time where anyone can submit issues for the platform. They are voted on and go through to the county wide convention where they will be voted on and go to district etc. They could eventually become planks in the national platform.
If you become one of the delegates, you are not bound to your candidate. You can change at a later meeting even at the national convention. But it's the precinct caucuses that start the whole ball rolling and get all the attention.
I've caucused as a Republican, they do vote on paper and you don't have to tell who you voted for. I like the Democrat's way better.
If anyone wants to brave the Iowa winter (it's usually way below zero that week) to observe the caucus or has a candidate they want to meet face to face....you're welcome to come out and visit. (You can have the fill of all the food you bring yourself)
