Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Hope for a Day


Goose bumps, I actually had goose bumps several times last night at my local caucus site. The first time was when I approached the school where the caucus was being held and saw huge lines even though the site had only been open for ten minutes. Then to my amazement I was told that the much longer of the two lines was for people who wanted to register as a Democrat or switch parties. Apparently, I am not the only one who is fed up.

What needs to be understood is that I live in one of the reddest of the red states in a very wealthy conservative area. I’m somewhat surprised the riot police were not present with water cannons. Although the freezing rain probably served the same purpose.

Once inside, there was a palpable excitement. Most people just stood around staring with an awkward smile on their faces. I can’t count how many times I heard the phrase, “I didn’t know there were this many liberals around here.” I was not the only one to remind people that sadly, this might be the only time our votes actually matter in this election cycle as a Dem win in Kansas would probably be the equivalent of me skipping a happy hour with free beer and nachos.

The site was so over packed that there was virtually none of the give and take between opposing supporters that I had hoped to encounter. Frankly, the mainly grey haired, female Hillary crowd did not have the numbers or, judging from the looks on their faces spirit or inclination to even attempt to sway the massive group of Obama supporters. The diverse social make up of the Obama group really stood out in marked contrast to the staid Clinton supporters. More goose bumps.

Update: This kind of scares me, but I will not buy into that line of thinking.

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