Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

The precinct that snubbed roast beef

When in Iowa in November I met a guy at an Obama event named Jerry David Flusche, who works for a wind power company and seemed like a really cool guy.

Like most Nevada Democrats, he'd never caucused before. After seeing Obama in Fairfield, Iowa, the funkiest town in the entire state, he decided to caucus for Obama. Well, Mr. Flusche sent me an email last night with a description of his first caucus. I've edited for length and a little over-the-top editorializing on his part.

My First Caucus

My town has four wards. People in the NW ward caucused in the SE; people in the SE caucused in the NW; people in the NE caucused in the SW; and people in the SW caucused in the NE. If you tried to reach your caucus through the middle of town then you were probably late if you made it at all. There must be some kind of law that says no one can live close enough to be able to walk to caucus.

The first stage of the caucus is to see which candidates have 15 percent and are considered viable. In my ward it was obvious at first glance that only Edwards and Obama had 15 percent. The Clinton people jumped the gun on the second stage and started coaxing people from other unviable candidates into their camp. In Oklahoma they would be called Sooners. They managed to become viable and then picked up some more people during the authorized realignment stage.

...

The first-time factor was evident by looking at the groups. Obama had all the younger people. I'm 62 and if I had joined the Hillary camp I would have been 10 years the junior of anyone in the group. They were definitely from the "Stand By Your Man" generation.

Kerry won in 2004 because his people brought the best cookies to coax undecideds and unviables. The Obama first-timers thought the snacks were for themselves and didn't leave any goodies for coaxing.

The Clinton supporters had tons of food left over. They brought roast beef sandwiches, which were practically all left untouched.... The neighborhood is probably one of the most predominately vegetarian in the nation....

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