One of the things I was the most excited for in coming to Dubuque was the opportunity to participate in the Iowa Caucuses. This is always the first in the nation, and something that gets a lot of attention. One of the things I probably didn't expect was to decide to attend the Democrats caucuses instead of the Republican however. I must admit that I have been won over pretty strongly by Barak Obama this year and I decided to Caucus for him. It was a unique experience for me. The participation for the precinct I live in was pretty good. Because the event was moved up this year, the caucus took place in a smaller middle school cafeteria instead of the occupied gymnasium. It was pretty much standing room only in here, and because they were told classrooms would not be made available, it was decided that some of the caucusing would need to take place in the halls. After a random drawing, the Richardson and Clinton groups were chosen to gather in the hallway outside the cafeteria. I enjoyed the rules of the process in Iowa. The first thing that happened was an initial count of support for each candidate. They needed at least 15% of the 344 people attending to be counted as viable. After the first count only three campaigns were viable according to the rules. This left the supporters of Biden, Richardson, Dodd and others to be wooed by other candidates. After a period in which this happened a second and final vote was taken. In the end Obama won our precinct, with Clinton taking second, and Edwards third. It was a great time.As far as my decision to support Obama; I made it in spite of my Republican leanings because I find that as a moderate I am probably closer to Obama, a moderate democrat, then I am to any of the very conservative republicans, and I really don't like any of the moderate conservatives in the race. I guess my vote could change, but in seeing a democrat speak regarding faith and politics such as Obama does here (thanks to a friends blog for pointing it out), I find myself growing to like my choice this year more and more.
