FOX_SMU_Rachael's Blog

Fallon and I covered the Republican caucus at Valley High School in Des Moines. The Republican caucus is the tamer version of the two... but it is still very weird to behold when you are used to the primary process. First, they elected the temporary caucus chair to be the permanent caucus chair (basically she fascilitated it). Then one representative of each candidate was allowed to speak for two minutes about why they should elect that person. I was struck by how everyone clapped after each one and laughed (but in a friendly way) when someone ran over time or the McCain guy walked up late and another guy went up impromptu... only to get about 30 seconds into his speech before the planned representative got up there. When they had to vote for platforms to send to further republican committees, they were still just as jovial (although probably only a fifth of the original people were still there since that happened after they got to vote.) They voted by writing the name down on these brightly colored pieces of paper and then put them in a rubbermaid bin. They were then counted multiple times while a representative from each campaign watched. Romney won with 170 votes, Huckabee had 105, and McCain had 88. Obviously, this didn't represent the whole state, but it was still really interesting to see how it all worked. Obama won with Edwards in second and Clinton in third in the democratic caucus just down the hall.

Well we leave tomorrow. I saw the crazyness and sort of archaic nature of a caucus. It makes sense for it to be so unusual after all of the media blitz and crazy campaigning that proceeded it. I was also blown away about how a state that doesn't really represent the nation very well (size and diversity wise) makes such a monumental impact on who could win the nomination. I will say one thing about that though, they do really take it seriously. I think that was shown in the huge numbers that went to the polls today. Every Iowan I talked to about them being the first state was sure to mention that they take it seriously, they think it's an honor, and they really like being the first state.

I'm uploading pictures of the caucus in action, so be sure to check out my photos!