Well, it looks like Obama took NE as expected, but I’m glad to see we didn’t go down fighting. The numbers were as follows:
As you can see, it was a very close race in the 3rd district, and even in the 1st district it wasn’t a grand slam for Obama. The only real home run was the 2nd district, with Obama getting 76.8% of the votes. Now, I will admit, the whole process was a complete disaster. I thought it was just our polling place yesterday, but looking at the Nebraska Democrat Blog, it seems there were massive issues everywhere from drinking while voting to people feeling the voters didn’t get a say in what was happening:
I went to the caucus at 1st and Cornhusker. As I sat at a table, I was told that I could not drink the soda that I had in my purse. I looked around the room and saw several people drinking liquior. I was not comfortable discussing politics with people who are drinking liquior. After observing this, I felt I could not be a part of what was going on. It has been my experience that when people are drinking liquior they do not come up with good solutions. I left and went home.
All delegates went to Obama, even though we exceeded the 15% viability threshold for Clinton. In talking to others, it sounds like there was little consistency in how these caucuses were run. If my vote counts, which after this I don’t think it does, go back to the primary way of voting. This was a joke!!!
But what is done, is done. Hopefully they learn from their mistakes and fix it before the next election. Besides that there isn’t too much else… except after talking with people yesterday and reading an article this morning, I feel like I should mention something.
While I was speaking with people, one thing came up in every conversation, and that was that they worried that if this whole fiasco went to the convention, no matter who was picked (be it Hillary or Barack) they felt that the energy the Democrats have now would go away. They all suggested that declaring a Clinton/Obama ticket. The feeling was that if they joined forces, Obama wouldn’t lose the energy he has with his crowd, and Hillary would keep the energy she has with her crowd. The would be able to keep speaking around the country, but instead of rivals, they’d be speaking as partners. Now, according to that article, that’s something that has been brought up before and may be in consideration.
The Clinton camp hopes to stop the Obama bandwagon by winning Texas and Ohio primaries on March 4, after which Mrs Clinton is planning to call on party grandees including Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives and Harry Reid, the party’s leader in the Senate, to persuade Mr Obama to stand down.
Clinton aides have privately admitted that Mr Obama would only consider such a move if offered the position of vice presidential running mate, something Mrs Clinton has always been reluctant to consider.
I believe at this point they both need to stop thinking about winning, and start thinking about their party and winning back this country. If Obama and Clinton truly were candidates for change and dreams and everything else, they’d realize what they needed to do to bring this all home. Only time will tell what will happen, but this is the only way I see it ending well (with the party so divided, a lot of Hillary supporters may not vote for Barack, and if he stands down a lot of the people he’s inspired may not stand behind Hillary). Oh well, until next time!
