View from the Texas Caucus Trenches: Young Lady Proclaims

[DemsUnited]

"Texas Jokes End Today"

http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/3/30/15757/2729/63/477945

Following is the gist, but do read the entire well-written and eye opening blog entry.

<snip>

"I'm just back -- literally, JUST back -- from Texas' 23rd Senatorial District's Democratic convention. I left my house at 6:15 a.m. I walked in at 12:30 this morning"

<snip>

"after countless hours of phonebanking and organizing for Obama, an hourlong early voting process, a four-hour caucus process, and 18 hours of county convention, I've decided that I'm no longer willing to put up with anti-Texas jabs from Kossites, slurs against my patriotism from Republicans, and just about anything else from Clinton supporters"

<snip>

"The Clinton camp had announced that they were targeting the 23rd district for credentials challenges and, by god, that's what they did.

<snip and aside: AP reported the Clinton challenge strategy in http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gYJaQiRyrP6rD0dGdWZKNbT3-S5gD8VNBQCG0>

In the end, the Hillary camp did successfully win challenges on 22 delegates. Out of a total of 2,650. When the announcement came, we calculated that the 10-hour delay of the start of our convention averaged roughly a successful challenge only every 30 minutes.

So we stayed. Surprise, Hillary! Not a single delegate OR ALTERNATE left early from my precinct, which meant that the delegation not continuing on to state spent 12 hours making the Texas delegate count official.

So, take that, HRC! Your sniper fire was unsuccessful.

Dad, I'm putting you on notice. You choose to question my patriotism again because I oppose Iraq, you'll rue the day.

<snip>

[CoffeeCat]

1. How did Hillary win challenges on 22 of Obama's...

...delegates?

Can someone enlighten me?

What exactly is she challenging, with these delegates who show up to the convention?

Is she saying these people should not be delegates or is she contesting the initial
caucus results where these delegates were selected?

On what basis is she successfully contesting these delegates?

Geeez. This is huge. So several delegates who showed up to their Texas County
Convention for Obama, were not allowed to participate because Hillary said these
people were not legitimate?

On what basis is Hillary contesting these delegates?

[DemsUnited]

5. A bit of an answer to your question

This is from an update to the blog entry I snipped from in the OP...

"Many of you asked the nature of the challenges, and all I can tell you is that the vast majority of us never figured out the exact grounds on which we were charged -- and the conditions were so crowded, hot and crazy that it wasn't practical to push any further than to get your credentials and get seated. (It was, in fact, so miserable that a few people passed out and EMS was called twice.)"

In her original post, the texas blogger said that she, herself, was challenged:

"I'm one of them. Thanks for sucking those 10 or so hours away from me, Hills. Love ya. Mean it."

But she also said:

"I'm exhausted. I'm thrilled Obama won by such a wide margin. I'm honored to have been selected to attend our state convention. I'm pissed as hell at HRC's national campaign."

So I guess the challenge against her personally didn't stand.

[TexasThoughtCriminal]

7. The 22 delegates was the net increase for Clinton

I helped with this convention and watched some of the credential proceedings. It's not that 22 Obama delegates were tossed and replaced with Clinton delegates. It was her net increase after all the challenges and re-caucusing was over. Sometimes a precinct calculated the Obama/Clinton ratio wrong, or sent too many delegates, or no delegate list was provided, or unqualified people were elected delegate.... Any number of things could have been wrong, and all this had to be sorted out at the convention. Many of these precincts where it could not be determined who were the proper delegates were allowed to re-caucus on the spot. As you might have heard, some of the election night conventions were a confusing nightmare and had to be fixed at the district conventions.

The Clinton folks challenged this district precisely because it was an Obama stronghold with a very high African-American population. The credentials committee, an even split between Clinton and Obama supporters, threw out 65 of the 77 challenges.

In the end, the 22 net delegate gain did not do much for Clinton in a convention of many thousands. Obama won that convention 82% vs 18%.:rofl:

[d.amber]

2. Wow..I'm not sure if I should be worried about our convention

Next weekend is Washington states leg dist convention followed by county the next weekend end. I'm going as Obama delegate. Due to the fact that Hillary won the beauty contest in Washington though Obama won the real caucus by a good margin, I'm wondering if we will be facing some funny stuff too.

Well...we won't stand for it either....

[dkf]

3. Good way to make everyone hate you Hillary.

[InsultComicDog]

4. I posted this early this am

[WestHoustonDem]

6. My dad questioned my patriotism over Vietnam

He got over it and so did I, but it took a long time. I hope your family heals faster and as well as mine did.