Biden Stripped of Caucus Delegates: What the Faucus?

DES MOINES, IOWA - In the gymnasium of Brody High School tonight, Joe Biden earned the requisite 15 percent of the vote. He was ruled an inviable candidate.

With 437 people crowding the gym floor, mob mentality won out over accuracy and fairness. Biden supporters left tonight's caucus with a shaken faith in a proud Iowan ritual.

Caucusers began by separating into seven camps, demarcated by clusters of enthusiastic supporters waving signs for their respective candidates. Of the seven candidates, only Clinton and Obama started with enough supporters to continue on to the second round of voting. Biden began the night 22 people short of the 70 supporters needed to qualify.

What followed was an kind of inside trading barely intelligible to non-native eyes. Husbands motioned to their wives across the room, precinct captains offered delegate positions to undecided voters from second tier camps, and hecklers tried to scare the undecided away from beckoning rivals.

Richardson, Dodd and Kucinich failed to garner enough support, but their defectors appeared to give Edwards and Biden legitimizing numbers. Cheers sounded from the Biden bleachers. The smugness and glory at having risen to seemingly exclusive ranks spread through the group, and "BI-DEN! BI-DEN!" was the war cry.

The Precinct Secretary counted Biden's corner as 69 strong--one person short. A woman in the red coat had wandered into a crowd of Edwards supporters and now headed back to the Biden circle. "Times up!" yelled the Precinct Secretary before the woman in a red coat could make it into counting range. Waving his clipboard in the air, the Secretary screamed that Biden supporters must quickly choose another candidate. They dispersed into a fog of bribes and beckoning.

One Biden supporter, Kevin Owens, protested. He pointed out that they would have had the 70th vote if the Precinct Secretary had waited a few more seconds. Then, the woman in the red coat would have joined the Biden supporters, making him a viable contender. It was too late. The crowd had dispersed into the remaining three camps. As the voters moved according to the will of the Secretary, Kevin didn't let matters go. He complained directly to the Precinct Captain, who got the state officials on the phone. Red-faced, the Captain hurried Owens into the hall, where he was given conflicting directions. No one running this election was certain what should, or could, be done at this point. "We don't have time to get the Biden folks back into a group," the Captain told Owens. "There are old women in there that need to get home."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcZC3Ifsw9I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI_R-cTAZzE

Not only was the leadership clueless as to caucus protocol, but they were dismissing people's political choice in the interest of expediency. The Good Secretary scapegoated geriatrics to move things along. Owens wasn't satisfied.

The anonymous state official on the other end of the phone eventually demanded that the entire caucus vote on whether to allow the newly assimilated Biden supporters time to regroup and find a 70th vote. He stood on a table and called for a vote.

"Those in favor?" Uncertain ayes echoed in the gym. "Those against?" A resounding chorus of nays. The Biden supporters had been out-yelled by the droves of Clinton, Obama and Edwards supporters who were not about to relinquish their stumbled-upon converts.

At the end of the night, Obama won the caucus by one vote - 173 to Clinton's 172. Who knows how the night would have ended had the woman in the red coat been allowed to stand up for her candidate. Kevin Owens stood alone where a swarm of sign carrying cacausers once chanted Biden's name. For him, the night's events stripped not only his ability to exercise his democratic right, but also silenced an important voice from outside of mainstream America.

Comments

[cblcar]

Biden should have skipped Iowa and their archaic system altogether and focused his energy and funds on New Hampshire. In the future, unless Iowa goes to a regular primary where all its citizens can participate in a private vote, I believe it shoud be ignored by all the candidates of both parties. It's absolutely meaningless except to steal from America and the rest of us the opportunity to have our right to vote for who we support. They lost us all a wonderful president in Senator Biden.

[caywen]

Joe deserved a lot better. He'll always be my candidate of choice despite having dropped out. I almost hope a Republican wins so he can run again in 2012.

[godemsinnc]

I have read several of these accounts of caucus chaos, and it makes me even madder that a crazy "voting" system and the influence of the media have deprived me of a chance to vote for the most qualified candidate for President. I rarely agree with David Brooks, but when he said "The Democrats will look back and say we should have nominated Joe Biden," he was right. Why a handful of Iowans have this kind of power is beyond me.

[cblcar]

A chilling indictment of the media's role in this unjustice. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK7DRPyNAHA

[cblcar]

How is we, as Americans, let a small percentage of a small population in a small state with a completely screwed up election system decide the leader of the free world for the rest of us? Iowan should be hanging their heads in shame and dumping their archaic system immediately.
Biden '08.

[cacatua]

I'm from Iowa. This was the first time I've ever been to a caucus, and because we were not viable thanks to all of the flood of teeny-boppers for Obama and Hillary, I was denied my vote for Joe Biden, as were the 12 others in our group. This happened all over the state. If we weren't inflicted with this stupid caucus system, Joe and Chris Dodd would likely still be in the race. I just gave the Iowa Democratic Party hell over this, and I invite you all to do the same at: iadem@iowa­democrats.­org

[SoonerThought]

Screw caucusing. Its time Iowa's disproportionate power over the political process ended. We need to divide the nation into four regional primaries which vote in four-month succession, allowing candidates ample time to swing through each region. Things the way they are robbed America of the best candidate for President, Joe Biden. Its a dirty damn shame.

[Jillianw]

What an zoo.

Maybe it's time for the Dems in Iowa to join the modern world. Even the R's in that state do it better.

[mpal]

No, we were in no way commenting on the Iowa results as a whole. This vignette is meant to show the chaos inherent in the caucus system and illustrate how well intentioned people can corrupt the democratic process.

This blog offers no apology for Biden's dismal showing on Thursday.

[LizM]

I know that you're not seriously attempting to put blame on one lonely caucus precinct secretary, or the inequities of one caucus gathering, for Senator Biden's Iowa results.

Just as I know you are not serious when you 'lament' the night's events having "silenced an important voice from outside of mainstream America"...because you are as well aware of what silenced this voice as I am and last nights events had nothing whatsoever to do with it.