1) Obsidian Wings is nominated for the “Best New Blog” category in wampum’s Sandy Koufax awards (for the best in left-of-center blogging in 2003). Huzzah for us. Huzzah for whomever nominated us. I sincerely doubt we’ll make the finals in the “best new, but don’t let that stop you from stuffing the ballot box* for us. (Moe and possibly von are also nominated for “Best Non-Liberal blog“.)
2) Whenever Howard Dean does a TV interview or a debate, I get as nervous as a parent at a child’s recital. So you can imagine how I feel about the Iowa caucuses, and I’m way too involved to make a prediction. The polls do not look good for Dean. But the hard counts might. Basically, there are rumors that 60-65% of Dean’s hard core supporters are first time caucus goers that the polls might be missing.
Is it true? I want it to be true too badly to try to answer that question. I will only say that based on my experience in this campaign and the only other campaign I worked for, it’s definitely plausible.
That other campaign was Robert Reich’s for governor of Massachusetts. Mass. has this weird nomination system where you need to get 15% of the delegates in a state party convention to get on the primary ballot. The delegates are elected in caucuses way back in February or March. Reich got into the race late, just a few weeks before the caucuses; everyone was guessing he wouldn’t clear 15%.
I called up the board of elections, found out the only requirement for going to a caucus was being a registered Democrat (I’d had no idea of this), and showed up. Enough other Reich supporters in my precinct did the same that we got 2 out of its 4 delegates. This happened all over the state. Reich made 15% easily, and came in second place over all, exceeding all expectations.
The Iowa presidential caucuses are a much bigger deal, and much better attended, than the Massachusetts governor’s race caucuses. But Reich’s field organizing was nothing compared to Dean’s. So the rumor could be true.
Blog Awards
There’s been some talk in blogosphere recently about awards and statistics. Let me just add this further remark. The number one site listed by google for the entry ‘republican pig liars’ is, you guessed it, right here. Now, this is true only for liars …
Reich’s campaign has always been, to me, a precursor to the Dean campaign. I covered the primary and attended the caucus in the town of Wellesley, where Reich supporters crowded the caucus, most of them first-time attendees, and took a surprising majority of the delegates.
In the Reich-as-Dean model, Birmingham is Gephardt, O’Brien is Kerry, Grossman is Lieberman, and Tolman is – umm – Clark? Kucinich? I have to remind myself that Lenin isn’t Robespierre.