We attended our somewhat abbreviated caucus, we stood up for our man, and he rocked the caucus. As one t‑shirt said, “Barack Chalk Jayhawk!” Current results give Kansas to Obama by a 46% margin. If only that were reflected across the country.
The line was really long, with hundreds of people snaking down the street in the cold, wintry, windy evening. We were caucusing at the National Guard Armory, one of the few places in town with a large enough space to hold hundreds of folks. Even so, there were people in line by the deadline (7 pm) who could not fit in the building. When the proceedings got started, the precinct captains (remarkably bereft of a bullhorn) announced that they would count us and then let us go home, while they brought inside the 250 people who were still outside.
It was very noisy in the hangar, with spontaneous chanting breaking out all the time. The wife was greatly moved by the show of solidarity, so much so it brought her near to tears more than once. I confess to a spine-tingling moment when the Cap’n asked us if there were some excited Democrats in the house, and five hundred people answered with a thundering “Yeah!”
It was also hot in the hangar, though some kind souls started playing with the big garage door at the far end of the room (the same door from which we were eventually shuffled out). And frankly, it got a little boring at times, too. If it weren’t for the audacity of the ten Kucinich supporters, marching and singing and whatnot, it might not have been as much fun. Update: Turns out that of the 35 votes Kucinich got in Kansas, sixteen came from our caucus location.
In the end, we were out of there by a little after 7:30, in time to get home and put the boys to bed before the babysitter had to. Yeah, we got a sitter. It was the right choice, though given how raucous and short the whole process was, our older boy probably would have enjoyed.
More pictures here.
