Comments on: Iowa Caucus Madness http://www.oliverwillis.com/2007/11/18/iowa-caucus-madness/ Like Kryptonite To Stupid Sat, 11 Feb 2012 02:42:44 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.4 By: brent http://www.oliverwillis.com/2007/11/18/iowa-caucus-madness/#comment-59483 brent Mon, 19 Nov 2007 02:31:20 +0000 http://improveman.com/ow2008/?p=4682#comment-59483 This narrative bugs me so much. The process isn't that complicated. Yes, it's unnecessary now to send delegates to Des Moines to represent the districts. Yes, a straw poll is more direct. But words like "archaic" and "chaos" are so unnecessarily perjorative. A "sure grasp of mathematics" is required?! Egad! What kind of madness is this!?! It's not that complicated. Becuase of it's population, a district can send a certain number of delegates to Des Moines, so it does a head count and rounds off the percentages so the proportion of delegates matches the proportion of heads. Delegates are sometimes kids. It's an honor. They go to Des Moines and meet state party bigwigs, shake hands, participate. The whole thing is very pleasant, fun, exciting, and inclusive. I imagine the journalists who hate this have only ever seen big Des Moines ones, which I imagine can be pretty crowded. But in smaller districts, a few hundred Dems show up, drink cocoa, talk politics, mingle with others who support their candidates, and go home. The fact that the district party rep has to whip out a calculator for a minute is hardly a showstopper. This narrative bugs me so much. The process isn’t that complicated. Yes, it’s unnecessary now to send delegates to Des Moines to represent the districts. Yes, a straw poll is more direct. But words like “archaic” and “chaos” are so unnecessarily perjorative. A “sure grasp of mathematics” is required?! Egad! What kind of madness is this!?!

It’s not that complicated. Becuase of it’s population, a district can send a certain number of delegates to Des Moines, so it does a head count and rounds off the percentages so the proportion of delegates matches the proportion of heads.

Delegates are sometimes kids. It’s an honor. They go to Des Moines and meet state party bigwigs, shake hands, participate. The whole thing is very pleasant, fun, exciting, and inclusive.

I imagine the journalists who hate this have only ever seen big Des Moines ones, which I imagine can be pretty crowded. But in smaller districts, a few hundred Dems show up, drink cocoa, talk politics, mingle with others who support their candidates, and go home. The fact that the district party rep has to whip out a calculator for a minute is hardly a showstopper.

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