Great Edwards Video

What Happened in Nevada???

Why did Edwards do so poorly in Nevada? How did he do so well in the polls just before the caucus but ended up with only 3% of the delegates at the caucus? Something is fishy but unfortunately we'll never know for sure -- the Nevada Democratic Party did not retain any records as to how the caucus attendees actually voted. What is wrong with these people!!!?? Verifiable voting is a core value for the rest of us Democrats!

Their excuse is that the turnout was larger than they anticipated -- so what?! First of all they should have anticipated the large turn out after what happened in Iowa. Secondly, yes, 116,000 caucus attendees vs the 45,000 they had 4 years ago is a great increase BUT you still have the same number of precincts -- the number of precincts didn't DOUBLE -- and a precinct committee officer should be able to improvise, use blank paper -- and most importantly FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS.

I've read their rules at NV DEMS Caucus and records should have been kept.

Caucus goers wrote letters to the editor at the Review Journal and stated:

My precinct location was stacked in favor of Hillary Clinton before anybody arrived. Many of the precinct workers wore Hillary T-shirts. Sen. Clinton's sign was on a wall by itself. John Edwards, Sen. Joe Biden and Rep. Dennis Kucinich shared another wall, though Sen. Biden's name was completely hidden by a projector screen accidentally lowered during introductions, and the space allotted for Sen. Biden and Rep. Kucinich was occupied by a large grand piano. Sen. Barack Obama, "uncommitted" and "observers" shared a third wall. There wasn't a fourth wall, as the other half of the room was being used by another precinct.

All the chairs in the room were placed under Sen. Clinton's sign. If you supported anybody else, you could stand or sit on the floor. Very democratic.

Here's another:

How they got any accurate vote is anyone's guess. After putting us in groups based on our choice of political candidate and precinct, they counted heads. After awhile they allowed us to cast a paper ballot. Those people who were not registered to vote with the political party did not have an official ballot. These people used a single slip of paper without their name or precinct on it. Were they counted?

My theory is that Nevada had untrained PCOs, unable to effectively ensure a fair chance for every candidate, determine viability, or divide up delegates to the candidates, and confusion ruled -- BUT because the Party didn't retain records, we cannot rule out hanky-panky.

Edwards got screwed and therefor we all got screwed.

My Review of Yearly Kos

I had a great time at Yearly Kos this year. Here are some of my personal favorite hits and misses.

Hits (not necessarily in priority order)

1. John Soltz’s introduction of Wesley Clark. He spoke of how we should try to always be generous and gracious to everyone because we never know what burdens they are carrying and how everyone is carrying burdens. He shared is story how people had been kind to him and helped him with his burdens – one person who helped him was General Wesley Clark.
2. Howard Dean. He’s so inspirational and really demonstrates leadership. It made me sad that he didn’t win in 2004 but we’re so lucky to have leading the DNC.
3. The Pacific Northwest Caucus. It was great to meet my neighboring bloggers and two great Congressional candidates from our area: Darcy Burner and George Fearing.
4. The unofficial “Smokers Caucus”. We met all day, every day outside while we smoked and had great conversations.
5. The unofficial “Draft Gore Breakout”: We met at the hotel bar Friday and quite a crowd gathered. The support for Gore was incredible throughout the conference.
6. The “Left Behind by the Right” panel. Each speaker had inspiring stories and each reminded us in their own way that we are not the lunatic fringe but instead what used to be called mainstream – the Right went fanatical. It also reminded me that compromise should never be a tactic for us. They’ll just keep moving the goal posts.
7. John Edwards. He really connected with us in his breakout. He was relaxed, candid, wasn’t afraid to defend the couple of unpopular positions he had, and we really responded!
8. The Teamsters’ Bar-B-Q. Yummy! And I loved chatting with the union folks.
9. Andy Stern. Another great forward thinking leader.
10. The employees of the Convention Center. They were so helpful and nice.
11. The “Live Blogging the Libby Trial” panel. They gave us real behind the scenes glimpses.

Misses

1. The women comedians. Why do women comics have to go so crude? The men were funny and entertaining but the women were offensive.
2. The reason the Congressional guests didn’t show. I was disappointed that Pelosi, Emanuel, Reid, and Schumer didn’t show but I was angry about the reason. FISA amendments should never be rushed -- they should be deliberated and carefully considered. We supported them during the last election with a mandate of change, not capitulation.
3. There was too much to do! I wanted to see all the Brave New Films and do all the DFA Workshops. I wish I could have attended more events. Maybe we need more days.

It was inpirational and I had a great time!