I want to say THANK YOU! to Iowa

I'm heading off to bed - I have to get up really, really early to volunteer at the Obama event here in Tampa tomorrow.

But I was sitting here (with company, so no posting :( ) watching Senator Obama's speech, and I realized how important Iowa was this year. They are responsible for this beautiful movement. This groundswell, this resurgence. If Barack Obama hadn't won in your state, if John Edwards hadn't taken second place, if those butterfly wings hadn't flapped that cold winters day, Barack Obama wouldn't have been there tonight, making his first acceptance speech.

The good people of Iowa looked into the hearts and game plans of all our candidates, and made an unlikely choice that shook the foundations of the political establishment; that will make this world a much better place.

I am so grateful to all of you Iowans. Bless your foresight.

You have changed the world.

I take it all back! Luv ya, IA!! :)

and Edwards supporter that night, you are most welcome.

:yourock:

:)

but I was certainly hanging on every word of his speech. God, what a dynamic speaker and beautiful family.

I was so happy and proud that he felt that he wanted to share another big night with us. Bless his heart.

Where it all began, back when the corn was as high as a repubs eye



*****************************IOWA************************************

On my refrigerator, I still have my kids January school lunch menu with my "Standing with Obama" sticker stuck on it from that night. The Obama people stuck one on me as soon as I walked over to the Obama corner (actually more like an entire side) of the elementary school gymnasium where we had our caucus. I wont get rid of it until we win in November. :D

is stuck on the printer cabinet by my desk here right next to an "Obama '08" sticker from a rally I attended before the caucus. We still have our yard sign up and one in the front window. If Obama would ever lose, I'd leave them up until the next election, just like I did with my Dean and Kerry signs. I won't give ground.

Thank you, FLDem5!

It was amazing to see the enthusiasm pf all the Dems this year. The excitement of the Obama people was awesome.

This is the first election, I can remember that people were not voting against someone, but are voting enthusiastically for someone, be it Hillary or Obama.

Iowa chose change. I wish we could have given Edwards a win but I'm at peace with how things have worked out. Because you were so nice to Iowa, and Edwards has endorsed Obama, have one of these caucus cookies!

Especially recently, and I agree it has helped this year avoid the "scammers" from taking this election. A caucus like this helps us in the following ways (which those who want to "market" us the candidates were trying to weasel around by the Florida and Michigan fiascos)...

1) It is a participatory process and not just a "drop a vote for X" process. This, especially in the first election when many are still learning about all of the candidates is helpful for those who cast the first votes to feel more educated when they do so, when they can talk to their neighbors, etc. in the process before they vote. Especially when the press is in such a woeful state and is really more of a mass marketing machine than it is a critical analysis tool now, a caucus where the grass roots can help be a part of the informative process, it leads to better decisions by those who participate.

2) Diebold and the other voting machine company scammers are probably so frustrated that they can't set the election boundaries with vote fixing in the very first process, since caucuses can't be corrupted by their machines in any way. Instead of setting the expectations by fixing the first election to a certain set of desired (but "palatable") results, if they fixed other results, they couldn't be too out of bounds from what Iowa produced. We may never know if this helped save us from bad election results, but I think it helped avoid some huge problems.

I think the Michigan and Florida messes represented a huge battle of who could "control" the results of this election. Howard Dean and the DNC helped the good guys win, and all of the Iowans voted responsibly and helped the rest of the country keep this election more of an honest one than it otherwise might have been.

Now in the future, if we can fix the press so it is no longer the partisan propaganda tool that it is now so that we can rely on a more informed citizenry, and citizens actually have more free time to become informed if they don't have to work multiple jobs, then perhaps the caucus format won't be as important as it was in this election in Iowa. Also, if we solve the voting machine problem to ensure we have a non-corruptible process, then perhaps primary results can be trusted more as "setting the barometer" in future races if we want to rotate who's first in the primary season. This time though, as much as some may think it is unfair for Iowa to always be first, I'm thankful that they were.

THANKS IOWA!