Caucuses Cont.

So as I write this blog entry, and I refresh my CNN Election Center, Obama is leading the Iowa Democratic caucus with 37% of the delegates from 92% of the precincts reporting. This evening was sort of a season opener for people like me who are interested in politics. We watched as the numbers came in, and our hearts raced as our candidates numbers went up and down. As all of this was happening, though, I wondered how the heck the caucuses actually worked.
I searched Wikipedia, and though I know it's information isn't always reliable, it does provide some insight into this confusing political process. Essentially what is happening tonight is that people in individual districts, within counties in Iowa, are meeting to decide who to send to their state caucus to decide who to send to the Democratic National Convention. If that didn't make any sense to you, you're not alone. The idea is that each county gets a certain number of electors based on population (I assume), and each caucus decides which candidate they are going to support and then electors are chosen from that caucus to cast that county's votes in the state caucus. Now, I'm not sure about Iowa, but in some states the electors aren't bound to vote for the candidate they were elected for in their initial caucus. So technically if a bunch of people decided to change their minds, then a different candidate than Obama could be elected out of Iowa. I assume this would only happen in the case of a scandal or something like that, but who knows.
I hope that cleared up the caucuses for readers, and have a great night.

Iowa: Corn and, apparently, Politics

So as I type this entry the voters in Iowa are getting ready to plant the initial seeds in the race for the 2008 election. As I said in my previous post, I am behind Barack Obama, and I can only hope that he prevails in Iowa. It seems like Iowa has set up candidates for a strong presence throughout the election campaign in the past, and I don't expect this year to be any different. I was sort of surprised this morning when I checked digg.com and noticed that one of the headlines was that Kucinich has voiced his support for Obama. I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing at the moment, but I'm sure not ready for any word of an Obama/Kucinich ticket.
I did a little research on Obama, and I was surprised to find out that he is only the fifth African American senator and the only one currently serving in the US Senate. For me this puts him in a prime position to be the first African American president, but that isn't a particularly important issue for me. I think I can easily say that I wouldn't care if Obama were black or white, he just offers really strong message that appeals to a lot of young voters like myself.
An interesting key issue Obama has voiced his opinion on is the net neutrality legislation that hit congress last year. Again, this is not something I'm completely versed on but, as I understand it, the legislation basically allows companies to regulate access to the internet to improve speeds for certain applications and websites, while reducing the speeds for others. Obama opposes this because "the smaller voices get squeezed out." Obviously, I agree with this, and this isn't his only position dealing with technology I like. He also wants to appoint a sort of technology cabinet member, which blew my mind when I heard about it. I honestly don't know how presidents have functioned without this in the last ten years. Anyway, I know this wasn't all about Iowa, but I do hope he does well there.
I hope everyone is having a good day.