He was not a uniter. He was hated. He got _ _ _ _ BECAUSE he was hated.

Oops, taliking facts again. Sorry.

"...and Obama isn’t as polarizing a figure and that’s probably the most important thing to think about going into the general election. I said I thought that voting for a president based on strategy like that was immoral."

I ditto you Sean. It's immoral...or somehow just wrong.
Many many many Obamatons give this rationalization for their vote, but what is ironic about this rationale is this: instead of voting for hope, they are voting for fear. Just as much fear in this election as hope.

Undecided = attention whore. Wow - that's so zeitgeisty. I used to make fun of people who are/were undecided. And now I am/are one.

Remember the upper Dean summer and then the ineluctably downer Kerry autumn? That's why Obama is so iffy on my radar. As much as we're all seeking some sort of deliverance, I can't wrap my mind around the idea that O is the deliverer.

You'd have to have some kind of crazy inflated sense of your own importance to think that the world will end if you choose in error. Being unable to make up your mind is nothing to be proud of.

But ... not this year. This year it doesn't seem that necessary, since we have some really good candidates to choose amongst.

Me and one other supporter put up all of our Hillary posters since we had blue tape. The Obama supporters didn't have tape and so after we put up all the posters, the Obama supporters then made this huge deal "wait you can't put political posters up in a church" so they tore down all the posters. After they tore them down, the caucus leader said that they were wrong and that the posters should have stayed up, but by that time it was to late

Then at the end when Hillary and Obama supporters were allowed time to give their statements on their candidates, the Obama supporters hogged the mic and 4 or 5 of them talked and talked and talked, while only one Hillary supporter was given a chance to make their statement at which time the precinct leader who was an Obama fan said "you get one minute" even though the Obama supporters had just taken up a good 15 mins with their "Hope, Kennedy, Change, Hope, blah blah blah"

I absolutely hate the Caucus system.

We were lucky because the guy who volunteered to be our precinct coordinator had been a delegate last time, so he knew that we could in fact send an uncommitted delegate (we didn't; enough people committed or changed so we had 4 for Obama and 1 for Clinton).

I also felt that everyone respected other people's opinions or decisions about who to support; what I find most heartening was that it seemed like even though the majority of people were passionate about either Obama or Clinton we were also willing to support the eventual nominee if it wasn't our candidate.

We also only had one exactly-timed one minute speech for each candidate - I don't know if that's because we weren't really interested in trying to sway the others' opinions or because of a misinterpretation of the instruction print-out that we were going by.

Here's hoping the dems figure out how to do it better and are better prepared next time! I also think there should be some kind of absentee participation available for people who have to work or aren't into the caucus thing.

Me too, especially after doing some research on the pledge recently. Better late than never, I guess.

As I said: never before have I been undecided in choosing a candidate. This time, I am. You must be on lots of retsina to think that because I have announced my unprecedented indeciseiveness connotes some sort of self-inflated self-importance.

Both Hillary and Obama are equally qualified and equally impressive. But I must say there is a lot of self-fulfilling prophecy going on out there in slogdom. "Polls say" and all of that meretricious bullshit. What about Iowa, what about New Hampshire? The polls were dead wrong, and they will continue to be dead wrong because people are going to lie.

So I really need no lectures about how I should feel, or how I should conduct myself, or how I should think. Obama is not the second coming of Christ - would that he were. You may dismiss Hillary for all of the right or wrong reasons, but you still dismiss her. That's something you should get over.

Sounds trite: but may the best person win - Seattle PC and all.

ANNNNNND...

there really is only one way to settle this. did the woman have one needle or two?

What infuriates me so much about that argument is that few people are willing to acknowledge why she is so hated; because she's a she. That they are willing to choose a candidate based on avoiding the repercussions of other people's misogynism makes me want to throw up. As was succinctly said @8, they are voting for fear. I refuse to disabuse myself of the notion that we have the luxury of making decisions based on logic and reason, not fear.

I have no problem with people who prefer Obama based on who he is, his policy, or his voting record, and obviously I will vote for him if he is nominated. I do have a problem with being treated like I was the enemy because I had the audacity to prefer the candidate who hateful scumbags like Rush Limbaugh think they have a better chance against.

Anyway, thank you for this, it was a great read and I don't understand how it could elicit such vitriol from the likes of Elenchos; I read honesty and observation in this story, not pride or attention-seeking.

However, it's also reality. It may be unfair, but it's the ground on which we have to consider all our options.

Hopefully, most people made decisions based on who they wanted for President, and not on things like that.

It always bothered me until I was twelve or thirteen.