The Silver Lining
My inbox this morning was full to the brim with notes from people sharing election results. The typical email started off with, “I’m so sorry, but it looks like Hillary won Texas…”
I’m sorry, too.
But sadness about the Texas primary results isn’t the overriding emotion this morning. What I feel, rather, is a tremendous and uplifting sense of community.
I talked to hundreds of people in my precinct yesterday — so many that my voice is gone this morning. There were old people and young, of every imaginable ethnicity. I saw friends I hadn’t bumped into for years, others that I see daily, and still more that I’d never met before… and most of them were coming out for the senator from Illinois.
No, not everyone with whom I spoke was voting in the Democratic primary, nor was everyone supporting Obama. Of those who were, though, only two told me they were there to vote against Hillary… and those two didn’t come back to caucus. Negative energy and Obama support were mutually exclusive here.
Although our precinct spent over an hour in line outside waiting to get in to caucus (as evidently happened elsewhere, too), there was no evident hostility between the two campaigns’ supporters. Since I didn’t meet anyone who’d ever caucused before, I had the feeling that the sheer novelty of the experience superseded candidate choice.
In short, my experiences yesterday taught me that my neighbors and I have rather a lot in common — far more than I’d suspected, and far less than with other parts of Texas — and that’s very comforting.
Hillary Clinton didn’t win in Fort Bend County. In my area, Democrats outvoted Republicans 2 to 1, and Barack Obama won the popular vote by an enormous margin: 63% to Hillary’s 37%. Not only that, but if my precinct is at all typical, those numbers are going to carry into the caucus results, too.
We had 140 people for Obama vs. 83 for Clinton last night… and while there were certainly precincts that had larger turnouts, it was astounding for ours (where I’m told the typical turnout is about 4).
So to those of you who sent emails — yes, I’m disappointed… but when all is said and done, there’s a lot to be said for discovering that my neighbors and I share more than a zipcode.
Cross-posted from Polimom Says…
12 Responses to “The Silver Lining”
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[...] The Agitator wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptThe Silver Lining March 5th, 2008 by POLIMOM My inbox this morning was full to the brim with notes from people sharing election results. The typical email started off with, “I’m so sorry, but it looks like Hillary won Texas…” I’m sorry, too. But sadness about the Texas primary results isn’t the overriding emotion this morning. What I feel, rather, is a tremendous and uplifting sense of community. I talked to hundreds of people in my precinct yesterday — so many that my voice is gone this [...]
[...] in 1972. I’d learned from the League of Women Voters how my natal stawww.huffingtonpost.comThe Silver LiningThe Silver Lining March 5th, 2008 by POLIMOM My inbox this morning was full to the brim with notes [...]
[...] and Hillary Clinton …George W. Bush May Help Obama Beat Clinton in Texas Forbeswww.thestar.comThe Silver LiningThe Silver Lining March 5th, 2008 by POLIMOM My inbox this morning was full to the brim with notes [...]
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I just don't see the reason for dissapointment this morning.
Sure I'd have prefered to see the ubiquitous “knock out punch” from Obama but in the end how are things different today than they were yesterday other than the media hype?
Hillary will go into Pennsylvania further behind in the delegate count than she was on March 3rd after all.
Hi Davebo –
I'm sorry your take from this post was primarily that I'm disappointed. I really wanted to get across the very good feeling gained from yesterday's participation. It was an extremely positive net outcome for me.
I ought to repeat an observation that has already been worth repeating before:
Note the huge ====> Democratic <==== voter turnout as well as interest this year.
The math is actually better than I first thought. Looks like Obama ends the night only 4 delegates down.
http://origin.barackobama.com/resultscenter/
They've been pretty accurate up to now, by the way. And Burnt Orange Report and Buckeye State Blog confirm these numbers for OH and TX. The caucus portion is up in the air – I've heard 37-30 and not 38-29. Either way, after all the hooplah about Hillary's comeback, she won the night by 4 delegates. That's not go to matter much.
Polimom, I guess I was referring more to the folks who were filling your inbox.
This was my first time to Caucus and apparantly it was the first time for most of the folks at my Caucus site. It was quite the experience and I too came away from it feeling very positive.
I look at March 4th like a football team that has already clinched the playoffs and is playing it's last regular season game. A win would be great, but it's more important to stay healthy and get ready for the really important games to come.
Interesting that, technically, Obama seems to have won Texas.
Cosmoetica, I'd say it's closer to a draw. Which does indeed make all the news coverage of the primary a bit confusing.