I was watching C-Span.org’s live broadcast from the Iowa caucus in Dubuque County. Watching online because my cable went out today (“a fiber line was cut”). It’s laughing at me because we’re keeping cable primarily to watch the campaign!
This caucus is one of the most fascinating things I’ve ever witnessed. It’s funny, really – an elaborate game with some politics thrown in for good measure. People are making arguments trying to get people to change sides. Organizers are running around with calculators doing the math to determine total delegates for each candidate.
Peter Jennings just came on ABC with a brief message that entrance polls suggest Kerry with the win and Dean/Edwards close for second.
Checked the CNN web site which showed Kerry with 37%, Edwards with 33%, and Dean with just 18%.
The C-Span coverage for Dubuque precinct 20 wrapped up with 6 delegates for Kerry, 3 for Edwards, 2 for Dean, and none for others. Wow.
The last few days I’ve subscribed to the main Dean blog, the BloggerStorm blog, and Dave Winer’s new Channel Dean. Plus the Edwards blog and a handful of other news sources. The flow of information coming in from the ground in Iowa is amazing. I think the talk of how blogs are changing news reporting is even more of a reality for an event like this. First-person blogger accounts of news as it happens is only a small part of the full picture, but it’s a really interesting one. For this race you have hundreds of bloggers, and together there is the potential to not just see all the interesting personal accounts but also to see the trends across all the posts from different bloggers.
I’m not sure where the Kerry win is coming from, but I’m sure it will be analyzed to death until New Hampshire votes.
