NEVADA UPSET: Clinton over Obama

NEVADA UPSET: Clinton over Obama
reported from Las Vegas, Nevada

“Obviously, this has been chaos.” – Nevada caucus temporary chair

Team Obama will be scrambling after this upset. Obama’s union support was guaranteed
to put him over the top. Clinton enjoyed a wide lead until recently. Then the Culinary union endorsed Obama, also setting up special precinct sites for their workers. In the polls, Clinton led, then Obama swung ahead, then Clinton, then it was too close to call,
especially since no one knew who would turn out. But the very nature of the caucus, with the Obama stacking the deck with Culinary union, caused blowback. Then the UNITE HERE radio spot ran, infuriating Hispanics and other Democrats. The negative nature of the Obama campaign also became an issue, when compared to his false hope propaganda.

As for the Nevada caucus itself, the quote above gets it right. No one could
find their precinct at the high school where we caucused. Volunteers were working
their hardest, but it was mass confusion. The man running the caucus didn’t
know the rules, so an Obama caucus voter spoke up, then was announced a co-chair,
until a Hillary caucus supporter spoke up and they were made permanent chairs
of the caucus together.

There was some guy at the caucus touting he’d worked in the Clinton White House,
speaking for Obama, who evidently didn’t even live in Nevada. He spoke against
Clinton. Another main Obama supporter said that, “When Bill was in
the White House, everything Hillary touched went down.” They attacked
Clinton while trying to convert voters whose candidates were not viable. Edwards
wasn’t viable, nor was Kucinich, so speakers volunteered to pitch the voters
whose candidate didn’t make it. The Obama speaker was a young African American
woman who talked about change. Later she also attacked Clinton, saying that
her past would come up and be part of the general election. Hillary supporters
spoke saying, “We hope so,” talking about her experience. But the
Obama lead supporter never gave one single fact or specific about Obama. A Republican
also stood up, saying that “unity” was what we needed and that Obama
would ignore party labels.

I performed in my role as voter today, so I actually spoke a moment on Clinton’s
behalf. I gave a disclaimer about what I do, then I said that all of our candidates
were good, something that would never be uttered by an Obama supporter. I then
called the Obama supporter out for attacking Clinton’s past, and mentioned Obama’s
troubles with Rezko. I thought the alleged White House hack crashing our particular
caucus was going to faint. Several people came up to me afterwards to ask, “What
is Rezko.” I got through to some. I finished by saying hope is one thing,
but turning words into actions and results is what matters.

Nevadans got it. Even amidst Obama’s dirty campaigning here, beyond the hateful
attack ad run by the outside group UNITE HERE, voters led Clinton to a win.

I said it during Iowa and I’ll say it again. We’ve got to get rid of the caucus
system. As my husband so aptly said today, “It’s nuts.”