Lubbock Left

Just arrived home from the 2008 Texas Democratic Convention. I had a blast!

I am still gathering my thoughts of the experience, and will post more about it throughout the week.

In the meantime, I have started a thread about the convention at the Lubbock Online Forums.

Big shout-outs to spacedark and jobsanger, two excellent Amarillo bloggers I finally got to meet in person at the blogger caucus (ie, bloggers getting drunk) Thursday night.

Well, I’ve been pretty pumped up about the State Democratic Convention for weeks now, and the past week or so has been very hectic as I try to prepare for it.

Among other things, I look forward to meeting several of my fellow bloggers this weekend.

Hopefully I will have some time to blog about the convention as it happens.

Especially considering tonight’s news that Hillary will suspend her campaign this weekend, it’s a very good time to be a Democrat in Texas!

See you in Austin!

…that this year’s Texas State Democratic Convention will almost certainly be larger than this year’s Texas State Republican Convention?

…that this year’s Texas State Democratic Convention in Austin will be larger than this year’s National Democratic Convention in Denver?

…that this year’s Texas State Democratic Convention will very likely be the event that puts Barack Obama over the winning number of delegates?

Needless to say — I’m pretty excited!

…go on brush your shoulders off:

One of the reasons that I support Obama is that he lives and breathes a new politics — one that is not driven by DC culture, big business, or political attack dogs. We see it in the way he consistently stays on message and rises above attacks from the wingnuts, and — unfortunately — attacks from Hillary Clinton, who should know better than that.

GET
THAT
DIRT-OFF-YOUR-SHOULDER!

Saturday, March 29, 2008
Lubbock High School Auditorium
2004 19th Street
Lubbock, TX
Registration begins: 10:30 AM
Start time: 1:00 PM

We are expecting roughly 1200 delegates and alternates, plus maybe another 200 media, observers, and people who are just curious what it’s all about. I suggest signing in early, eating lunch nearby, and returning at 12:30. No food or drink is allowed in LHS except bottled water. If everything goes smoothly, we should be out of there by 5:00pm.

Be there or be square!

(a transcript of the speech is up at politico.com)

Throw a cheap attack at Obama and get a profound speech about the big picture. I love it!

This is an amazing speech. If you have the time to read it or listen to it, I strongly urge you to do so. I think it will be one of the most important speeches of this campaign.

“Silly Season” in the presidential election continues as the baser political animals among us try to adopt Karl Rove’s strategy of attacking your opponent’s strengths.

Ben Smith at The Politico writes that tomorrow Obama will address the larger issue of race in a speech. I look forward to a speech that addresses core concepts, not a reflex reaction. I suspect that Obama understands the politics of frames and is not foolish enough to step into the obvious trap of responding in his opponents’ terms.

Of course, Obama’s already busy using his diplomatic skills and showcasing his stance on human rights regarding the issue of Tibet:

The diplomatic condemnation was led by Barack Obama, the American Democratic presidential hopeful, who warned China’s leaders that the eyes of the world were upon them in an Olympic year.

Mr Obama said he was deeply disturbed by reports of a crackdown and arrests, and called on the Chinese government to respect the basic human rights of the people of Tibet.

“This is the year of the Beijing Olympics. It represents an opportunity for China to show the world what it has accomplished in the last several decades,” he said. “Those accomplishments have been extraordinary and China’s people have a right to be proud of them, but the events in Tibet these last few days unfortunately show a different face of China.”

Needless to say, I don’t think the Rove Strategy will work this time. Obama has walked the walk of fighting racism in America, and I imagine that he will talk circles around anyone who tries to trap him on race issues.

Good luck, Mr. Rove, but I don’t think the American People are falling for it this time.

My friend Rex, one of the early-acting organizers of the grassroots campaign for Obama, has made a pro-Obama video:

I think it came out really well, and I like its laser focus on what is, for many people, the most important issue of this election: the Iraq War.

Regardless of candidate preference, I hope we see more locally made political movies online as time marches on.

Since Tuesday’s election results were released, I have had a few friends ask me what I plan to do next, given that I lost my post as Precinct 54 Chair in the Democratic Party.

First, let me say that the person who will be replacing me as Precinct 54 Chair is a friend of mine who will absolutely be a wonderful asset to the Party. I spoke with her on the phone when I found out that she filed, and I discovered that she had filed to become more active in the Party, not to replace me in particular. That was a relief!

Anyway, I plan to remain active within the Party and with the Executive Committee, even though I will not be a voting member. I hope to continue my work as Secretary under the new Executive Committee, which begins its new term on April 28.

Lastly, there were rumors that I was planning to run for City Council District 4, probably because I picked up a candidate packet in order to write a post about what is involved with filing for office. It should be pretty clear at this point that I’m not running for City Council District 4, especially since the filing deadline is tomorrow. :) I do plan to follow that campaign very closely since it’s my home district.

Onward to November!

What a night!

First: the numbers. Lubbock County’s precinct 54 signed in 97 qualified voters to the Democratic Party Precinct Convention last night. 43 were for Obama and 54 were Clinton, which resulted in 9 Obama delegates to the County Convention and 11 Clinton delegates.

As the current (outgoing) Precinct 54 Chair, I served as the Temporary Chair. This meant I was responsible for calling the meeting to order and supervising the sign-in process. Patricia Romo from the Clinton campaign served as Temporary Secretary. We had eager members of both the Obama and Clinton campaigns helping to verify the voters signing in. After signing in, we held elections for Permanent Chair, which I won, and for Permanent Secretary, which Patricia won. I think it was a good thing that the two precinct convention positions were held by supporters from each campaign.

Due to a line of voters and a short wait while the election officials gathered our materials, our sign-in process did not begin until about 8:30. We finished signing in at about 9:30. We finished conducting our business at about 10:30, and Patricia and I (and a few other dedicated volunteers) finished signing off on all the forms and splitting the carbon copies into envelopes at about 11:00. I got the sense that everyone felt good about the results of the meeting and left with a feeling of accomplishment, if a little bit tired.

This is the good side of the convention/caucus system: strangers with differing views meet and conduct business in a fair, open way and leave as friends.

I do, however, believe that tying presidential nominees to our Democratic Party system of precinct conventions is a practice that should be abandoned in favor of 100% of our delegates following the popular vote. I still attend my precinct conventions regardless of whether a presidential nominee is at stake. Participatory democracy is not only necessary but pretty fun too.

See y’all at the County Convention!