I’ve never bothered with the Texas primaries before. There was never really any need to vote or care much about the outcome due to the prevailing candidate for each party pretty much being set in stone by the time we got around to voting. As everyone on the planet knows, this year it’s different. Suddenly, Texas could make a difference in who gets selected for the Democratic candidate, and therefore, I have been reading up about the somewhat bizarre system in Texas used to select who gets what delegates. It really is a strange system.

I knew that delegates for different areas were allocated based upon previous elections’ voter turnouts, but I never knew that after the primary polls closed there are also caucuses at each precinct, then each county, and then at the state level to determine how the reminder of delegates are to be awarded. I never knew that due to have never entered a polling location on primary day and never having belonged to any political party. It was actually Bill Clinton’s speech in Austin the other night, when he said it was the only time you could vote twice legally and have them both count, that made me begin looking into this matter. My first reaction, of course was a big fat WUH?

Apparently, after the polls close, anyone who has voted in the Democratic primary can return to their polling station and sign in and vote in the caucus as well. There are 67 delegates that will be awarded through this system, and the answer to who gets them won’t be forthcoming until the state convention in June, but the best way to get those delegates is to have the most precinct conventions (caucuses) go your way. That explains why Bill is ambling around Texas currently pushing the idea that people need to go back after the polls close and take part in the extended process.

I looked into my precinct, and currently the Democrats don’t have a precinct chair here. It’s one of the few that are still vacant. I had a momentary thought of volunteering to do that, but it requires a two-year commitment, and I don’t want to be tied to the Democratic party for two years. Sorry, but I am more Republican than anything … and more Independent than Republican (since the Republican party stopped being classical Republican anyway). I still want to go vote in the caucus, but I am concerned that since this is a tiny precinct, and it looks like the caucus has never been very active here, one could find themselves being a delegate to the county convention without either trying or wanting to be. That wouldn’t be the end of the world, but I’d rather not embroil myself too much with any particular party. I think it’s all going to come down to how it is they determine I have voted in the Democratic primary.

That would probably seem to most people to be a silly thing to fret about, but some precincts give you little cards and some of them stamp DEMOCRAT on your voter registration card. I am not at all keen to have to replace my card due to it having something stamped on it that says something about me that isn’t entirely true. Sure, at this moment in time, I am going to be voting Democratic, because McCain has lost his mind and isn’t the same man I wanted to vote for the last time he ran, but I don’t want that stamped on my card for everyone at the polling table to see every time I use it to vote until the new ones come out. It will annoy me endlessly. But still … really want to vote in the caucus, because I am actually feeling somewhat fired up for a candidate instead of my usual sense of having to vote for someone because I hate the others and they are the only one I just feel a little animosity toward.

I might as well say it now: I like Obama. I doubt that comes as any sort of surprise to anyone who knows me. It’s pretty common knowledge, among my friends at least, that while I used to like McCain a lot, under no circumstances do I want the man he is now to be president, and though I was undecided between Clinton and Obama up until very recently, the negativity of her campaign against Obama cost her points with me. If you are the better candidate for your party, and your plans and ideas are more sound and better for the country, there is no need to go negative against your own party member … especially in the ways she and Bill have been. They really seem lately to be grasping at straws and twisting stuff around in a somewhat deceitful way. Hillary needs to call in her Bill. He has not been doing her any favors recently as far as his campaigning speeches go. I never really disliked him until the last few weeks, but now whenever I see his face or hear his voice, I have the same reaction I do when it’s Bush on the TV: Shut up, shut up, shut up! Not good.

So I’ll be voting in my first primary, and then I might also be taking part in my first caucus, all because I loathe McCain and Hillary and Bill have annoyed me enough to not want to ever hear from either of them again. OK, it’s not just for those reasons. I have actually read all the papers put out by all the candidates, and my view of what needs to happen in the USA more closely matches what Obama is saying. There really isn’t too much difference between Clinton and Obama, but when you add in the negativity and annoyance factors, Obama wins my vote.

And that’s how a Ron Paul Republican becomes an Obama Democrat. It’s still a lesser of two evils situation, but the other options make me ill. I do not need 4-8 more years of feeling ill any time someone mentions the President of the United States. The last two terms have left me ill enough. I am willing to give it all I have to get Obama in and hopefully he won’t make a mess of things.

A few related political links I have open in my browser:

NYTimes: 0-bama at as Many as 80 ‘Heavily Black’ New York City Precincts
Did Obama plagiarize? Clinton team says yes
Key section of Obama speech is adapted material
The Texas Inferno — Why It Helps Obama
They’re Not a Machine

I’ll probably be making a post sometime outlining the intricate details of why Obama over Hillary, but it’s a gorgeous day, I need to do the dishes (still) and I want to go hang out in the back yard for a while. The sun is shining. I can whine about politics when it starts raining again.