Osler's Razor

Texas is very odd. Today we had not only a primary, but a caucus-- and one of the prerequisites for attending a caucus was that you had already voted in the primary. Delegates were chosen from both processes, so essentially if you were willing to put in the time you got to vote twice. And I did.

I had never been to a caucus before, and neither had most of the other people there tonight. I was in the Democratic caucus, and for a while we were hanging around in a hallway trying to figure out how this all was supposed to work. Down the hall, a handful of Republicans gathered, their candidate having already been essentially selected.

Eventually, we were herded into a room (actually, the room where the primary voting had been taken earlier) and milled around, chatting. My precinct is small, since I live in the city, and lots of my neighbors were there. It was a pleasant time-- we talked, and I met some people from the neighborhood I hadn't known before. Eventually, we signed in and stated our preferences, and then the Clinton and Obama people retreated to opposite corners of the room. It was an intriguing moment; many of us were watching closely, curious to see who went where. The crowd was about 1/4 African-American, and nearly all of them came with me to the Obama corner, while the Clinton side was about 2/3 women.

The outcome: 38 for Clinton, 37 for Obama, and one "undecided." Thus, Clinton received five delegates to the county convention and Obama got four.

This was the closest I have ever come to direct democracy, and something about it was, in its own goofy way, moving and memorable.