It is not yet up on the IDP Website, but an email just came out from First District Chair Jean Pardee announcing that the state convention scheduled for this Saturday is being postponed.

Since the Democratic party nomination is now decided, (whew!) organization for the election of the remaining allotment of national delegates is not quite so critical as it could have been.  But the Obama Campaign is has been working the phones to get their delegates to the convention.  Now having the convention postponed may make the task even harder.

Text of the email message below the fold...

I will update as more information is available.

On Monday, May 12, as diaried here by isucyclones94, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raided the Agriprocessors packing plant in Postville, Iowa, arresting hundreds of workers suspected of being in the country illegally.  While most of the media have reported on the raid and its associated processes purely in terms of immigration enforcement, the Waterloo Courier has at least broached another subject surrounding the situation - that various supervisors or managers were running a racket wherein they sold automobiles to the workers and assisted them in getting titles, licenses and registration.  Waterloo Courier article here.

More, over the hill ........

Mason County, home of the Mothman, is now at 97% reporting.  The Mothman clearly supports Obama, as shown here:

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However, even with Mothman's support, as shown in this diary, his support was not enough to win the county.  With 97% of precincts reporting, the results are: Clinton - 72%, Obama 19%.

The Mothman is quite persuasive.  How?  He has his ways!  Here he is working on me a little over a year ago after I told him I was supporting Dodd:

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Our Brand is Crisis (2005) is a documentary film exploring the 2002 campaign for the presidency of Bolivia of Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada.  Sanchez de Lozada, or "Goni" as he is commonly known, was born in La Paz, but was raised and educated predominantly in the United States.  In fact, he attended a Quaker prep school at West Branch, Iowa (a mere 45 miles from where I am writing this) and graduated from the University of Chicago.  Goni's administration implemented neoliberal reforms, leading to a decline in popularity over his first term as president between 1993 and 1997.  Along with substantive critiques of his policies, he was popularly perceived as somewhat of an outsider to Bolivia not only because of his background in the US but also by his foreign accent and a popular belief that his fluency in Spanish was limited.

Despite his and the country's earlier experience with his administration, in 2002 Goni mounted the presidential campaign that is the subject of this film.  

In recognition of the federal holiday for the observance or commemoration of President George Washington's Birthday, and in recognition of the fact that it is more commonly, but inaccurately, referred to as "Presidents' Day", here is a diary of little substance describing some of the background, experience and circumstances of their attaining office of the 42 men who have served as President of the United States of America.

Please excuse my very human compulsion to look for patterns, as we are so accomplished at finding patterns that sometimes they are seen even when no significant pattern really exists.

Probably useless aggregation of facts follows, over the fold....

One of the things I noticed about the various campaigns this year was the relative level of understanding they exhibited about the actual caucus process.  Edwards, of course, has been running in Iowa for 5 years, and his campaign exhibited a good understanding of caucus tactics.  Senator Dodd's staff had a good deal of experience from the Kerry campaign and also understood the process.  That understanding, of course, turned out to be insufficient to overcome a lack of "traction" with the public.  Obama's people were enthusiastic and were quick learners.  In addition, I noticed many of their local precinct captains were Edwards folks from 2004.

So, if you can stand one more diary on the Iowa Caucuses, follow me over the fold for a little local flavor.

The efforts of the grassroots movement supporting Al Gore for the presidential nomination will land him a ballot spot in New York (as diaried here).There may be a problem in other states, which may require the candidate to file an affidavit of candidacy.  In addition, some caucus states may present a roadblock.  The purpose of this diary is to discuss the process in Iowa and how to best approach the movement here.

A certain blowhard with a big megaphone on right wing talk radio recently caused another stir by criticizing soldiers returning from Iraq for opposing the continued occupation.

It would seem, though, that many of those who return from Iraq, both civilian and military, are opposed to the continuing involvement.

I will admit that my sample size is small - 1 Iowa National Guard and 1 civilian civil engineering consultant.  But I trust those two folks.  In fact, the National Guard soldier also happens to be my state representative.  He was one of those who was informed by family and friends that his tour was extended after the Pentagon announced it before informing the soldiers.  Way to go, DoD.  Support the Troops, you bet.

More to say from my representative when we continue......

The MSM and many in Democratic circles (including right here on DailyKos) are framing the process for the nomination of a Democratic Presidential candidate as a three way contest among Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama.  

It's a bit early for that.  The framing also arrogates the selection process to agents other than "we the people" who make up the Democratic Party.

Stop! It is our choice, not their's, so stop letting them select our candidates.

We are not so limited in our choices. And I am not writing here about the fringe candidates I wrote about a couple of weeks ago in this diary.

more after the fold....

With all the talk about Presidential Campaigns, debates, etc., I thought DailyKos could stand yet another diary about how the caucus process works in Iowa.

Other folks can fill you in on how the larger precincts work.  What I am going to write about here is how my little precinct works - in a town too small to have a retail business (unless you count the post office).

I usually arrive about 15 minutes before registration is to start.  I can turn on the lights, get the posters hung on the walls, get my lists and literature together, etc.

After the CNN forum (I hesitate to call it a "debate"), there has been much talk about how the early favorites are framed, (such as in this diary on framing from earlier today) how much TV time they got, etc.  This leads to another question: who really should get to decide who the leaders are, and how is it decided?

CNN invited eight candidates, hence deciding that there are eight serious candidates for the Democratic Party Presidential nomination.  However, there are at least eleven more who have filed as candidates, or have at least registered an exploratory committee.

A look at the candidates over the fold.

On this Memorial Day, I remember two uncles: a great uncle I hardly knew, and another uncle I thought I knew well.  Both were American soldiers in France during the XX Century, a little over 25 years apart.

In 1916, President Wilson had a campaign theme that he should be re-elected because he had kept us out of the war in Europe, which was already raging.  But shortly after his win in November, he was angling to get the USA involved.  In 1917, the American doughboys were being drafted and sent.  More than one lad from a small town in Iowa was drafted in 1917 to serve in the great war.  My great uncle was 23 already, and he was sent to basic training and ended up in the trenches near the Meuse.  Another great-uncle was selected to care for horses and mules and was spared the worst of the combat.

More after the fold

Cross-posted from Diatribune.

As more states move their primary dates up, presumably to attract more attention from the candidates and to have more of a say in the nomination, the effect of such leapfrogging on individual candidate's chances at becoming the Democratic nominee is unknown, as Devilstower diaried a couple of days ago in "Who Wins At Leapfrog?"  But a discussion we seem not to be having is just what result, what goal, is to be achieved by any change in the calendar or the process. That is, while the objections to the calendar seem to be defined, the goals of such changes seem rather ill-defined.

Follow me for a bit more....

In the editor's personal column in the weekly Anamosa Journal Eureka, she lamented that although two of the Republican also rans had put in appearances in Jones County (Iowa), none of the Democrats had yet showed up.  Moreover, as noted in a diary from May 3rd, Rudy Giuliani first scheduled a visit, then cancelled when it was found that the hosts were not rich enough to help him campaign against the inheritance tax.  That decision is regrettable not because of the potential loss of support for Giuliani, but because the visits the candidates make to Iowa help them to grow and learn as well about a broader segment of the country.  In addition, listening to a candidate in person, allowing issues to be discussed without the constraints of the radio and TV sound bites, and outside of the slickly produced advertising, gives people a chance to evaluate that candidate in good faith, both on issues of substance and of style.

More over the fold....

The Giuliani campaign is bringing it to Iowa and they want to bring it good and hard.  They were in the planning stage for a farm visit in Jones County.  

The couple whose farm was to host the visit were sure it was happening, but apparently it is not going to come off.  Not being privy to the preparations, I cannot know what level of commitment the campaign had communicated, but it all went out the window when the family revealed that they were not rich.

Apparently, Giuliani was planning to campaign on ending the federal inheritance tax, but since that does not apply to the more modest estates of average folks, he needed to find a millionaire farmer to host his appearance.  

Yesterday, Sunday Feb.18, Senator Edwards appeared in Dubuque, Iowa to hold a "town hall" type event on health care issues.  I have put this together from my notes.  Direct quotes are in quotation marks.  I have done my best to paraphrase the remainder while retaining their intended meaning.  My comments and asides are set off in square brackets [].  If some other remarks appear to be my own, they probably are.

I arrived about ten minutes before the scheduled starting time for the event at the Grand River Center (no link provided because they have a picture of W on their web page). Of course, the campaigns schedule these events knowing that folks will be trickling in past the scheduled time, and we know that it won't start on time, either.  By the time the Senator entered the room, we had had a chance to sign in, find a seat, and to introduce ourselves to the people on each side of us.  I sat next to a woman who was knitting something from yarn she had spun from the fiber produced by her own llamas and sheep.  On my left was a woman who is studying for a master's in divinity.  We were interrupted only by a brief welcome from the Mayor of Dubuque.  My very crude guess would be that there were 200-300 in attendance.

I am finally getting time to put this together from the notes I took Saturday at Senator Obama's appearance in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  Direct quotes are in quotation marks.  I have done my best to paraphrase the remainder while retaining their intended meaning.  My comments and asides are set off in square brackets [].  If some other remarks appear to be my own, they probably are.  I apologize for the rough editing, but I think it will convey at least a sense of how the appearance went.

Senator Obama was scheduled to attend a "meet and greet" with local area Democratic elected officials and activists before the main "Town Hall Meeting" at the high school.  We arrived a few minutes early.  And the Senator was about 15 minutes late.  Not bad for a politician making the trip all the way from Springfield, Illinois.  All the usual suspects were there: Congressman Loebsack, Mayor Halloran, two of the County Supervisors, several state legislators, county central committee folks, and two county party chairs: Mike Robinson from Linn County and me from Jones County.  I was impressed that he had Senator Durbin traveling with him today.

Picture below the fold, and a blog of the public event.

While many will debate about the wisdom of starting the presidential nominating process in Iowa, this diary will bypass that issue to look at the actual process in one medium sized Iowa county.  This will be about the nuts and bolts process the campaigns engage in to win caucus support.  Caucus support translates into delegate strength through the long process to the Nationl Convention.  The website of the Iowa Democratic Party used to have a link to the entire arcane process, but no more.

In the run-up to the caucuses, the campaigns usually send a staffer to one or more county central committee meetings in the year before the election.  At last night's meeting, our central our county central committee had its first official presentation from a presidential campaign.  It must be noted that all nine official campaigns and exploratory committees were contacted.  

The Vilsack campaign sent a staffer last night, while the others did not.  We did not get a hard sell, a stump speech, or any favorite son appeal.