SM's aunt in Iowa on caucusing there

This is from an email from SM's aunt who lives in Iowa. You know, the one who was in the campaign mailer for Hillary? I found it interesting to read her observations about the caucusing process, having myself never even been to Iowa, let alone caucused there...

The caucus was interesting last night. I was really surprised at the results. At the caucus I went to Obama had 107 people, Clinton had 70, and Edwards had 35, Biden had one, Richardson had 9, Dodd had 3 and the rest had none. The 13 people that were not viable went Edwards bringing him up to 48. I was surprised at the Obama crowd. I thought there would be a lot of black people there, but there was only about a dozen. His followers were of everyone - young, old, women, men, middle age - it just really surprised me. My first choice was Hillary Clinton and my second choice was John Edwards - both at the bottom of this group. B's youngest son (40 years old) and his wife (37 years old) went to the caucus in [town name deleted] and he said "the brothers were out in force for Obama". I didn't even know [town name deleted] had any black people living there. He said there were 103 there for Obama, 35 for Clinton, and 40 for Edwards. He felt the crowd for Obama was very unprofessional with their chanting for Obama during the caucus, but actually that is the way people try to get others to come to their area of the room by calling out for you to come to their side.

If I had gone to the Republican caucus, I would have chosen Mitt Romney and he came in a far away second place which shows I always seem to choose the ones who lose.

B said he saw a large poster with Aunt E, Mom, and me with Hillary and he and [his wife] asked if they could have it so he is saving it for me. He said it is about 20" high. That picture is really making the rounds as far as advertisement goes. Maybe I'll roll it up, send it to [SM] and see if he can get it signed. If she ever becomes President (or even if she doesn't), someone could take it to the Antique Road Show in 50 years to see if it is worth anything. I don't think I'll still be here in 50 years so it will have to be one of the kids.

It really sounds like it would be very interesting to participate in this process. That's not enough to get me to move or even visit Iowa in the winter, but this DC-er, who is somewhat jaded by the inside-the-beltway scene, found her firsthand observations intriging.

I'm a dork that way.