Drinking Liberally Caucuses Tonight at Madison's

Join the Portland DL chapter to watch the Iowa caucus returns at Madison's Grill, 13th and Madison (map), tonight, January 3rd, at 7pm.

(DL meets the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of every month.)

Who's your caucus pick? Will Hillary stay strong? Will Obama go the distance? Will the Edwards surge continue? Remember; it ain't any of these things until 4-10% of Iowa Democrats use their strange "Red-Rover" caucus system to say it is. (Here are the poll numbers as of yesterday afternoon.)




(Cartoon by Mike Keefe.)

By the way, Seattle's DL didn't feel like waiting for Iowa to tell them who they've made up Seattle's mind for. They met last night and had their own personal caucus--since it met a day before the our-way-or-the-highway Iowans held their, it was christened the First in the Nation Beer and Caucus Extravaganza. You can read mcjoan's report about it here, but here's the result:

The final numbers are in.

Obama 17: 2 delegates
Edwards 16: 2 delegates
Dodd 13: 2 delegates
Clinton 5: 1 delegate

Under the old Washington rules with a 15% threshold:

Obama 3 delegates
Edwards 2 delegates
Dodd 2 delegates

The word has reached me, by the way, that there are those among the Portland DL tribe who are contemplating holding a Portland DL Caucus tonight (although it'll have to come up with a cooler name for itself, obviously.)

(As an aside, am I the only one here having as much fun imagining who will win the GOP Iowa caucus as I am imagining who the Democratic winner will be? It's an interesting line of thought: Who would be the easiest Republican candidate to beat? Who would do the most, and most lasting, damage to Rove's fantasy of the Permanent Republican Majority? Who would provide the most snarking-good fodder for blog posts?)

And meanwhile, only 382 days left before the Worst. President. Ever. finally departs for Crawford. Or wherever. (Didn't think I'd forgotten, did you? Not sure who would be happier to see him out of the picture--me, or the GOP presidential candidates.)

Finally, mark this down on your calendars: At our January 17th meeting, our guest will be John Frohnmayer, Independent candidate for US Senate from Oregon. More about that before our next meeting.


See you tonight for drinks, political conversation, and the caucus results.

And remember: DL encourages everyone to drink, and vote, responsibly.