Rog at the Iowa Caucuses

Here is my experience at the Iowa caucuses.... 1980 Not old enough to vote, but my dad took me to the D caucus, where the two leading contenders were Jimmy Carter and Ted Kennedy. He thought it would get me brownie points with my government teacher. I think he voted for Ted "The Swimmer" Kennedy, but I don't remember. Obviously it scarred me horribly.

1984 I was in college, and didn't go. Loved Reagan, and there was no real caucus anyway, since he was the incumbent.

1988, 1992, 1996 Out of state

2000 I was the precinct chair for Steve Forbes. And we kicked ass! Forbes came in 2nd in Iowa with around 28% I think, with GWBush in first with around 43%. We flipped that in Roland/Howard Township. I think Forbes got 45% here, and Bush about 25%. I think it was my awesome speech for Forbes. Saw a bunch of high school seniors in the crowd. Totally played to them because I figured they weren't overly committed, just there for school. Had a ball.

2004 GWB was incumbent, and because I like the politics stuff, I went to the D caucus. D caucuses are more fun (and unusual). There is a whole viability thing. It's not a straight vote. Instead, a given precinct has X number of delegates to the county convention. Based on delegates, then there is a viability factor, based on everybody getting a delegate, and if they don't, they are "unviable". I went to vote for Joe Liebermann. I thought he had a good handle on Radical Islamic Terror. Unfortunately, I was the only person there for Joe. So Joe was unviable. So candidate teams asked me to join them. That was tough, but I saw some merits in what Dick Gephardt was doing, so I joined up with his team. But there were only 7 or so of us, and we were just outside viability. So Dick was unviable in Roland.

There were 3 other viable candidates. And there was no freaking way I was going to caucus for John F'in Kerry or John Edwards. I would have walked out the door before that. Howard Dean had at least some stuff I could tolerate, so I joined the Howard Dean camp. He was enough to be viable, so I caucused for Howard Dean in 2004. 3 hours later he had his weird scream, and that was that. (which as an aside, I think the media made way more out of it than they should have.) I thought he really wasn't that bad.

2008 I was the Roland precinct chair for Ron Paul. Another stirring speech, and Paul tied for 2nd in Roland with Romney. Huckabee won big in Roland, with close to 40% I think. Romney and Paul were in the 20% I think.

Voting at that caucus was The Enigma. That is the stage name of a guy who is all tatted up, has implanted horns. He was on the X-Files episode with all the circus freaks. Apparently he lived on a farm outside of Roland, with his girlfriend for awhile. Of course, he didn't look like a usual Republican. I saw him, guessed him to be a Paul voter (he was) so I went to talk to him. Nice guy, and had a good chat with him. When I saw him, I thought, "I have to go talk to this guy" Here is his pic.

I shit you not. This guy voted in the Roland/Howard Township 2008 Republican caucus.

2012 I went to vote for Ron Paul, though I was not precinct chair. I think Paul won Roland in 2012.

The R voters of Roland/Howard Township have had a history of voting with the most libertarian Republican. I wasn't here in 96, but I heard Phil Gramm did really well here then. He was maybe the most libertarian candidate then, besides Forbes. Of course Forbes did really well in 2000. And Ron Paul outdid his statewide percentages here in Roland in 08 and 12.

2016. Heavy lean to Ted Cruz, though I may caucus for Rand Paul. My libertarian nature points me to a Paul, but Rand is not as libertarian as his dad. I think Ted Cruz has many libertarian traits, though I would not call him a libertarian. I heard a mention of a return to the gold standard. And he name drops the libertarian idols quite a bit, like Friedmann, Hayek, and Ayn Rand. So we shall see. Good times!