Much has been written about the passion inspired by the Obama campaign this year, and justifiably so. What's gotten a bit lost is the remarkable energy of the Clinton campaign. Consider the numbers, even in a strong Obama state like Colorado. In 2004, about 800 people participated in the Arapahoe County caucuses--and that was considered a pretty good year, the highest participation to that date. This year, the number was 13,000. That broke down to, roughly, 8,000 for Obama and 4,000 for Hillary. Hillary's vote alone was five times the previous high.
You could see the enthusiasm today at the Arapahoe County Democratic Convention. This is a large, mostly suburban, county--the turnout for the fall election in 2004 was 230,000, only 7,000 less than Denver. In the twelve years I've lived here, Arapahoe County has gone from red to purple-leaning-blue. I consider Arapahoe County to be "ground zero" for the Democratic Party's efforts in the west.
Precinct caucuses on February 5 elected the delegates to today's county convention. There were about 1800 delegates and 1800 alternates--65% Obama and 35% Clinton. If you didn't know it, you wouldn't have been able to tell that Clinton was at a 2-1 disadvantage. Judging by the hats, shirts, and buttons people wore, it seemed more like 50-50. The Clinton people were there earlier, had the place well-decorated inside and out, worked the line outside, staffed a table for information, and, just generally, made a big splash. When the Obama people began chanting "O-bam-a," the Hillary people more than answered with "Hill-a-ry"--I can still see Manuela leading the cheers--and had better and more creative signs.
These folks were a good mirror of Hillary's national demographic. In our House district caucus, which involved about 70 people, about two-thirds were women, of all ages. Hispanics were well-represented, as were working people, union people, teachers, and the elderly--young people too; Obama's not the only one with youth support.
These are the people who pulled out what Ron Brownstein calls Hillary's "gritty wins" in Ohio and Texas. We haven't heard much from this demographic since the California primary, but it's still there, and it's stalwart. At the National Journal, Brownstein talks about the passion on the Clinton side of the campaign.
Making calls from Clinton's San Antonio office on Saturday, Maria Meier, a young Los Angeles-based political consultant, looked for comparisons to the epic competition 40 years ago between Robert Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey, and Eugene McCarthy. "At least in my lifetime, there's never been a presidential race like this," Meier said. "They say 1968 was like this..."
From across the table, another young volunteer cut in. "We were too young for '68," said Ingrid Duran, who had flown in from Washington, D.C., to help. "This is our '68."
Unlike Ingrid, I was there in '68. There are big differences--the biggest one being that we generally like our candidates this year, whereas, in 1968--let's just say--everybody hated at least some body. Secondly, the demographics are all jumbled up. Outside of African-Americans, RFK's coalition is mostly with Hillary. Third--and keep this firmly in mind--1968 was glorious for awhile, but ended in tragedy. This, over time, adds to that campaign's mythic luster, but it tasted like ashes at the time, and, frankly, every day since as well. Let's hope that this '68 ends differently, and better.
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