At my caucus, Iowa City precinct 15, there were 213 participants in ’04 that selected 2 delegates for Kerry, 2 for Edwards, 2 for Dean and 1 for Kucinich. This year there were 340 participants selecting 4 for Obama, 2 for Edwards and 1 for Clinton. (Clinton was not even “viable” in the 1st round.) The precinct is middle class, Proctor and Gamble factory workers, AFSCME clerks and SEIU nurses, about 85% white, 5% black and 6% hispanic.

As with the rest of the state the Obama contingent had a majority of most sub-groups; all age groups, not just the 20-somethings, women, men and union members. In fact as a fellow caucus member pointed out it was the most diverse group. The Clinton group was primarily 50+yo women and the Edwards group was mostly 40-60yo men and women. From what I could tell the few blacks that were there were split between the three camps. The Obama group included the majority of independents, republicans who re-registered and new caucus-goers.

They didn’t look like revolutionaries; they looked like your average suburban crowd at the mall or the movies. It was Obama’s crowd and there was nothing racial about it, nothing.

After the caucus I went home knowing that Obama had won big and turned on the TV to watch his victory speech. The local stations had full speeches from Edwards, Clinton and Huckabee. Same with the networks but they had a minute of Obama’s speech. (I don’t get the cable news channels because of my high blood pressure) Finally I switched to PBS for their nightly broadcast of the BBC news and the BBC carried Obama’s full speech at the top of the news.

That gave me a clue to what Obama understands that the netroots doesn’t. He knows that a skeptical majority does not pay much attention to the corporate media and their obsessions with race and polarized politics. The netroots assumes that the media shapes public opinion but Obama knows that most folks have tuned it out. His appeal is less post-racial or post-political than post-cynical. Hope is the recovery of skepticism from cynicism. If that is too airy-fairy for you in practical terms it could mean increasing political participation by 50% or more and that is a pretty good start to forging a consensus to solve real problems

BTW I caucused for Edwards. I hope he stays in the race to make his points but I am now on the Hope Train.