The Texas Two-Step Of Voting Then Caucusing Is A Joke

For the first time in my life The Blot caucused last night. It turns out Texas has one of the weirdest presidential primaries in the country. You see of the states 193 delegates, only 2/3 of those delegates are distributed by the popular vote (126 to be exact). The remaining 67 delegates are distributed by a three tiered caucus process. And you know what, it was probably the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever been a part of. As my friend Mark liked to say last night as he watched CNN’s coverage of the election results, “Texas should be ashamed of itself.” And the state really should. I’m guessing this has never been an issue before because of Texas’ late primary date, and as far as I could tell from my experience last night no one in the state had ever caucused before. That was definitely the impression I got as I watched people scrambling around trying to figure out how to organize the caucus and get things started.


I have a problem with it on two folds. The biggest gripe I have is that most people just didn’t know about the caucus and even when they did it’s near impossible to get people to turn out to a polling location twice in the same day. It almost seems anti-democratic to allow people to vote and then almost in an almost clandestine way have a caucus where a fraction of the people who voted previously get to decide on a third of the delegates. Wasn’t this country based on 1 person, 1 vote? And yet here we are giving some people 2 votes in the same primary. I think it’s unfair to the working men and women who left home early or took time off of work to vote in the first place and then expect them to be able to leave their families and return at 7 pm that night to caucus. Texas needs to pick one style of primary and stick with it, either a popular vote or a caucus but not both.

What really ticked me off is how unofficial the caucus was compared to the popular vote. The biggest issues I have with elections, especially since the hanging chad incident in Florida, is that all votes cast need to be accounted for in a fair and orderly fashion. When I voted a week ago during Texas’ early voting period I was very impressed. The polling location had computers with all registers voters names in it. A registered voter could bring in their voter registration card or a state issued photo identification card and have their id and voter status verified immediately. Then voters were directed to a private voting booth where they could vote electronically for the candidate of their choice. Everything seemed very legitimate and official, which I found very comforting since we were voting for a candidate to be the next President of the United States.

When it came time to caucus though, I had the complete opposite feeling. I know the informal nature of the experience is what caucusing is all about, but something just felt fishy about it. Especially when, because of the format, it could have been extremely easy for someone to artificially increase a precinct’s turn out. In fact, the people signing constituents in had absolutely no idea what they were doing or how to do their job. It really discouraged me when I went to sign in and ended up knowing more about what was going and what I needed to do than the gentlemen stationed at the sign in table. Also, there is was no way to check a voter’s information in a timely fashion since everyone filled in their personal information by hand, including voter id number, on page after page of generic caucus forms. To me this seems like a very unnecessary and drawn out process that could take days to be verified and become official.

I for one think both candidates would be better served if all delegates were assigned based on the popular vote, especially when tens of thousands of more Texans turned out for the popular vote than the relatively small amount who participated in the caucus last night. It is times like these, when an election is so close and every delegate matters, that I realize the problems that still exist in our country’s voting process. You’d have thought that after all of these elections, especially after the Presidential election of 2000, that things would have been straightened out by now. Yet here we are again…it just goes to show that the more things change, the more things stay the same.

Jack Nicholson Endorses Hillary Clinton

I know, you're probably thinking why is The Blot posting this? While this would normally mean nothing to me, Nicholson took his endorsement to the next level by releasing a really creative web ad on Saturday with help from director Rob Reiner. (link) The advertisement in support of Senator Clinton takes “a humorous collection of clips that put his support into the mouths of his most film famous characters.” (link) While the ad was done without the Clinton campaign’s endorsement, it is probably the best "Clinton for President" ad I’ve seen since her campaign started last year. The YouTube clip titled “Jack and Hill” uses scenes from many of Nicholson’s best performances from films including Batman, The Shining and A Few Good Men (and I think Chinatown and Easy Rider). Check out the ad for yourself and let me know what you think.

Barack Obama Invades The 40 Acres

While the Democratic presidential debate in Austin may be over (currently being replayed on CNN as I write this) and Senators Obama and Clinton are back out on the campaign trail, there is still one important issue to discuss…Senator Obama’s visit with the University of Texas’ football team earlier today. I was actually kind of shocked to find out that Mr. Obama took time out of his busy campaign schedule to take a tour of the school’s athletic facility and spend some quality time with Mack Brown and his players…but it did make for a pretty cool photo op.


The Austin American Statesman reports that while Texas Head Coach Mack “Brown has said that he doesn’t even vote (in anything other than the coaches poll), lest he be seen as straying too close to the political fire…his wife has donated to Obama’s campaign, giving $500 last March.” (link) Mack knows, as any good head football coach should, that picking a side, Democrat or Republican, can lead to a dicey situation while out recruiting, but it can’t hurt to have one of the most popular people in American flashing the Hook‘em Horns sign while campaigning to be the next President of the United States.




To view all of the pictures from Senator Obama’s time with the Texas Longhorns football team click here. To read the Austin American Statesman’s report of his visit to the University of Texas campus click here.

The Fight For Texas – Clinton vs. Obama

Well today’s post ended up being a little different than I had originally intended. To give you some back story, a few months ago I was talking with a friend about how I had never lived in a state where my vote mattered in the Presidential primary. Growing up in Alabama and then living in Texas, the primaries were typically over before it was my turn to vote. Then all of a sudden this year’s Democratic primary turned into quite a slobberknocker and the focus is now squarely on Texas and Ohio for the next few weeks.


This has been great for Houston as it held two huge rallies the past two nights, one on Tuesday night by Senator Barack Obama and one Wednesday night by President Bill Clinton on behalf of his wife Senator Hillary Clinton. This isn’t to say I’m leaning towards supporting the Democrats over the Republicans, but more a first hand report of what’s going on in Houston with the Texas primary closing in on March 4th. But for those Houstonians reading this, early voting has already begun, so if you’re interested in voting in either the Republican or Democratic primaries you can do so now.

The Blot had originally planned on covering both events and just giving a report of what it was like to be there. I had even lined up The Blot Says…’ first media pass for Senator Obama’s event at the Houston Toyota Center. Unfortunately some things came up and I had to stay home that evening, but thankfully all of the major news outlets covered the speech and the next day I had the opportunity to talk to some local democrats who had attended the event. Everyone spoke highly of the Obama rally and their opportunity to see the great orator live. From all reports, the Toyota Center was packed with over 16,500 people to hear what Senator Obama’s plans were if he were to gain the party’s Presidential nomination. I had really wanted to see Mr. Obama speak in person because he really is an amazing motivational speaker and truly radiates hope and change for the country. With that being said, from what I saw on the television coverage it seemed like there was more message than substance.

The feeling on Wednesday night was the complete opposite from the excitement and energy at the Toyota Center. President Clinton was to speak at the University of Houston’s Hofheinz Pavilion, home to the University’s basketball teams. Honestly, the turn out was pathetic compared to the night before. Hofheinz Pavilion holds 8,500 people and was well under half filled. To be fair it had been pouring down rain all day which I am sure scared off many people on the fence about attending the event, but come on, it’s the 42nd President of the United States speaking. Much like Mr. Obama, I was really interested in seeing a President of the United States speak live, former or not. People started filling in at around 8 but Mr. Clinton didn’t take the podium until close to 10 o’clock.

The entire Hillary Early Voting Rally (as the event was being called) felt stale and not planned well at all. Since the event took place on the University of Houston’s campus, as could be expected, a huge part of the crowd was college students to which the event was unfortunately not intended for. The event was supposed to start at 8:45, and at 9 it sort of started with the introduction of a gospel group/band who sang a few songs. This didn’t go over well with heavily attended college crowd, especially the part of the crowd I was standing in. Most were put off by the music and the length the band played instead of the group’s intended result which was pumping up the crowd. For a rally, there really wasn’t much rallying going on, and I thought most people looked warn out and tired by the time the first U.S. Congressmen took the stage to talk about the messages they were spreading as they trekked across the state of Texas.

The only time the crowd really got energized was for the introduction of the man they had been waiting over two hours to see, President Bill Clinton. Clinton was really good, no matter what you think of his politics or his ethical choices, the guy can speak. He came out with some a great story of Hillary’s background and interest in special education and how the two of them had to work multiple jobs while he was in law school. I was really impressed with how President Clinton addressed many key issues Hillary hopes to address while in office and the way she will go about making those changes if elected. It was a lot more substantive than motivational, and to be honest that isn’t necessarily what America seems to be looking for in its next leader. That being said Senator Clinton is still getting a ton of support and votes, so it could just be that Obama makes for better television, which he definitely does.

Hearing former President Clinton speak was great and he really did make some interesting points, including Hillary’s plan on how to help struggling students with government sponsored loans. I’d give Clinton an A+ for his speech but I’d grade the over all event a C-. I think Senator Clinton has chosen the wrong people to guide her campaign, because it really felt like the people in charge just don’t have a clue as to how to connect to the young people of America, something Senator Obama is very, very good at doing. I heard Mike Huckabee and Chelsea Clinton were in town last night as well giving stump speeches, but The Blot can only be in so many places at once. Hopefully I’ll be able to give some more political coverage as the both primary races heat up over the next few weeks.