Here we go a-caucusing...

O.k., I've never been one to push politics onto someone nor voice my opinion on them as I've been blissfully politically ignorant for many, many years and wasn't even a registered voter until the last election. Also, I don't want others' views to be pushed on me as I don't push mine onto them and have always viewed the topic as one of the "big three" that you don't discuss with people. I'm going to briefly amend that rule now, however will not let this turn into a political debate on here and, should you choose to post your feelings and beliefs on the comments page, they will not be edited.

At the behest of some friends of mine and as a resident of Iowa, I went to the local caucus tonight to participate in something I've never done before. It was pretty exciting, even for the small farm town where I currently reside. Not knowing much about the democratic candidates, I perused their respective websites prior to attending the caucus to see their viewpoints and stances on various issues.

I got to the venue as an independent, but then made the choice to stand for Barack Obama.

It was an interesting experience as the initial votes came in and then the woo'ing began as the smaller parties had to choose which larger party to be absorbed into. It went from a simple discussion into an eventual argument between a Clinton rep and a young Edwards rep trying to each bad-mouth and put the other candidate down, while the Obama rep would calmly and quietly interject at varying points (this display is one of a multitude of reasons that I've avoided politics like the plague until now).

I also noticed that as the Obama side of the room continued to slowly grow, the Clinton side of the room looked almost shell-shocked and dumb-founded as to what to do. As each group gave their updated numbers, only the Obama side had changed as we gained two independents as well as absorbing the entire Richardson group and the Dodd group. When asked for the Clinton update, there was just silence for awhile before the representative finally repeated the same number she had given a half hour earlier. A cheer erupted from our side of the room as that result meant Obama would receive two of the delegate votes and the other candidates would each receive only one. There was even a reporter there from Washington D.C. who was doing a live blog (how she drew covering a small farm town, I'll never know) and there were quite a cast of characters there for her to go on about.

80% of the Clinton party were all at least 60 or over and it was revealed later that many of them had to be bussed in to participate or else they wouldn't even have been there. The Obama and Edwards groups were a mix with many of the youth on the Obama side.

Upon returning home, I quickly flipped on the various news stations and watched as Obama won the state in an upset and the favorite Clinton dropped to a shocking third place finish overall. When Obama gave his victory speech, I actually got goosebumps as I was very impressed, but at the same time am so personally soured on politics in general that there's also a genuine fear in me that he's simply saying what needs to be said so that he'll win.

Obviously, I hope that's not the case, but I am thinking it and it would be a lie not to acknowledge it. I'm doing something I haven't done in a very, very long time - putting my trust and faith behind a candidate that I want to believe in and feel can actually make a change if he were given the opportunity to do so. I hope he won't let me down.

Our state did its part for that to be a reality, so I can only hope New Hampshire will answer the call as well.

I also found it interesting that Obama was the only candidate to acknowledge and applaud his wife in his speech.

I'm also a bit relieved as I just realized that we'll be without political advertising airing every five minutes.....at least, for a little while. :-)

Moving forward, I will not be pushing my political views any further on here (with the possible exception of when the elections actually arrive should Obama hopefully be the Democratic nominee) because I don't want to be judged for what, I think, is a topic that is so vast and has so many different viewpoints that people can believe whatever they wish and should not be judged for it. If I see any of you in person, I will respect your privacy on this issue and not bring it up, but will also accept whatever your views are should the topic come up.

Vote for whomever you want to vote for, but just make sure that you get out there and vote.