Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
#NeverBernie, or What I Saw in Las Vegas
I believe that Bernie Sanders poses an existential danger to our Republic, so is it incumbent on me to do all that I can to stop him. To that end, after leaving work on Friday, I drove 250+ miles to Las Vegas. Once I arrived, I googled “Nevada Biden Office” and drove to the nearest office, arriving at 9:16 p.m. after they had finished their last class.
I spoke to the staffer asking how I could help. She gave me a crash course on how to be a “Precinct Captain.” I learned more about the byzantine nine-step caucus procedures that probably 99% of people who have not been in a caucus know about. It was mind-numbing. I was then given a bag with written instructions, a t-shirt with “Biden Precinct Captain” emblazoned on it inside an outline of Nevada, and a huge four-inch button with Joe’s smiling face and “Biden Precinct Captain” on it. Ah, the swag! I then went to Walmart to get a battery pack to supplement my iPhone. The first hotel I went to was sold out. I finally tumbled into bed just before 1 a.m. I set my alarm to get up at 5 a.m. given that I had a 6:45 a.m. meeting to go to.
I woke up at 4:58 a.m. Was I tired? Sure. But I was energized. I zoomed over to “The Strat” (formerly known as “The Stratosphere”) and went to their Starbucks to meet with other “out of town” team members. I was 15 minutes early. I followed the Jack Reacher maxim to never miss a chance to eat, so I got oatmeal and a Danish. (I was surprised to discover that unlike any other Starbucks I have ever gone to, this Starbucks charged for soymilk for my oatmeal. The server noted “I am on camera” as she apologized.)
We had a great crew of people, several from Arizona and California who had driven in and one man who had flown in from New York! Then we were sent off to another Biden Headquarters to receive more last-minute instructions. While there, I picked up more tee-shirts. Then I was off to Desert Oasis High School in Enterprise, Nevada. Since I was running early, I followed the Jack Reacher maxim and stopped at Denny’s to fuel up.
I got to Desert Oasis High School before 9:30 a.m. This was the time for the campaign staff to check-in. Since I was out of state, I was given an orange armband designating that I was an “observer” and could not talk once the caucus started. The Bernie campaign had the most volunteers, followed by Pete, Joe, Amy, Steyer, and Warren. All of the volunteers were respectful and friendly. The most common statement by a volunteer for Campaign A to a volunteer for Campaign B was to praise the strong points of the other candidate. (Note: I did not strike up any conversations with anyone from the Bernie campaign, as I have nothing positive to say about him.) At 10:00 a.m. the doors were opened to the voters. The place was packed. There were massive lines some 20 deep. But there was no complaining. Of note, some of the early voting sites had had waits of up to four hours, so this was seen as a better option. By far, the most popular person in the cavernous hallway was a member of the Nevada Assembly who was there to hand out free water bottles to her constituents. Smart lady.
I was given the list of people from my precinct who were “1’s” and “2’s” and was told to call them. I left voice-mail messages and a couple of messages with people who relay to the voters. I got two voters. One said that she had a family emergency and could not come. The other one, Valerie, said that that she would be seeing me at the Middle School. “Oh no, they have combined precincts, we will be at Desert Oasis High School.” “Thank you, dear, I would have gone to the middle school, and then would have gone home. How will I recognize you?” “I am a 67-year-old bald man.” “I will look forward to visiting with you.” More about Valerie later.
At noon, they stopped accepting voters. The toughest job in the room was to be designated as a “stopper,” the person who would stand at the end of the line and not allow anyone else into the line.
I stood behind where people were checking in and offered them “Team Joe” stickers. Next to me was a nice lady who was begging people to consider Amy as their second choice.
Despite the long lines, people were of good cheer and chatted to each other. My precinct area started to slowly fill up. I mentioned that since I was out of state, once the caucus began, I would not speak once the caucus got going. I asked if any Biden voters would be willing to serve as “Biden Precinct Co-Captains” noting that they would get a cool t-shirt like mine and a huge four-inch button. Two women volunteered and I gave them their swag.
I was walking by an elderly black woman with a cane. She said “Gary?” My response was “You must be Valerie! I am so happy to see you!”
We finally got started at 1:20 p.m. We had 19 voters, and observers from the Biden, Sanders, and Klobuchar campaigns. (The three observers and the Precinct Chair had all parachuted in from out-of-state.) We then started this intricate process. First, we elected our Precinct Chair. Then she asked for someone who had clear handwriting to serve as our Precinct Secretary. Two different people counted the 19 voters present. Okay. Please raise your hand if you are voting for Biden. Six hands went up. The Chair saw that Valerie had a cane, so she asked that Biden voters all cluster around her. The original alignment of people present was as follows:
- 6 Biden
- 5 Buttigieg
- 3 Sanders
- 5 Warren
I was thrilled. Sanders had only three people. Ha, ha, ha.
The next step was the great reveal of what the “early votes” were. Ugh. They were as follows:
- 1 Bennet
- 4 Biden
- 5 Buttigieg
- 25 Sanders
- 4 Steyer
- 2 Warren
- 1 Yang
Ugh. 25 for Sanders! Yikes! Adding the numbers together we had:
- 1 Bennet
- 10 Biden
- 10 Buttigieg
- 28 Sanders
- 4 Steyer
- 7 Warren
- 1 Yang
The total number of people was 63. 15% of 63 is 9.45 people. Rounding up would be 10 people. Biden and Buttigieg were barely viable. Warren was not. The five Warren voters were crest-fallen. They were such a committed earnest group. I felt sorry for them (but not sorry for Warren as she is almost as bad as Bernie). I turned to Valerie. “You made the difference. If you hadn’t been here, we would not be viable.” She smiled back at me.
The early voters had to designate their first three to five choices on their early votes, so those votes were reassigned as follows to the three viable candidates:
- 6 Biden
- 10 Buttigieg
- 27 Sanders
Then the poor five Warren supporters were given a harsh choice. They could join the Biden, Buttigieg, or Sanders groups. Or they could leave. The five crushed Warren supporters consoled each other. They were heartbroken. They did not understand how anyone could not see the obvious merits of Warren. The Chair said that each of the five would need to make their own decision. The three remaining groups were each given one minute to make a pitch to the forlorn Warren supporters. The Sanders voter said “Elizabeth was my second choice. Please join us.” I forget what the Buttigieg voter said. The Biden voters turned to me to speak. I said that I couldn’t speak as I was not a Nevada voter. One of my appointed “Co-Captains” then stood up and said that Biden had the best chance of beating Trump. People started joking about washing a Warren voter’s car if they would join their group.
Biden got only one of the five Warren voters, and Buttigieg and Sanders each got two of the Warren voters.
The final result adding the early votes and the voters in the room was:
- 13 Biden
- 17 Buttigieg
- 32 Sanders
We had nine delegates to send to the County Convention. There were 62 votes altogether. (One of the early voters did not include Biden, Buttigieg or Warren, so their vote didn’t count.)
Here’s how the math went:
- Biden: 13 X 9 / 62 = 1.8571 delegates
- Buttigieg: 17 X 9 / 62 = 2.4286 delegates
- Sanders: 32 X 9 / 62 = 4.5714 delegates
Using the first round of rounding this ended up with
- Biden: 2 delegates
- Buttigieg: 2 delegates
- Sanders: 5 delegates
Since we were assigned nine delegates, this all worked out.
However, there are terribly complicated rules as to how to round up if this had resulted in eight delegates or round down if there were 10 delegates. If those rules ended in a tie, then we entered the world of chance. In Iowa, they flipped coins. But this was Nevada. They would draw cards, with an Ace being high and a Two being low. If they had the same number, then they went by suits, with Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, and Clubs in that order. Thank goodness we didn’t get to that level of detail. (This is not unlike the NFL where one year under Tom Landry where the Cowboys had to beat the Redskins by at least 15 points in the final week of the season to get past the eighth or so tie-breaker. What a mess.)
The final step was to elect delegates to the County Convention. The three people who had made pitches to the Warren delegates all decided that they wanted to go to the County Convention. I assume that the other delegates will be filled in by their campaigns in the future.
The observers took pictures of the worksheet and texted it to our headquarters. At 2:50 p.m. we were done.
I got back on the road to Flagstaff. I was dead tired. I had resolved to stop driving long distances at night in the last year. But heck, Flagstaff was only 250 miles away. I zoomed along the interstate. I noticed that I had a sore throat coming on. It began to rain. The sky grew dark. And I persisted. When I arrived in Kingman, I decided to drive through town. I then noticed blue and red lights wig-wagging behind me. I pulled over. The officer came up to me.
“Do you know why I stopped you?”
“No.”
“Do you notice that it is raining?”
“Yes.”
“Do you notice that it is twilight?”
“Yes.”
“What would that suggest to you?”
I paused and could not think of the answer. Then, “Oh, I should turn on my lights.”
“Yes. I flashed my brights at you twice, but you ignored me. Are you almost home?”
“No, I live in Flagstaff [150 miles away].”
“You might want to get a room to stay the night as you appear to be exhausted. I don’t want to scrape your body off of the pavement.”
I took this as good advice. When I was in my 20s I would be in a seminar in LA until 2 a.m. and then drive 400 miles to get home. Driving 150 miles is a piece of cake. But I am now 67 years old. I got a room, and then treated myself to a nice dinner. I went to bed at 9. I slept for 11 hours.
A final thought. Caucuses may have made sense 100 years ago when people needed focus groups to come to decisions. But they appear to be hugely ineffective and inefficient. My heart went out to Valerie who was exhausted by the process. I hope that we have seen the last caucuses in America. They are a relic that needs to be retired.
Published in Elections
Sorry. It’s more then just tired.
Doesn’t look tired here.
He’s an idiot.
Yeah, it is fascinating. I voted third party 3 times in the same period, and I’ll bet my 3rd party years don’t match Gary’s.
I truly don’t understand the caucus process. A caucus is a meeting. “Early voting” should not be part of it.
Are you practicing your salutations by inserting “comrade” in everything? Never too early to start if we’re going to survive the purges
The corollary to this are the #NeverTrump people who are willing to concede that America and the world aren’t the dystopian seventh circle of hell nightmare they said it would be if Trump was elected president …. but that’s only because Trump has had to worry about re-election. A President Trump unencumbered by the fear of facing the voters after this year would unleash in 2021 everything we said he would unleash in 2017.
Whether it’s that, or Trump demanding in 2024 that Don Jr., Jared or Ivanka be his successor, you can always come up with future hypotheticals on why you can’t vote for Trump. The difference between 2020 and 2016 is the hypothetical worse-case scenarios four years ago were based on Trump never having held office before, while any future projections this year are done with him having a three-plus year record in office. For the most part, the ones continuing to oppose Trump today do it more on decorum than on policy grounds, unless you’re in the Max Boot camp and have completely repudiated your past ideological positions.
Ivanka will crush junior in the primaries. She’s the brains of that outfit
And thats why she has no chance.
But if a bunch of Trumpers discussing which Trump kid will beat the other in the 2024 primaries isn’t enough to scare you clear of NeverBernie, IDK what will. Long game. The Trump kids are all young. They need to be crushed right now. Thats a far bigger problem than an old incompetent socialist.
I am against political dynasties. So Donald Jr would presumptively lose my vote in the primary – BUT depending on the other entrants he could earn it.
Are you holding the sins of the father against the son, Gary? Has DJTJ cheated on his wife with a stripper or have you caught him in a lie?
Because he seems like a pretty good guy to me.
Nah, she is not a natural born citizen
That’s it right there. The Flight 93 perception was that the destruction was already proceeding and might even have reached the tipping point already. The # perception was that the USA would survive Obama’s “3rd term under Hillary (and maybe the 4th and beyond) but Trump wasn’t survivable.
Granted, past prognostications are no proof of future performance.
Gut, remake. Potato potahto. I’ll have a baked potahto with butter, please.
Or you need to calm down and stop being hysterically paranoid.
Or trying to frighten poor Gary.
Bill Kristol is stuck with JPod baying at the Moons of Naboo.
“Hold me, Anakin.”
Perhaps tell him its The Boys from Brazil and he’ll have nightmares of Barron Trump clones everywhere.
Nope. Nationally, Reagan won 98.9% in 1984. [Edit. According to Wikipedia, Reagan won 98.78% of the Republican Primary vote in 1984.]
1976, 1992 and 2016.
Not percentage; number of voters who turned out to vote for him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_New_Hampshire_Republican_primary
Somehow the word, “incorrigible” keeps coming to mind on these voting stats.
I did 2000, 2004, and 2008. I regret having voted Republican in 2012. I wouldn’t have voted for Perot in 1992, but voted for the Republican only because I was doing a lot of volunteer work for a Republican congressional challenger and it was kind of a package deal.
Congrats. Trump beat George HW Bush’s record vote in NH, and all he needed was a rally the night before. I’m sure Bush 41 was really proud of his old record.
I voted Libertarian in 1976. I don’t remember a lot about that vote. I was migrating from McGovern in 1972 to Reagan in 1980.
I actually didn’t vote for Perot in 1992, but I voted Libertarian again, as I felt that HW had betrayed Reagan by raising taxes. I regret that vote. I wish that I had voted for HW.
I voted for McMullian in 2016 and I was the Coconino County contact person for McMullian. I am very proud of that vote, and that we got nine-tenths of one percent which is huge as a “write-in.”
Wasn’t asking about the national vote, Gary – he was asking about the NH Primary and the answer is that Trump received approximately 2x the votes for Reagan in 1984.
President Trump by far has the most votes for an incumbent president in the history of NH primaries.
Although Reagan received 1/2 as many votes as President Trump he does have the highest percentage, 86% and change compared to 85% and change for President Trump.
I don’t think that any States shuttered their primaries in 1992, 1980, and 1976 when incumbent presidents faced primary challenges. That was before our brave new world under Trump.
You are going to need to back that up, hoss – it has happened many times before. You just weren’t so monomaniacal before.
I think he was referring to raw vote count, not percentage margin of victory.
And only fascists and totalitarian dictators win elections with 98% of the vote.
No offense, colorful one, but I have to note the common slitheriness of the left-mind. The lefty can never be in the wrong. Even a simple correction on a trivial factual matter, vote counts here, must be countered with deflection: ignore the fact and even the debate; instead cloud the issue by claiming the vote count was … what, impure? insignificant? I can’t tell, because another leftist debate technique has taken precedence – cover one’s mistakes with sarcasm and snark.
Of the Electoral College votes, sure.
Popular vote was 58%
So you have already helped elect Carter and Clinton. Reagan Republican™ for sure.
Biden is senile and is showing it all the time. I am not surprised that a NeverTrumper could confuse the facts so badly. Mike Bloomberg, while you were volunteering for Biden, admitted that he “bought the House” in the debate. It is more plausible to me that the failure of the GOP House to support the Trump agenda and the resignations of corrupt GOP members to begin their lobbying careers early had more to do with the loss of the majority than any actions by Trump. Your “mountain of animosity against Trump” is mostly in your head.
According to Wikipedia, Reagan won 98.78% of the primary vote in 1984.
Reagan led by attraction, not by attacking everyone who disagreed with him. Reagan was comfortable in his own skin. To quote a phrase from George Bernard Shaw, Reagan was not a “feverish and selfish clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to make him happy.”
Ronald Reagan was the Greatest President of the Twentieth Century.
I hope you remember what followed. The Fascist regime of Wilson which got us into WWI among other things.
Which is why Elizabeth Warren, at least as dangerous as Bernie, is angling for VP now.
What would you do if Bloomberg runs as independent? Has he committed to supporting Sanders? Seems very unlikely. He certainly has the money. I think thats the only viable 3rd party option.