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On Caucus Day, a Slightly Nostalgic Iowa 2004 Retrospective
Today is Caucus Day in Iowa, arguably the most inherently undemocratic way to start of the official election of the world’s beacon of democracy.
All that aside, I’m still slightly nostalgic for the three weeks I spent in Iowa in 2004 organizing students to caucus for Dean. To give some perspective on the timeline for 2004 versus 2008:
2004 Caucus date: January 19
2008 Caucus date: January 3
I only arrived in Iowa on December 31, 2003, and had three weeks to organize two colleges and four high schools to turn out for Dean. This year’s schedule is so crunched it’s a completely different ball game.
Anyway, to complete this nostalgia, here’s a slideshow of photos from my time in Iowa in 2004.
Obama's Facebook App Finds Your Iowa Friends
Barack Obama’s campaign put its Facebook page to a new use just four days before the Iowa caucuses. Fans, or supporters, of Barack Obama received a message asking to remind their friends in Iowa to caucus.
The message, titled “3 Days to Go,” directs supporters to a page with all of their friends who have some connection to Iowa. You can check off the friends you want to invite to the caucus, and the app sends a caucus reminder to your friends.
Meanwhile, Jose Antonio Vargas reports in the Washington Post that Obama’s Iowa staff engage people in a variety of contexts, new and old, including Facebook messages:
In Sen. Barack Obama’s Iowa headquarters, young staff members sit at computers, analyzing online voter data and targeting potential backers. They zip one e-mail to an undecided voter and zap a different message to a firm supporter.Depending on the voter, they follow with Facebook reminders, telephone calls, text messages and, most important, house visits.
It’s getting down to the wire. If Obama’s new voter contact strategies work, there could be an unsuspecting wave of caucus-goers completely missed by traditional tactics and polling surveys. For reference, here’s how Jerome Armstrong predicts the caucuses will go based on turnaround alone:
Turnout numbers Favors
< 150,000 Edwards
150-170,000 Clinton
> 170,000 Obama
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