Rock out with your caucus out*

It all comes down to tonight. Months of putting up with stump speeches, fighting with other reporters to plug into sound systems, fielding phone calls from campaigns and screaming every time I see Mitt’s, Mike’s, Rudy’s, John’s, Fred’s, Ron’s, Joe’s, Hillary’s, Chris’s, John’s, Barack’s or Bill’s face on a TV commercial.

I don’t think I’ve had a conversation in the past few days that hasn’t in some way been about politics or the caucuses. From a post-dessert talk with family members Saturday that recalled my great-grandmother’s Democratic tendencies (”She only knew one lever in the voting booth.”) to my one-on-one interview with Hillary Clinton on Sunday (in case you’re wondering, it was awesome - just me, Hill and a secret service dude with a gun). Even stopping to pump gas means I’ll have to hear about how someone likes Richardson (or Biden) but doesn’t think he’ll win, so they’re going to caucus for Obama (or Hillary).

I’m not caucusing tonight. When you work as the editor at a small-town newspaper, one of the last things you want to do is let everyone know which party you support and which candidate you want to be the next president. That’s just asking for a bunch of “left-leaning media” comments at every meeting from now until eternity. Instead, I’ll be covering the caucuses tonight with a photographer. We’ve had our fingers crossed all day that fisticuffs will break out and she can get a clear who shot of it for the front page. AP wire, here we come.

For months I’ve complained about the candidates. I’ve endured 20 e-mails a day from the Obama campaign. I’ve had Hillary’s twerp press guy calling my cell phone on a Saturday afternoon to interrupt my non-work fun. I’ve sat through 25-, 30- and 75-minute delays of rallies for tardy candidates. But in a way, I’m kind of sad it will all be over in just a couple of hours.

I come from a liberal family of Democrats who have lively conversations about women’s rights, health care and the Iraq war on Christmas day. I grew up with a dad who hated Ronald Reagan more than anyone in the free world (until George W. Bush came around) and routinely yelled at the national news. I took political science classes in graduate school and joined Young Democrats in high school and then college. To say I’ve lived a fairly politically-informed life so far would be pretty accurate.

Once every four years the nation watches us as we look over the candidates. We know how the drill goes. Get to the rally early, sign in, be seated, listen to U2, John Mellencamp or whomever that candidate is using for their soundtrack. When the candidate arrives, there’s a surge of excitement as they take the stage. They tell a little joke (the same one they tell at every stop) and move on to tell you about how they’ll provide universal health care in three ways or how they’ll get all of the troops out of Iraq in the first eight months. There’s a question-and-answer session where someone inevitably asks about immigration and “those people who can’t speak English.” Then there are some waves, a couple of autographs, posing for pictures with people and it’s off to the next town.

I think more than anything I’ve taken all of this for granted. I was reminded of how lucky we are when our photographer’s siblings (from Minnesota) were shocked to learn we “get to” see any candidates we want in small settings where we can approach them and ask them questions. They made the three-hour trek down here to go to two rallies in two days. That’s pretty remarkable when you consider that without having to leave town I’ve seen Bill Richardson, Chris Dodd, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton (twice), John Edwards, Barack Obama (twice), Mitt Romney, John McCain, Fred Thompson, Mike Huckabee and Tommy Thompson. I even drove 15 miles to see Bill Clinton. If anyone out there wants to know something about a candidate, just ask. For some of them, I can outline their plans or recite their favorite jokes. (Where was Hillary born? Chicago. What’s one of her favorite stories? “Put a frog in boiling water and it will jump out, put it in cold water and slooooowly turn up the heat and before long you’ll have a boiled frog. That’s how we change America’s ideas about alternative energy.” Also, Barack is a big fan of a Viagra joke he tells at every stop. It gets huge laughs.) This has become a major part of my job for the past year.

So what do I think? I have no idea who will win either side. While I think Hillary would be OK, the fact that her election as president would mean at least 24 years of Bush and Clinton family members scares the shit out of me. Obama is good. So good, I dare you to hear him speak in person once and not swoon from his ideas and his speaking abilities. Richardson is also good - probably the most qualified and experienced. And Biden would be good, although probably a little too extreme to beat the Republicans. I don’t like Edwards and Dodd is a little too crazy (his face turns more red the more worked up he gets). I have no idea who I would caucus for. Maybe Richardson. Maybe Obama.

Whatever happens tonight, I know it will be exciting and I hope we’ll make a good name for ourselves. While I won’t miss all of the crap that’s gone along with this build-up, I will hate to see an end to the political conversations, the discussions about our nation and its place in the world.

* In the interest of full-disclosure, the title for this blog came from a T-shirt for sale at Smash in Des Moines. I think it’s brilliant.