NPR: After the Two-Step ...

After the Two-Step ...

Lee, here ...

This is going to be quick. A few of us are running off to a fancy dinner this evening, honoring the contributions of famous African Americans to the media arts landscape.

But, we wanted to get your feedback on last night's primary presidential elections contests in Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas and Vermont. NPR offered extensive coverage of what was being unoficially branded as the Junior Super Tuesday, so if you haven't yet been caught up to speed on the results, you can find them here.

After last night's sweeping wins, it's now safe to presume that Arizona GOP Sen. John McCain is in position to receive his party's nomination. Not much of a surprise there.

But, on the Democratic side, Sen. Hillary Clinton, once again, became the mighty comeback kid (her first comeback moment during primary season was her New Hampshire win, after losing sorely to Sen. Barack Obama at the Iowa caucuses), winning Ohio, Rhode Isand and Texas. However, according to most recent reports, Obama seemed to be winning the Texas Democratic caucuses. (The state has this system, perplexing to many outside the state, called the "Texas Two-Step." I won't even try to explain it, but you can read more about how it works -- and the frustration it seems to be causing since last night -- here.)

Are you in Texas, or Ohio? The campaigns there were pretty rigourous. What's your take on the Democratic results? Any surprises?

And, as always, if your state has yet to participate in a primary elections process, we also want to hear how/if the proceeding contests are shaping your vote ...

Lee Hill

4:27 PM ET | 03- 5-2008 | permalink

Comments (Send a comment)

I'm in Ohio. Turnout was good especially for a primary and given the weather. Though I'm not surprised Hillary won Ohio overall she had the Governors' and a lot of Union support. I am very surprised that Obama won convincingly in the Cincinnati area and that he did not win Texas.

Sent by Nikkol | 9:08 AM ET | 03-06-2008

I didn't want to tell anyone that my caucus experience was a negative one, but after watching the news Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, our precinct's caucus did not seem so bad after all. Here I was thinking our caucus was unorganized........

One of the election officials was on the news saying that they have never had this amount of people trying to caucus, so they were not as prepared as they should have been. I was with him until he had the nerve to say they did not begin to ancipate such a large caucus turnout until February 5th. I was like, "Dang, y'all had an entire month, so surely there should have been more than enough sign-in sheets printed up, at the very least!

Why did everyone have the same story....they had to sign in on regular paper because there were only two official sign-in sheets at their various caucus locations.

In Houston, there were news reports (with video) that the police were called to two or three caucus locations to help maintain order because there were so many people and so little organization. (Of course, the news had to report that these locations heavily favored Sen. Obama.) Two caucuses did not begin until well after midnight. The news showed several voters sleeping while waiting for them to begin. At one of them, there was a report that the precinct judge and other officials exited the building (secretly) because there were so many people there and they could not maintain order. I think this was one of the locations where the voters did not conclude their caucus until well after midnight....in the wee hours of the morning.

After all of those news reports, I have to say I was so proud of my people for being so patient and waiting so LONG (a lot of them waited literally all night) to cast their caucus vote for Sen. Obama. I can't say that I would have waited that long to cast a second vote.

I've never been one to shy away from believing in some conspiracy theories, so my mind started working: they had to know there were going to be a LOT of people, so they should have had plenty of sign-in sheets, at the very least; since it's a fact that caucuses favor Sen. Obama, you do the math..........

Anyhoo, the last report I heard on the news is that the caucus results will probably not be known for several days and that the Texas Two-Step might be done away with in the future, which would be fine with me.

Oh, I forgot to mention: I was selected as a county delegate to attend the Harris County Convention on March 29th. I'm not sure of what all that involves, but I will be sure to report about it.

Sent by CoCo | 2:21 PM ET | 03-06-2008

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