In an effort to understand just what the hell is going on here, with the Democratic Presidential nominee process, I Googled: caucus explained.
I resolved to click on the very first link that resulted. It just so happen to be a tidy little article from the New Republic magazine by Michael Crowley, dated January 3rd, 2008. I use it as our reference to explain, below.
In a nutshell, states with a Democratic caucus procedure can be summarized thusly:
Caucuses are…a competition to win delegates to county conventions, which choose delegates to a state convention, which, in turn, is where national delegates are chosen.
The number of delegates awarded to each precinct is based on turnout there in the previous two general elections--and on caucus night, delegates are divvied up based on what proportion of the turnout each candidate can muster.
Note: "In 2004 [in Iowa], only about six percent of eligible Democrats bothered to show."
…when the media reports the official caucus results, those percentages reflect the number of delegates awarded--not, as in a primary, the preferences of thousands of individual voters.
Ergo, the reason that Hillary might win the "popular vote," if you will (Primary) and preference of the people but fail to get the overall majority of the delegates. My dad is wondering if Hillary proves to be more popular with the public but doesn't get enough delegates, will the vaunted "Super-delegates" see the light and realize that voting for Hillary might be the better move versus McCain. I have no particular comment on this. I haven't read any of the punditry on this scenario, either. Someone, out there, care to enlighten us?
I'll post my take on the landscape once I've collected all my thoughts.
I'll leave you with this: I have a sneaking suspicion that nefarious Republicans, shrouded in donkey-clothing, were scribbling in a vote for Hillary, yesterday—Texas has open Primaries that don't require party affiliation. I think we're all hearing that Hillary would make a weaker match versus McCain in the general election. It makes me wonder if, enough people really did that yesterday, we had a false-positive reading on the health of the Clinton campaign.
More to come.