Moodle

I am scrambling, spending my morning in bed (gosh, that stinks doesn’t it?!) after taking the kids to school, reading all about the candidates yet again. Tonight, I am going to do something I’ve never had the opportunity to do before, I am going to Caucus!

We’ve only lived in Iowa for a couple of years, ok, almost three now. That doesn’t by any means qualify me as an Iowan though, at least not in the locals opinions. hehe Anyway, Iowa is a pretty low key place to live. I know this won’t come as a shock to any of you, but we have lots of corn here. Farms too. Even cows. Yep, Iowa is probably just like you imagined it to be, except for one thing, we are incredibly political people. Not only that, but we are powerful political people. Our caucus is all over the national news - imagine that!

So, I’ve decided to learn all about this “caucus”, and have spent months doing so. Now tonight is the night - Iowa Caucus. And I’m still trying to figure out who I’m caucusing for, and in what order. For those of you who know nothing about the Iowa Caucus, here’s how it goes. Democrats meet in a room and stand in groups according to who you want to vote for. If a group has less that 15% of the population, that candidate is removed from the options, and you must go to your favorite pick out of who is left. The process continues until finally there is just one candidate left, and that is the winner. Each time a candidate is removed, other people can try to “sell” their candidate to you, which should be interesting. I hope it isn’t like black Friday shopping, with people getting all wild and crazy everywhere!

Now, if you are going to the Republican Causus in Iowa, you just go in and write your candidates name on a paper, and leave. That’s it. Much simpler, and I bet not nearly as fun!

So I bet you guys are dying to know who I’m voting for, what my reasons are. Ha - too bad, you’re going to have to wait! I’m not even sure myself at this point. According to the website GlassBooth.org , it’s a dead heat on who I should vote for. Obama came up as a 79% match, with Clinton at 75%, and Edwards at 73%. If you haven’t visited GlassBooth.org you really should. You take a survey on issues and how important they are to you, then it tells you which candidates come the closest. At that point, you can click and look and each issue, and where they stood on that compared to you. It’s a great place to narrow down your candidates, or just make sure that you are looking at someone for the issues they stand for and not just because they are a great speaker.

Now that I have my top three (which were the three I had on top anyway) I am going to each ones website and rereading what their platforms are, all the while watching various news channels (currently Headline News - and I won’t touch Fox, I HATE FOX!!!) and from there I will start searching the news articles on Obama, Clinton, and Edwards. I must admit, I feel a lot of pressure, especially since it isn’t black and white as to who I want to vote for yet. But I feel this crazy obligation to do my homework and try my hardest, since our Iowa Caucus is so important to the entire nation. What a huge responsibility! LOL

So, I’m going to post today off and on as I make some decisions, talk about my feelings about candidates, and I’ll even share how the caucus goes later. What does that have to do with raising kids? EVERYTHING! Our kids are the future, and I feel that I have to help get them a better future than what President Bush has left them with. So - if you think that politics don’t matter, your opinion doesn’t count, or you are undecided so why bother, please, rethink it. For your kids. If nothing else you are setting an example for them about the importance of voting, or you create an opportunity to teach them about the voting process and politics.

Check back, more all day today!