"Who are these people?"

I just finished reading Battle for America 2008 by Dan Balz and Haynes Johnson.  (anyone else read this yet?)   The authors briefly touch upon The Obama's campaign questionable caucus strategies and the campaign's pressure/influence on the DNC vis a vis primary voting rules.

On Iowa Caucus:  "Tom and Christie Vilsack were arriving at the Ward One precinct caucus in Van Allen Elementary School in Mt. Pleasant.  'Who are these people?' Vilsack thought, 'I've never seen these people before.'  The population of Mt. Pleasant is about 9,000.  Vilsack's wife is a native and Vilsack himself has lived there most of his adult life.  For him to walk into a caucus and not recognize scores of people was unnerving."

Mt. Pleasant is about the same size as Peterborough, NH, and, believe me, for someone of Vilsack's background (former governor and state senator), not to recognize scores of people at his small town's caucus certainly is downright unnerving to say the least!!  The authors have little more to say on topic.  Maybe they're too busy to take the time for some investigative reporting?  Like, what the freak happened in Iowa anyway?  They do say, however, that Bill Clinton "thought there had been shenanigans at the caucuses and wanted to get to the bottom of it." (p. 126)  and later another passing reference:  Bill Clinton believed "that the Obama campaign had engaged in fraud in Nevada and had questions about the legitimacy of the Iowa caucuses."

Well, I was delighted to read LSekhmet's comment on another topic, when she actually provided an answer to Vilsack's question:  "Who are these people?"

LSekhmet:

"as I know, from friends (who live there still) the reason Obama "won" the caucus is because too many people came over the border(s) from Illinois (in particular), Wisconsin (to a minor degree) and North Omaha, Nebraska. And the Iowa election officials were told _not_ to ID these folks -- or indeed, anyone at all -- and some of this was in the media accounts, as were people who said they'd come from California to caucus, or were from Wisconsin, or other states."

creeper then validated:

"Your observations on the Iowa caucuses are painfully accurate, as I know from personal experience. While our town is too small for outsiders to attend our caucuses (eveyone knows everyone else), we didn't escape the Obama machine's attentions. They sent an operative who had grown up here, but moved away, to direct the caucus, in complete violation of party regulations stating that non-residents could not participate."

ok.  Why hasn't anything been done about this?  Maybe Balz and Johnson are working on a new book to uncover the fraud in the 2008 primaries?  (I guess I wouldn't hold my breath.)  And hopefully they are working on the DNC's backroom smokefest with the Obama campaign, something they succinctly touch upon in Battle for America, citing Plouffe's role vis a vis the DNC. 

First a little background on dates of primaries.  The DNC's Commission on Presidential Timing and Scheduling had earlier recommended that no contest for early states be held before 01/14 and no other states before 02/05.  Both Iowa and New Hampshire chose earlier dates for themselves than the recommended 01/14, but all hell broke loose when Florida the Florida state legislators voted to move their date to January 31.

"Party officials looked the other way when Iowa and New Hampshire set earlier dates, but the decisions of Florida and Michigan to move their dates represented a serious challenge.  To Plouffe, Florida's move was an obstacle to Obama's winning the nomination.   .......

With the Obama campaign cheering them on, the DNC officials moved to sanction Florida and then Michigan.  Plouffe wanted no halfway solutions.  He and others in the campaign began pushing behind the scenes, talking to DNC officials, to members of the Rules and Bylaws Committee, to state party officials and others around the country.  He wanted TO MAKE SURE the two states were treated severely.  PLOUFFE WAS THRILLED AT THE OUTCOME.

As he explained:  'We spent weeks and weeks and hours and hours on this....working every angle we could to make sure that the agreement on the rules committee was you've got to have full sanction.'  He candidly acknowledged it was a case 'where our own interests merged with the interests of the DNC.......'"

Well maybe the Democratic Party needs some anti-trust laws of its own to prevent these kind of mergers!!