Anyway, I am now an alternate delegate for my district. Which means if I do not move out of the district before April 5th, I will be able to attend a meeting at Rainier High School in Des Moines. I guess it won't happen because when I move I will forfeit my status as delegate, but I may just do something to spread the word to some people in the area about what happened at the Caucus today.
The official vote of the Caucus was 7/9 for Obama and 2/9 for Clinton. This turned into a 4:1 in favour of Obama.
We also voted unanimously yes on a proposal to end NAFTA.
Other than that, I went around to all the other tables that each had 20 - 40 people over the age of 70 sitting around them. Just kidding. The majority of the people were probably over the age of 50, however I was pleasantly surprised to find out our table was the only table that only had one person about my age. In the end, every table had an overwhelming majority of people on the side of Obama. I know of at least one district where he one, and judging by the turn out at Key Arena yesterday, there are more.
The major argument against Obama is his lack of experience, which I do not see as a big deal. I know that while experience is important, it is always over-rated. As precedence I site Bill Gates, and Sergey Brin and Larry Page (Founders of Google); Bill had no experience running a software company, and Sergey and Larry had no experience running a corporation. On the other hand, George Bush has been surrounded by politics his whole life. Hilary Clinton will say anything to get elected, and being the first lady does not count as experience.
I am siding with the Democrats this year in the elections (in case you want an official statement.) However, I do not feel that necessarily makes me a Democrat. It just means that of the parties I have to choose from, I choose the Democrats.
Anyway, all being said and done, I feel Obama will bring the type of change this country needs because of his lack of experience in a corrupt system of being paid by interest groups to sway the actions of this country. I feel he will do his part to at least bring affordable health care, which is the first step to universal health care. I feel he will really end the war. I feel he understands the problems of the lower classes. Finally, I am inspired every time I hear the man speak; that is one thing I feel is incredibly important about a president.
On the racial thing, I feel it will help bring the African American community out of the slums to see an African American leading the country. It will help to eliminate racial and ethnic tensions within this country. I say that because Obama has lived in the slums, and he has lived in foreign nations, and now enjoys the life style of the upper class. He is living the American dream.
On another note. I just read an article on the founders of Google Sergey Brin and Larry Page. I read it while I was writing this post and I looked for articles to link their names to. I discovered that they both individually have a net worth of either 16.6 or18.5 billion dollars. I am not sure, the Wikipedia article on 2007 Billionaires lists them at 16.6 or the 26th richest people in the world (along with Alice Walton, and just under S. Robson Walton, oldest son of Sam Walton (founder of Wal-mart.)) According to Wikipedia Article on Sergey Brin is the 4th youngest billionaire at the age of 34, and he is the 5th richest person in the United States. Which is not bad for a guy who has an official salary of $1 per year; Actual salary of $43,000 a year (according to Google's Salary listings. The rest is all in stock earning. Amazing!
So, it just goes to show you. If you start a company, release it for public trade, and own a large stake in that company, then you can (In the case of University of Michigan graduate Larry Page ): become the 5th wealthiest man in the United States, make
$43,000 per year, have a hobby building solar powered cars, drive a Toyota Prius, and purchase a Tesla Roadster.
I am pretty sure the Tesla Roadster part is the coolest; the Prius just isn't that cool of a car, and it's only a hybrid, not an all out electric car. Oh well, I would buy a Roadster if I had $98,000 to spend on a car. It only has a 221 mile range, but it gets the equivalent to 135 mpg (based on the DOE's energy content for a U.S. gallon of gasoline of 33705 Wh/gal:
), it does 0 - 60 in 4 seconds, and weighs under 1000lbs. The bad part is that it takes 3 1/2 hours to charge, and it is electronically limited at 125mph; Which isn't even bad unless you want to take it out on the Autobahn (aside from saying you have a super fast car.) If they didn't market it as a super high end sports car, it would probably get a bit closer to the 300 - 400 mile range everyone seems to think they need. Long term maintenance is a benefit as well because it does not need oil changes and regenerative braking eases wear and tare on the break pads. Keep an eye on Tesla Motors, I'm sure they will be doing well in the future.Here is a video of the first production Tesla Roadster released on February 1st 2008 12:56 PM PST. This is a historical moment marking the first production electric car to be sold in a very long time (keep in mind other electric cars have been made, but they were leased out and not sold.) In the video you can see the batteries being installed because it was cheaper to have the battery and car shipped separately. This video is available from the Tesla feel blog. Which also has the car magazine reviews of the vehicle
Anyway, that's all for now.
Later,
SteveO