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The View From El Paso

I spent the night trying and failing to find a caucus to eavesdrop on here in El Paso. A volunteer at Hillary's headquarters downtown gave me a bum steer, and I found myself at an empty courthouse. Instead, I headed to a Chili's near a caucus center. The mood around 8 p.m. was a bit punchy. Caucus-goers had just begun to trickle in. A Latino Obama supporter—a county courthouse clerk—ordered nachos and asked the bartender to change the TV from basketball to CNN. He was excited to find that Obama was ahead. He had been a supporter of the Clintons, he told me, but witnessing the past few weeks' of "mudslinging" from Hlilary—"that turned me off," he said, as had his growing sense that Hillary's policies were shaped by special-interest groups. Giddily, he talked about how many Obama signs he'd seen by polling places during the day. "El Paso isn't usually real big on voting," he said, "but we had huge turnout at the courthouse and then at the caucus." Listening to him talk, two young female Chili's employees defended Hillary. "I like her resistance to mandatory testing," a young blonde named Sarah told me. Conversation turned to the rumors that Obama was Muslim. Both women said they thought it was possible Obama was not Christian at all but a secret agent of Islam. "You always hear rumors about them working from the inside out," Sarah told me.

Around 9 p.m., I headed over to Frankie's, a pool hall/entertainment center where Obama supporters had been told to gather to watch the returns on MSNBC. About 20 people were there when I arrived—among them, two interracial couples, a few attractive young women, and a lone young Latino man—but the place steadily filled up. The news wasn't looking good for Obama, and the edge of excitement ebbed: With some 50 percent of the votes counted, Clinton had overtaken Obama. Jessica, a psychology Ph.D. who had been a precinct captain, said that her caucus had gone for Clinton. Berto, the lone Latino man, said his precinct had gone 42-5 for Hillary. More food and beer was ordered. Jessica explained to me why she had become a volunteer for Obama, and what she said stood in stark contrast to the meme that Obama inspires voters by purveying vague hopes. Back in January, she told me, she had read a "blue book" outlining the specifics of Obama's health-care plan and more. After reading about Hillary's, she was convinced his was smarter. "I know he takes flak for not covering everyone. But we need to think sensibly about what we can accomplish."

As we sat there, it became clearer that Hillary was likely to take Texas—even though everyone was unsure about how and when the caucus votes would be counted. (Several caucuses continued until nearly 9 p.m., if not later.) During Hillary's speech from Ohio, groans rang out at the words "when that phone rings at 3 in the morning ..." But the mood brightened when Obama spoke—especially when he talked about focusing on restoring America's reputation around the world. 

Just now, MSNBC has projected that Hillary would take Texas. So the race continues.