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You're for Obama? I'm Gonna Lock the Door on You!Hillary's supporters carry the caucus in Eldora, Iowa.

By Emily Bazelon
Posted Thursday, Jan. 3, 2008, at 11:14 PM ET

(Continued from page 1)

A lot of these people know each other, and that matters to the vote count. When Harms hears Bill Hendries, with whose family she is living this year, say he's considering Obama, she crosses the room at a run. "What? What?" she yelps. "Get outta here. I'm gonna lock the door on you when you get home."

Still, there is uncertainty in the air, because most of the Democrats have never caucused together before. There are a bunch who are making their caucus debut (I'd guess at least two dozen). And the party recently redrew its precinct lines, bringing together little towns that used to caucus separately. Earlier in the evening, this new format made Clinton supporter Pauline Lloyd edgy. She arrived before 5 p.m., long before any other volunteers, and with the help of her friend Michele Baker made the parking lot Hillary's by lining it with her signs—shades of the victory to come, at least in Eldora.

Hillary won Lloyd's heart by shucking off her shoes when they met at the end of a long day this fall, and she wants her woman to win big. Now she and another Clinton precinct captain, Terrie Harms, head over to the knot of Richardson supporters. From the other side of the room come Schossow for Obama and a couple of Edwards backers. "Now's the time to make your sales pitch," Bear says. But he has already made up his own mind—he's going over to Obama. Three other nonviables move off in predetermined directions—they didn't have high hopes for Richardson, so before they arrived tonight, they'd settled on a second choice. Bear picked Obama as the best chance for "complete change." The Obama group cheers for him and then gives a whoop for K.D. Burkett, a social worker and the only black voter in the room. "Obama doesn't have enough experience, but I do think he has enough intelligence," Burkett explains. He has forgiven the candidate for a DVD that Burkett deemed empty-headed when he watched it after getting it in the mail last summer.

Meanwhile, Schossow is trying to snag Paul Lawler. "We're not going for it!" he tells her, apparently speaking for himself and the remaining two undecideds. Schossow backs off, and Lawler heads over to Clinton. Lange shakes his head and asked what took him so long. "Well, she's the one who has the experience," Lawler says. "That's what I said all along!" Lange retorts. There's one last voter to woo: Glenn Wells, the Dodd supporter. He shakes off a heated pitch from the Edwards camp about health insurance and quietly sits down on a Clinton chair. "I grew up in Arkansas, and when I was in law school, my professor was Bill Clinton. Before he started chasing skirts. Ha!" He's probably lucky that the Clinton camp is too busy cheering for him to hear.

Bear asks the three viable groups to pick leaders, who count heads. The final tally: 54 for Clinton, 36 for Obama, and 30 for Edwards. That means six delegates for Clinton and four each for Obama and Edwards; two more votes for either Clinton or Obama would have shifted one more delegate their way. The last order of business is a motion to approve the delegate count. Lloyd and Baker call it out from the floor, and the room fills with a hearty "Aye!" On this, there's agreement. And besides, it's time to go home.

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Emily Bazelon is a Slate senior editor.
Photograph of Hillary Clinton by Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images.
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