So as I had guessed, the smoking area turned out to be a goldmine. I got nearly half of my twenty votes there. When I re-entered the caucus room in the old gym of my alma mater, West Seattle High School, I was already preparing my speech for the final vote. I learned that in the interest of time it would need to kept to thirty seconds, and unlike those debates on TV the rules would be vigorously enforced. So I began scrawling it out on the back of a leaflet for Governor Christine's re-election:

So there it was. Nothing too fancy, but rather nicely short and sweet. Unfortunately, I would never get to read it.

You just can't compete with slogans about "the glass being full" and all of that. And you certainly couldn't compete with the seventeen year old captain of his high school debate team who pulled in something like 300 votes. He wasn't even a smoker, for pete's sake. Damned sympathy vote!

Actually, I'm just kidding about that last line there. Personally, I find it absolutely thrilling the way that candidate Obama (and to a lesser extent candidate Clinton), has energized the younger demographic this year. If nothing else, by participating at this level, they get a wonderful civics lesson that my comparatively more apathetic generation by and large missed out on in our own youth. By participating in it, they get to learn how the process actually works.

So at about this time, it was my cue to go home after a long day that had begun some seven hours earlier. There were about fifty speeches to hear yet, and even at thirty seconds apiece, this meant a potential of several more hours to go. So I grabbed myself a ballot, made sure to pick the glass lady and the debate kid, and then threw about thirty three more darts at it.

I turned it in, and I went home.

As I write this, my guess is they are probably still winding through the speeches up at my West Seattle High alma mater. As for me? I'm gonna kick back, grab myself a beer, and watch a little tube.

After all, this is still Saturday night...