Eldridge, Iowa
I just called a friend who works for the Obama shop out east, in Davenport. "Do you know James Hill?" I asked him. "Because he's amazing."
"Is that the pirate guy?" he said.
"Yeah," I said. "He helped get some firefighters to convert to Obama at my caucus out here. He is kind of awesome, but also a weird representative for Barack."
"Yeah, um, he is not representative," my friend replied.
But no worries, because Obama had an incredible night, as I'm sure you all already know. At my caucus, in Eldridge, you could feel the energy for him an hour before the caucus began, when the line for new voter signup stretched halfway across the high school's foyers. In the realignment, a couple people actually switched from Clinton to Obama, which was surprising, too. And when Marty O'Boyle went with Obama, abandoning his Hillary-loving wife -- well, shit was done! Read my whole live-blog of the Eldridge caucus -- with its sneaky patriarch, Marty O'Boyle; its bizarre Obama precinct chair, James Hill; and its assistant principal and traditional master of political persuasion, Frank Wood -- here.
-- Eve Fairbanks