Here’s what I know about Guam: It’s a tiny rock in the middle of nowhere near the Mariana trench, It was the island where the Enola Gay was refitted for Little Boy’s fly over Hiroshima, it has a problem with brown tree snakes and when my dad was temporarily stationed there during the Vietnam war, he said is was less smelly than Subic Bay in the Phillipines but really boring. When I lived in Hawaii as a kid and one of the other Navy brat’s parents got stationed there or Midway, we thought it was a frickin’ death sentence, like being shipped to Siberia.
And here we are, dozens of bloggers and media outfits, all breathlessly awaiting word from 3000 voters half a world away. Oh, don’t get me wrong. They’re voters and their votes are valuable. But is it going to change the direction of the race? Can a butterfly that small create waves back on the mainland? Call me skeptical. Unless Obama does far worse there than everyone thought, in which case we will be covering it relentlessly until Tuesday. 😉
Here’s a round up of Guam(?) posts:
Obama leading Guam caucuses: Todd Beeton keeps score. Apparently, it’s come down to one township. Whoop-de-doo!
At TalkLeft, Big Tent Democrat is covering the throngs */snort* at the Guam Caucuses with not one but FIVE updates. According to BTD, Hillary had better informational material in Guam than Obama did. Let’s hope he didn’t spend too much time dweling on their concerns over the Great Lakes for this one.
CNN Political Ticker has someone on the scene taking the hardship assignment. Their understated title, Showdown in Dededo says it all.
The New York Times is also reporting regularly in The Early Word: Guam, Which Counts, Is Counting
There is a HUGE turnout in Guam. By Golly, people are pushing and shoving to get to the caucuses. Well, you just have to read it for yourself:
Officials noted unusually high turnout, continuing the trend apparent throughout the primary season among locals unaccustomed to having a say in the primaries. Normally, the Pacific Daily News reports, about 1,000 people cast ballots in the caucuses, but about four times that were expected to show up.
Damn! If only Florida or Michigan could have turned out as many dedicated and interested citizens who took their voting reponsibilities as seriously. Maybe they *too* could have had votes that counted.
Filed under: Presidential Election 2008 | Tagged: Florida, Guam |
The Confluence 
DFA called me today, I told them to not call me back until florida and michigan were settled BEFORE the convention and I really don’t appreciate their petitions to the superdelegates on Obama’s behalf. I was probably a little mean but considering how they are contributing to the loss in the GE if Obama is the nominee, they deserve a few timely and well placed harsh words.
And NO money.
By the way, does anyone out there have toric soft contacts? I’ve been wearing glasses for years but today I got talked into the new softs for astigmatism. Does anyone have a review?
Heh. all this excitement for half-delegates? people’s heads will be exploding next week!
This is taking forever.
Something is fishy in Dededo. 😐
I am shocked, shocked to hear that they are counting the Guam vote. After all, neither candidate actually campaigned there, so, just like Florida, it shouldn’t count.
Augie, you are right on the button! Call off this charade!
7:15 PM Eastern
I just checked CNN – they say Obama won Guam by 7 votes.
This is a huge showinf for Hillary if true. I saw one poll which had him up by 10, another reading said he should cruise there. Some viewed him as a native son, since he grew up for a time in Hawaii.
Cool!
Meanwhile, in my back yard, Obamaniacs are rejoicing at the destruction of the filly who finished second in today’s Kentucky Derby.
Breaking News!!!
Barack Obama is back!
After surviving his toughest week of the primary and coming off of a humiliating defeat in PA, Brack Obama wins the Guam Caucus by 7 votes.
It was supposed to be a blowout for Obama but WTP?
riverdaughter – You’ll never get as good results with Torics as with glasses with astigmatisms. That said, I liked them but you do need to keep everything clean and moist. One of the issues that I deal with is patients who complain of blurred vision is that they don’t realize that over time things fall from the eyebrows, forehead and hair into the eyes, especially if wearing the lenses decreases the amount of times they wash their faces. D’oh, right?
As for Guam, the Obama campaign is pretty desperate at this point to spin anything into a reversal of what appears to be a significant downward trend. CNN has been circulating their Obama leads in Guam memo for almost a day now, knowing fully well that there is a good chance he will not win there. CNN is just doing their job of campaigning for Obama and manipulating every piece of news they can in Obama’s favor. It seems like everybody believes that the most valued demographic in the media industry (18 to 29 year olds) all support Obama, so they just make shit up or slant their reporting.
The media should not have that power in a Democracy. Clinton will win anyway.
Talk Left say that initial results from Dededo has Obama winning Guam by just 7 votes. A recount might happen.
Obama had project that they would win Guam by 11%
http://www.talkleft.com/story/2008/5/3/131242/9819
EDIT: Obama had projected they would win the territory by 11%
Recount!
I want a recount. In that big village Hill won big in they got rid of a bunch of ballots. I bet we won Guam.
Melanie, could you elaborate? Why did they get rid of ballots?
I don’t know. I heard they said they had trouble deciphering them.
They were probably written on some slabs of rock. It’s so hard to read those things these days.
Recount! Recount!
Someone at Talk Left said ABC News reported that Obama won by 5 votes.
Funny, RD. Actually, I am totally impressed with Hill. He, yet again, overspent her, expected an 11 point win, even opened an office, and it was basically a draw. I mean, a win is a win, but 7 votes?
Officials say recount is imminent
Pacific News Center Staff Reporter 04.MAY.08
9:30 a.m. Guam – Herbie Perez, Democrat Party Nominating Committee Chairperson, says officials will look over the large amount of “spoiled” ballots in the coming days. At issue is small margin of victory for Senator Barack Obama. He beat his rival Senator Hillary Clinton by 7 votes, but well over 500 ballots were deemed invalid during the tabulation process. Perez says she will not certify the results because the Committee needs to ensure all were properly identified as “spoiled.” She says officials from the Party and representatives from both candidates will meet probably Monday or Tuesday to address that issue.
She is also looking into missing ballots. In total, over 8,100 were printed in response to reports of shortages at precinct sites. But when the final vote count was given, only a little over 4.500 ballots were used.
Heh, this should SOOO be the newscycle until Tuesday…I can see the graphics now: RECOUNT IN GUAM, COUNTDOWN TO A NOMINEE!!
Oh well, BO on the Meet the Press tomorrow. Michelle will be in Fayetteville, NC on Mon. Chelsea will be doing events tomorrow (might be involved in motorcade!!!), as well as President Clinton (the man will be doing NINE stops in one day…jeebus).
I was getting a little depressed this morning b/c MSNBC had Obama up by 2%…but then I checked out my fav polling website:
http://www.electoral-vote.com/
…and all appears to be right in the world.
…should clarify, MSNBC had Obama up by 2 in Indiana, but if you see above website, um, not so much…
Okay folks a little perspective. Obviously it’s wrong to care this much about one caucus when DNC won’t count FLA/MI.
On the other hand:
1. Let’s not get “Obama” on them and treat those voters like they don’t count. Many care very much for this country and should have the right to vote all year around.
2. Right now – pending outcome of recount – this is a big deal for Hillary. Outcome was higher than expected and she cut his lead from 10% to .2%. (Though as my girlfriend pointed out under the “Obama rules” this is a loss for him (i.e. less than full 10%).
3. It was a freaking caucus and she still almost won it.
4. None of the Clintons made it to Guam – at least recently – and so I wonder if she could have taken it.
5. It provides a wonderful opportunity to remind people about MI/FLA travesty.
Guam official said there will be a recount. And also there were missing ballots.
Officials Say Recount Is ‘Imminent’
Pacific News Center Staff Reporter 04.MAY.08
9:30 a.m. Guam – The Democrat Party Nominating Committee said officials will look over the large amount of “spoiled ballots” in the coming days.
At issue is the small margin of victory of Senator Barack Obama. He beat his rival, Senator Hillary Clinton by 7 votes, but well over 500 ballots were deemed invalid during the tabulation process.
Herbie Perez, chairman of the nominating committee, said she will not certify the results because the Committee needs to ensure that all the uncounted ballots were properly identified as “spoiled.”
She said officials from the Party and representatives from both candidates will meet probably Monday or Tuesday to address that issue.
Perez revealed she is also looking into the missing ballots.
More than 8,100 were printed in response to reports of shortages at precinct sites. But when the final tally came in, only a little over 4,500 ballots were used. – Pacific News Center – Guam, Saipan, CNMI, Asia-Pacific
http://digg.com/politics/Officials_say_Guam_recount_is_imminent
Todd at mydd had this quote from a Dem Party of Guam spokesman:
“The DPG noted a high number of spoiled ballots in Dededo.”
Like Melanie said, she has a chance to win if those Dededo spoiled ballots come through.
I’d like to add that before Dededo, Hillary was losing by 200 votes.
Yes, well Dededo is the biggest village in Guam, about 1/3 of the pop, and I would guess was her target with what little outreach she was able to do there. Also, one of BO’s bigger gets voted last week.
Side note-I can not believe how much I now know about Gaum and it’s Democratic caucus. Funny.
This long, drawn-out counting process can’t be good for the Party.
They should both just give up their Guam delegates.
So are those 500 spoiled ballots just from Dededo are those for the whole island?
rd: They were reading the results without the toric soft lenses.
Hey, I grew up on that rock! The beauty of the democratic process is that once in a while a little island in the middle of the Pacific can catch the attention of the media during a political frenzy time period. By the way, it was probably a couple of my cousins that mess up those ballots in Dededo….too much beer.