Yes We Can Song

[blueskies]

Have any of you seen the video of the Yes We Can song?

Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas wrote the melody & organized the making of this video, which turned Barack Obama's "Yes We Can" speech into a song. It's inspiring and uplifting no matter what your politics or voting plan:

http://www.yeswecansong.com

Yes We Can

It works as a cycling anthem, too.

[latelatebloomer]

I watched it 2 times last night. Loved the feeling of hope, unity, optimism. Haven't had much of that in a lonnnng time.

[snowtulip]

Thanks so much for posting, I hadn't seen that yet and I'm glad I did!

[KnottedYet]

Thank you!

[Wahine]

That was great. It makes me wish I could vote.

[Zen]

I hear you. I mean, I may be a convicted felon but I did my time.

[latelatebloomer]

I thought I knew you from somewhere!!

[Wahine]

I didn't recognize you two without your stripes.

[crazycanuck]

Hmm..so zen the mob didn't get you?



Ok, can someone please explain to me what in the world a US caucus is? Why does each candidate need delegates?

I'm attempting to follow this whole super tuesday thing but just don't get it...I thought i sort of understood the US system as we did learn a bit about it in Canada..

Clueless Crazycanuck needs help!!!

[maillotpois]

Really good. Someone sent me the link yesterday.

This primary is like the Super Bowl. (Just that its so close and so interesting.) Can Edwards "give" away his delegates to someone. (Yes I am a lawyer and yes I should know this, but.... )

[Trek420]

Does Edwards have delegates to give? He bowed out early. I'm a voter and should know. Anyone think he's holding out for a Veep spot?

[Tuckervill]

I like John Edwards and I think he would be a good president or vp, but I am excited about the prospect of a Clinton/Obama or Obama/Clinton ticket. I usually do not follow presidential politics too closely, but this time it seems different. What could be more different from 'rich white guy' than the perspective of a woman and a man of color? Of course, those are not the only reasons to consider Clinton or Obama. But it's like my daddy always told me about voting against more taxes when you get the chance--how often have we had a chance to vote for someone from a very different human perspective? Making history should be a good reason to vote if you never have, and even if you don't vote for the history making candidates.

Like someone said, it's interesting like the Super Bowl was.

Karen

[TsPoet]

Ok, can someone please explain to me what in the world a US caucus is? Why does each candidate need delegates?

Clueless Crazycanuck needs help!!!

Because we are really a republic, not a democracy. I'm afraid I can't find the credit for this brilliant explaination of the whole thing:

A Democracy is three wolves and a sheep voting on dinner.
In a republic the flock of sheep get to vote for which wolves vote on dinner.

[blueskies]

CC,

I'll try to explain. The process we're going through right now is our way of picking the presidential candidates for the two major political parties (Republicans and Democrats). The candidates are picked through a voting process at each party convention (in late summer/early fall). The process we're going through now is the process of picking the delegates to the convention.

Most Americans, including myself, don't fully understand the process for a very good reason. Each party in each state has it's own specific rules for how the delegates to the conventions are selected, so there are over 100 different sets of rules in action here. But basically, parties in each state typically have either a caucus or a primary to allocate delegates.

Primaries involve traditional voting. Some states/parties allocate all the delegates to the candidate that won the most votes in a winner-take-all scheme. The Republicans do more of this. In other state/party schemes, there is a proportional allocation of delegates.

Caucuses are like "town meetings" to pick delegates, and only a small number of states actually hold them, so most Americans have never participated in one. Here's a good description of what a caucus is like from an Iowa newspaper:

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/app...EWS09/70523032

And to complicate things even further, in addition to these popularly chosen delegates, there are also super delegates, who can vote whichever way they please at the convention. These are typically party leaders & elected officials.

Anyway, that should be enough to help you understand why all of us are somewhat fuzzy on how exactly it all works...

[bmccasland]

And it was started back when getting from here to there required a horse. So you'd vote locally for someone to represent you, and by the time they get to the final voting place, the candidates could have changed.

And in the final election - we still vote on delegates to the Electoral College. There have been candidates that have one the Popular vote, but lost in the College, in that overall they had enough votes by citizens, but not enough delegates within each state.

It's screwy, but so far no one has actually tried to change it. Seems the loosers are the only ones that really want to change the system.