Below the cut.

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I told her that I would re-post, but I was pretty sure the response would be a universal "pull her the hell out out of that school; you can't trust the staff, and she's clearly freaked out by the boy."

When Ed and I caucused back in February, we signed up to be delegates to our Senate District Convention. Before I get into describing what happened and how it went, let me very briefly explain the process here:

1. On February 5th, 400 people went to our precinct caucus. Of those, about 50 could go on to the Senate District Convention. Fortunately, only about fifty wanted to go, and we all signed up to be delegates.

2. Yesterday, about 850 people from 26 different precincts showed up at the Senate District 62 Convention. Of those 850, only 28 could go on to the State Convention.

3. In early June, 1200 people drawn from all 67 Senate Districts will go to the State Convention in Rochester. They will endorse a candidate for U.S. Senate. Currently, three people are running -- Al Franken, Mike Ciresi, and Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer -- and all three have promised to abide by the endorsement in order to avoid a primary. So this really does count for a lot.

4. Back in Step 1, we voted for Presidential candidates using a Straw Poll. That poll was binding. So Step 2 and Step 3 are completely irrelevent to Obama and Clinton. It's all about the Senate candidates, at this point.

You'll note that back in Step One, all you had to do to be a delegate was raise your hand. However, of the 850 people who showed up for Step Two, approximately 841 would have liked to go to the State Convention. Failing that, everyone at least wanted to be sure that some of the 28 people going would stand fast for their favorite candidate, or if they didn't have a favorite candidate, that they would demand some support/pandering for their pet issue. The way you do THAT is with Walking Subcaucuses. Which I will explain in a moment. What you need to know from the outset is that THIS year, the walking subcaucuses were the reason why most of those 850 people were there. Prior to the walking subaucuses, we had to register, we had to convene, we had to say the Pledge of Allegiance, and we had to do a bunch of rubber-stamping of internal party business, like voting for party officers, and we had to endorse three unopposed (and very popular) incumbent elected officials.

The convention was supposed to convene at 10 a.m., and Ed and I had babysitting from a friend until 2:30 in the afternoon.

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As a final note, I am really curious what the Republican Senate District conventions are like. In particular, I'm curious whether they nominate subcaucuses the way Democrats do. Do they have the Norm Coleman Keep the War Going subcaucus, the Norm Coleman Pro-Waterboarding subcaucus, the Norm Coleman Build a Wall at the Mexican border subcaucus, the Norm Coleman for Eating Puppies, Kittens, and Unicorns subcaucus, etc., etc., etc., or do they just have a Norm Coleman subcaucus and call it good? Or do they allocate delegates by some entirely different method? I did find a website for the SD62 Republicans -- they had their convention yesterday, too -- and spotted one difference very quickly. They charge admission for their convention -- $5 in advance, $10 at the door. The Democrats pass a can for donations, because it's not like we get the space for free, but we don't sell tickets. Anyway, their website gives no information on what they do at their convention but one of these years, I swear I will see if I can get permission to go observe one. Even if I have to pay $5 in advance, or $10 at the door.