As a recovering newspaper journalist, I’m caucusing tonight for the first time since curiosity in ’92 led me around the block to an across-the-alley neighbor’s living-room meeting.

(There was a bit of a row last week over the two competing daily papers’ restrictions here on staffers going to caucuses. The Rocky Mountain News described them as party organizing sessions and forbade all editorial staff from attending, while The Denver Post restricted most on the News side, discouraged the rest but said it couldn’t stop people. Gee, ain’t citizen participation grand?)

Anyway, interest in Clinton-Obama is so high that the Denver Dems are predicting HALF the city’s 95,000 or so registered Democrats will attend their caucuses, something absolutely unheard of. Forrest Whittaker came to town the other day to help Obama-ites practice how to run and participate in their caucuses — and yeah, to sign a few autographers.

The robo-calls from Obama (I’ve had a few the past week from both him and Hillary) list the starting time at 6:30 p.m. in anticipation of giant confuso-cluster-jams at the doors, since the caucuses close doors and start promptly at 7.

After today, both Senator Clinton’s and Obama’s realistic chances to win the nomination will STILL be alive, and this begins to raise the possibility of a really destructive primary battle…WJC has already shown his unflinching willingness to play that game…and indeed, 2008 is probably HRC’s only chance at the brass ring (especially if another Democrat wins the White House in 2008, tying up the D race for that place until 2016), whereas Obama almost certainly has at least one more major run at the White House in him, even if he has to wait all the way until 2016 and the end of a second HRC term in office.

Therefore, if it comes right down to a slash-and-burn fight to the finish, or a graceful exit, I think Obama is more likely to choose the latter, IF his trend-lines turn decidely south. But if Obama gets the upper-hand – meaning – a win in California and a win in New Jersey (regardless of the closeness of the delegate counts in these proportional contests), going forward from Tuesday – I think HRC/WJC might see NO real down-side to playing every last card they have….which could lead to a genuinely disappointing anti-climax to this otherwise uplifting exercise in democracy

Regarding Super Tuesday, this site offers an up-to-date buffet of polls (all ‘name-brand’ surveys) for every state

http://www.usaelectionpolls.com/2008/state-polls.html

which may not mean anything at all*, but which are fun to look at (like reading the National Enquirer headline while you’re in line at the supermarket)

So as the sun sets, my Tostito scoops and fresh-made guacamole and icy cold Diet Coke await

*the poll numbers vary so wildly – especially in California – as to make them all nothing more than talking points. One wonders when the big expose’ of how polling companies make their money will come out)

Party on, Wayne. Party on, Garth.

On another note. Have any of you been following the story of these massive undersea internet transmission lines that are getting cut in the Middle East? Odd. I am typically not a conspiracy guy, but something doesn’t smell right here. It is probably just a coincidence, but I was also thinking about the elections today and all of the hub-bub in recent years about the (in)security of electronic voting and it just briefly crossed my mind that what if the two things were related.

Not enough for a feature movie there, but maybe enough for part of a plot line on several episodes of 24.