It's still going on (Sunday is platform day), but I'll give my impressions from my "local volunteer" participation yesterday at this weekend's "Europe, Middle East, Africa" (EMEA) Democrats Abroad Caucus in Brussels. The caucus was a little different from those that we've seen on TV, in that the task was not to vote directly for either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton by people-clumping in corners of the room. Rather, it was to choose delegates to go to Vancouver's Democrats Abroad Global Convention, and thence to Denver for the Democratic Party Convention. But voting there was, and (delegate) candidate speeches.
The one "voting with your feet" moment came early on, when people were asked to divide themselves into Obama and Clinton camps, to proceed with the voting process for delegates, based on February's Global Presidential Primary results. Out of the several hundred Democrats gathered in the hotel's ballroom, maybe three dozen got up and caucused in the Clinton room (they were treated to something the Obama people didn't hear, a presentation by Clinton supporter and former UN Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, who was in town for the Brussels Forum, a wonk talk-fest).
I missed Holbrooke's talk (apparently he said that whatever happened, party unity will be essential), but did listen to a few of the Clinton delegate hopefuls expound on their candidate. Unless I missed a ranter or two in my shuttling between Obama and Clinton supporters, none of the trash talk that Democrats are coming to associate with the primary campaign was evident among these overseas Democrats. Each camp seemed to observe their mothers' rules: "if you don't have anything good to say about someone... ."
The Clinton camp, perhaps because of its smaller numbers, were a generally disciplined, quiet group, but did present a rather white, older, uniformity. In contrast, the Obama camp was presented with a list of delegate-candidates that genuinely "looks like America," and would have no trouble ensuring gender, racial, age (there were student candidates, and those whose political activism started with the Adlai Stevenson campaign), and sexual orientation diversity.
The common denominator in the speeches was a passionately-held conviction that America needed to "repair, restore" itself after the deterioration on all fronts during the Bush years. Given their expatriate lifestyle, these overseas Democrats were more conscious than most of the need to revamp Brand America through actions, not just talk. Some, who might be characterized as more exile than expatriate, explained that the Obama campaign inspired them to get involved in resurrecting a country of which they had begun to despair.
My overall impression: the Democratic caucus process is messy, confusing, inefficient, but also scrupulously fair and inclusive. As Churchill said, "Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those others that have been tried."