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Although the mainstream media is purveying the message that Sen. Barack Obama's campaign suffered a stinging defeat in the Texas primary, it appears that he was, in fact, the victor there. -- The Morning News (Springdale, Arkansas) reported Friday that Obama appears to have won between three and six delegates from Texas more than Sen. Hillary Clinton.[1] -- Hillary Clinton's only path to winning the Democratic nomination, it now appears, is to "disenfranchise black people" through victories in do-overs in Florida and Michigan and super delegates, John Brummett wrote. -- The Houston Chronicle also reported that Obama was ahead: "If projections hold, the two candidates, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, appeared roughly even in delegates — 107 for her, 108 for him. Thirteen superdelegates are uncommitted."[2] -- The Associated Press explained that the reason for the slowness with which results are being determined is due to the fact that "The 8,247 precinct officials are required only to mail the results of their caucuses to their county party chairmen 72 hours after the primary election day. County chairmen don't have to reveal those results until county or state Senate district conventions March 29."[3] -- The Houston Chronicle reported on the controversy over whether the caucuses were "democratic" or not.[4] -- An Obama supporter found the caucuses energizing, saying "This is democracy in action," Dale Lezon and Mike Tolson reported, and said that "most shared his enthusiasm for Tuesday's primary." -- The debate turns on the extent to which observers regard actual participation as crucial to effective democracy. -- It is more difficult for caucus elections to be dominated by the power of money. -- "One of those who helped revise the primary rules in the 1970s, Carrin Patman, argues that the unusual hybrid system forces candidates to organize on a grass-roots level to get maximum return," Lezon and Tolson wrote. -- "One odd side effect is that a candidate, in theory, could narrowly claim the popular vote and get fewer delegates. -- 'It's testing the candidates in a different way, and it helps to fire up the local activists,' Patman said. 'I think there's some value to a mixed system. Primaries are too often dominated by people who shouldn't dominate them — press and public relations people. Even the candidates themselves often seek to stack the deck in whatever way they can. This is a way of moving away from that.'" -- And it appears that problems in the Texas caucuses may have been greatly exaggerated. -- A report on Friday posted on the Washington Post's web site, The Trail, for example, refuted a report of Obama supporters manipulating of the Texas caucuses that came from the Clinton campaign, whose war-room techniques are now in full attack mode.[5] -- Barack Obama, meanwhile, resumed his winning ways in Wyoming on Mar. 8, as Truthout projected him the winner of caucuses held there Saturday by a 59%-40% margin....

You may have received incorrect information about what happened in the Democratic presidential race the other night. There is the widespread impression that Hillary Clinton won Texas.

I'll explain in a minute, but first, the larger picture: After all is said and done, it appears that Hillary will have gained maybe a half-dozen or so delegates nationally Tuesday night.

It appears that she remains behind Obama somewhere between 140 and 150 in earned delegates. And now she doesn't have so many big friendly states in which to make up that ground.

Her only hope is to make such a splash with a big win in Pennsylvania, and big wins in do-overs in Florida and Michigan, that the super delegates will go for her. They would catapult her past Obama's lead in delegates won via the voters -- meaning, you know, the democratic way.

In other words, the white bosses would have kept down the black people again. It's not at all clear that the Democratic Party wants to do that -- disenfranchise black people, I mean.

It is true that Hillary won three of the four primaries Tuesday, including the one in Texas. It is true that she has momentum. It is true that she has picked up her fundraising.

You have to give her credit. Like the monster in a horror movie, she only looked dead. It's the classic movie scene: Obama drew a breath of relief, but, then, the sudden blare of ominous music portended that Hillary had risen to loom behind him -- like Glenn Close in "Fatal Attraction," kind of, only without the knife and the boiled pet rabbit and the extramarital sex.

First, the over-all statewide vote in the primary, which she took by 51-48, meant nothing. It was as irrelevant as the nationwide vote in a presidential race -- the one Al Gore won.

Delegates were apportioned according to margins in state senate districts. And some of these state senatorial districts had more delegates than others, on account of their having had more democratic votes cast in them in recent elections.

Hillary appears from that primary to have copped four more Texas delegates than Obama.

The other third of the delegates come from the caucuses that took place immediately after the polls closed. Apparently these were wild affairs. Hillary's campaign says the Obama people cheated by locking out Hillary supporters or absconding with the official records or other devious means. Obama's people say Hillary's people are sore losers.

It's obvious by now that Obama voters are either more fervent or possessed of more gumption, because they keep winning caucuses.

At this writing, not all the Texas caucuses had been accounted for. Some of the record-keepers apparently went home with the official ledgers.

Anyway, the point of the caucuses was to elect delegates to a next step, which are conventions at the end of this month. We may not fully know how the caucuses came out until delegates get seated at those conventions.

But this we do know: With about half the caucuses counted, Obama appeared to have picked up seven delegates, erasing his four-delegate deficit from the primary. That moved him ahead of Hillary in Texas by three delegates. If the trend generally holds for the other half of the caucuses, he'll move up three more delegates, putting him up on her in Texas by six.

--John Brummett has been writing about Arkansas and national politics for three decades and as a regular columnist since 1986. Last year he won first place in commentary writing from the national Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors. This year he took second place in humorous commentary in an 11-state Southern competition sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists. Email Brummett at jbrummett@arkansasnews.com. Check out Brummett's blog for the latest in Arkansas political news.

AUSTIN -- Responding to pressure, the chairman of the Texas Democratic Party on Friday called for simplifying the state party's confusing primary-caucus system after long lines and chaos plagued many local caucuses on election night.

Chairman Boyd Richie joined other key party party leaders in calling for changes to the hybrid system, nicknamed the "Texas two-step."

A record 2.8 million voters turned out to cast ballots in the Texas Democratic primary, and large numbers of them returned to their precincts to cast yet a second vote at evening caucuses in the contentious bid to select the nation's next Democratic presidential nominee.

Acknowledging some of the problems, Richie said in a news release: "I believe changes in party rules should be made (in order to) welcome newcomers to our Party and encourage them to stay involved by making their participation as meaningful and convenient as possible."

He did not respond to a request for an interview left with the party's spokesman.

So far, only 41 percent of the precincts have reported the results of the caucus voting to state party headquarters. The slow tally in Texas has complicated efforts to determine the national delegate count.

Party spokesman Hector Nieto said Friday the party is under no obligation to count the votes from the caucuses, though elections officials had attempted to do so earlier this week.

Nieto said the state party will not continue to count the caucus votes. The precinct chairs are responsible for that and they report their totals to the county chairs, he said.

The delegates chosen by each precinct won't be certified until the county conventions later this month, Nieto said.

If projections hold, the two candidates, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, appeared roughly even in delegates -- 107 for her, 108 for him. Thirteen superdelegates are uncommitted.

Chaos reigned at many precinct caucuses Tuesday night. Local party officials in some places were overwhelmed by the record-setting turnout. In other places, precinct chairs were unfamiliar with caucus rules. And in some cases, disruptions were caused by overzealous activists.

Democratic caucuses are held in about a dozen states; the rest have primaries, said Ed Martin, a longtime Democratic strategist. The Texas Democratic Party's hybrid system was adopted by party activists in 1988 at the state Democratic Convention, Martin said.

Earlier this week, Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-Mission, and Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, said they would seek to replace the complicated hybrid system with a simple primary at the party's county conventions in late March.

Turner said he dropped in on eight precincts in his district on election night and saw chaos.

"People were asking, 'Why are you making it so hard?' There were teachers and parents who said: 'We have to leave. We have to get up early. We have to administer the (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) test.' Some had been waiting for three hours or more," Turner said.

AUSTIN, Texas -- Fewer than half of Texas' voting sites had reported the results by Thursday from Democratic caucuses Tuesday night that were so chaotic and overcrowded by record turnout that police were called to some polling places.

So there's no winner yet for the caucuses, the second stage of the state's Democratic primary, which allocates 67 delegates to the national convention this summer.

As of Thursday afternoon, Sen. Barack Obama was ahead with 56 percent to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's 44 percent based on reports to state party headquarters by 41 percent of the precinct caucuses. Clinton beat Obama in the first step of Texas' contest, a standard state-run primary. Her 51 percent of the vote, compared to his 47 percent, earned her 65 delegates to his 61 delegates.

One reason for the slow caucus count is that phoning in the results to state party officials is voluntary.

The 8,247 precinct officials are required only to mail the results of their caucuses to their county party chairmen 72 hours after the primary election day. County chairmen don't have to reveal those results until county or state Senate district conventions March 29.

"We've gotten a lot of results back, but it's important to remember Texas is a large state, and this is a voluntary call-in system," said party spokesman Hector Nieto.

But reporting results was only part of the problem with Texas' twenty-year-old, two-stage system in which a standard state-run primary is followed on the Democratic side by party-run caucuses held at the same voting sites but until 15 minutes after all primary voting ends.

The primary-caucus system, nicknamed the "Texas Two-step," has never been tested like it was this week, said Gerry Birnberg, Democratic chairman in Harris County, where Houston is located.

Four days before election day, Texas officials predicted a record 3.3 million would participate. But when Tuesday's voting was over, Texans had set an even higher record: 4.2 million, a third of the state's registered voters, participated in the Democratic and Republican primaries.

Even though 1.84 million took advantage of a 10-day early voting period to cast ballots before Tuesday, there were still so many voting Tuesday that they produced long lines outside polling places.

At one Houston high school, people were waiting to vote in the first-stage primary past midnight. The Democratic caucus couldn't start until after they finished that voting.

A combination of events as rare as Halley's comet produced the turnout, Birnberg said: Primaries open to voters of any party, a virtually concluded Republican race, and the excitement of the close and historic Obama-Clinton contest.

When the caucuses finally began, rooms at schools and other polling places were too small for some. Some caucuses ran short of sign-in sheets.

Tempers flared among emotional supporters of Clinton and Obama. Birnberg said Houston police were dispatched to a half-dozen locations to keep matters under control.

"Someone walking into a room with a blue uniform on has a very calming effect," he said.

State Rep. Sylvester Turner, a Houston Democrat, said he finally got a janitor at Smith Academy in northwest Houston to open up some classrooms so the caucus would have a meeting place. Turner also said few people seemed to understand the caucus process.

At one Dallas area location, Democrats were told they had to convene in the parking lot because Republicans were holding a meeting inside.

Democratic caucus-goers had to organize in the parking lot of a Baptist Church in Austin because the crowd was so large.

At a San Antonio caucus, 78-year-old retired school teacher Marianne Rickabaugh, who voted for Obama, had to wait for two hours after the polls were supposed to close for her caucus to begin because it took that long for all the primary voters in line at closing to finish voting.

She said she thought she could just sign in and leave the caucus, but was told she needed to stay. She sat on uncomfortable gym benches and waited.

"It was just crazy," she said. "There was a lot of nasty tension. I didn't like it at all."

A similar problem of unanticipated crowds overwhelmed the Democratic caucuses in much smaller New Mexico last month. New Mexico's caucuses -- really a party-run "firehouse" primary with fewer polling places and shorter hours than a state-run primary -- were held Feb. 5, but weren't decided until Feb. 14.

Moments after Precinct 123 had finished its convention, with participants huddled in the chilly darkness outside a polling place too small to accommodate them, Greg Turetzky was all but consumed by the thrill of joining in politics at the most basic level.

"This is the most exciting election in years, and I love it," said Turetzky, an admitted political junkie and a Barack Obama supporter who fulfilled a goal of becoming a delegate to the next convention in a few weeks. "This is democracy in action. Democracy rocks!"

Though most shared his enthusiasm for Tuesday's primary, not everyone appreciated the cumbersome, so-called Texas two-step. At larger precincts, people had to wait for hours for voting to be over and then hours more to complete the convention. Some precincts ran out of preference sign-in sheets. Others had no one present who really knew the rules.

State Rep. Sylvester Turner, who spent the night at two polling places comprising eight precincts in his district, saw so much anger and frustration that he is calling for the elimination of the caucusing element of the precinct convention.

"It's time to end the Texas two-step -- the music is over," the Houston Democrat said. "Is it necessary to the democratic process, or to the candidates themselves, for these people to have to come back later in the evening after they have voted? If we are not careful, we work to disenfranchise them. For people who have to work or who have children, they cannot afford to stay. What do you say to them?"

The Democratic Party says sorry, but that's the cost of getting people involved in participatory democracy -- with an emphasis on participation.

"The system was put into place to encourage participation and to be a part of the (political) process," said Hector Nieto, spokesman for the Texas Democratic Party. "That's what happened (Tuesday). If the current trend continues, we'll see that more than 1 million people went to the caucuses."

Inevitably there were problems, Nieto said. With such an unprecedented level of participation, there was no way to avoid them. But he said the primary hot line at the Austin headquarters has not received any major complaints, and so far no formal challenges have been filed from the Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton campaigns. Results of the caucuses, which will determine how 67 Texas delegates will be awarded, are still being tabulated.

The compensation for the caucus rigmarole, Nieto added, is an energized voting base that could put Texas into play in the fall presidential election and, in any case, may help Democrats down the ballot.

One of those who helped revise the primary rules in the 1970s, Carrin Patman, argues that the unusual hybrid system forces candidates to organize on a grass-roots level to get maximum return. One odd side effect is that a candidate, in theory, could narrowly claim the popular vote and get fewer delegates.

"It's testing the candidates in a different way, and it helps to fire up the local activists," Patman said. "I think there's some value to a mixed system. Primaries are too often dominated by people who shouldn't dominate them -- press and public relations people. Even the candidates themselves often seek to stack the deck in whatever way they can. This is a way of moving away from that."

Across Harris County's 874 Democratic precincts, many of the volunteers and local election officials praised the current convention system as the core of democracy. It was chaotic at some locations, they acknowledged, but voters did more than cast ballots for their candidates. They became involved on a grass-roots level.

"This is the thing you dream about happening: people getting passionate," said Bill Scruggs, chair of Precinct 6. "If you don't have those conventions, you don't have a democratic party."

Moin Pirzada, Precinct 8 chair, said more planning was needed for Tuesday's turnout. He said he went to several training seminars provided by the Democratic Party, but still was not as prepared as he could have been for his first caucus as a precinct chair.

Judith Gatchell, Precinct 559 chair and the precinct's election judge for Tuesday's primary, would prefer to just do away with the process.

"People have lives, and the only way to make the division of our delegates fair for them to be the voice of us, the little people, it must be equal for everybody," she said. "And it's not equal when whoever has the time or money can go back (after voting in the primary) and caucus."

Which is Turner's point exactly. Many people returned to their precincts, not to be more engaged in the political process, but to protect the integrity of their vote, he said.

Turner said he will introduce a resolution to end the two-part system at his senatorial district convention this month.

"The system we put into place should honor the idea of one person, one vote," Turner said. "Should we impose artificial hurdles for these delegates to be chosen? I think not."

As crowds swelled and tempers flared during the caucus-portion of the Texas primary earlier this week, aides to Hillary Clinton's campaign sent out an alert to reporters: "Emergency Press Call to Discuss Caucus Intimidation and Irregularities in TX."

The reports of intimidation were coming from eye witnesses, including a phone call that Clinton's lawyers received from Carolyn Arambula, an advocate for injured workers in San Antonio. Arambula said she had spotted an Obama operative collecting signatures on a caucus sign-in sheet early in the day on March 4. If true, this would be a serious violation. The sheets were only supposed to distributed and signed that night, at the caucus event. The sign-up sheets would be proof that the voter physically attended the caucus to support a candidate.

Now, one of those accused of "an irregularity" has stepped forward. Will Smith, a Washington, D.C. resident, says he was the man in Texas who faced Arambula's accusations and wants to tell his side of the story.

Here's how Arambula described the incident: "He had a clipboard in his hand. I recognized the form as the one you would fill out for the caucus meeting," Arambula said. "I thought, 'My God, have you had people fill this out?'" After leveling the accusation, she said the two exchanged tense words outside Rudder Middle School, where voting was occurring.

Smith's response: "I want to state that this claim is without merit. The apparent reason for this allegation was that the fact that I held a clipboard. It was not used to sign up caucus participants but rather to secure literature describing the caucus process. The rules permitted distribution of this kind of literature."

Smith said he traveled to San Antonio in part because he supports what he described as "Senator Obama's call for a new type of politics based on civility and compromise rather than constant bickering."

"Unfortunately perpetuating misimpressions about days like Tuesday, makes political cooperation based upon civility and mutual respect very hard to realize," Smith said.

With 78 percent of the vote counted, Sen. Barack Obama holds a 59 percent to 40 percent lead over Sen. Hillary Clinton. Truthout is prepared to call the state for Barack Obama. The statewide results don't include the largest caucus in the state. 1,532 voters attended a caucus in Cheyenne. Obama got 944 votes to Clinton's 588. The results were just called in. Those results in addition to the statewide numbers are enough for us to project that Obama will win the state.