I'm In Dallas. Conservatives are Voting in the Dem Primary.

During the WI primary, I heard John Nichols comment about Republicans voting in the Dem primary. He said something like "If the Packers aren't playing, we'll turn on the TV and find another match that's exciting." Turns out Texans are the same way.

McCain's basically got the Republican nomination wrapped up, and I came into the office this morning to hear a Texan conservative proclaim he was voting Obama and caucusing for Obama today. Not in November, he said, but he doesn't like Hillary. Just in case McCain loses overall, he'd rather have Obama win over Hillary.

That's one of the observations I've made here in Dallas. Read on for the other things I've seen...

Yesterday, I got into work and went over to chat with a coworker. He voted early last week. I think he voted for Obama but I'm not sure. He was going for Hillary but we talked for a bit and I showed him the Open Secrets website, where we compared where each candidate was getting his or her money from.

While we were hanging out (he makes me coffee - he's so nice!) a third coworker joined us. She said she was going to caucus for Obama on Tuesday and tonight she was going to a dress rehearsal caucus to learn what to expect and how to be a leader for Obama. He agreed to join her.

After work, I headed to yoga. To my great surprise, Hillary's Dallas Headquarters was my yoga studio! I walked in to a wall papered will Hillary posters and tons and tons of volunteers getting ready to attend precinct captain training for Hillary.

The demographics of the group varied. It included middle aged white people (as expected) but also a few African American women (young and old) and some younger people as well. I even ran into a fellow Kossack there :) During yoga I could hear some of the phone banking through the wall. Over and over I heard some guy going "Hi, my name is Josh..."

The Hillary voters told me they were for Hillary because she has the most experience, because it's time we have a woman in office, and because they think she's the most electable. One woman told me that Obama might be black but he's still a man. She told me she thinks women are strong and we'll only get a change with a woman.

Whether people are for Obama or Hillary, it seems like everyone I ask is voting... the girl who serves me breakfast at the hotel, my coworkers, the waitress at dinner yesterday... the only person I've met who said she might not vote is a friend I ate dinner with yesterday.

Last night after yoga, my friend and I ended up at an empty restaurant yesterday so we had the waitress join us to hang out while we ate. We got in a huge political debate with me taking a progressive populist approach to economic issues my friend playing devil's advocate just to be argumentative. She's not sold on either Obama or Hillary but admits she doesn't know much about either.

Our debate didn't center around candidates - it was about economic issues - but I think the waitress appreciated what I had to say. On our bill, she charged my friend for her meal and reduced mine dramatically.

Back in the office today, the girl who went to the Obama caucus practice told me she learned a bit but found the coordinator there to be too pushy... telling her to phone bank for Obama by cell phone from home, etc.

That's when I heard the conservative from a cube or so over bragging about caucusing for Obama. He said he's seen all of the candidates except Obama so far. Out of Huckabee, McCain, and Bill Clinton, he said that Bill was by far the best speaker. He said he makes every person in the room feel like he is speaking directly to them and looking them in the eye.

He may be a dyed in the wool conservative who still votes McCain in November but other righties I've met around here are talking a different talk. This morning, a few told me they were leaning left for health care alone. They have insurance and they have no bleeding heart for those that don't, but it's still come to a point they can't stand it. They are sick of insurance companies denying care, they said. Amen to that!

So that's the talk from Dallas. I can't get a sense from what I've seen here for who will win but it seems that the Hillary campaign is really working their butts off. I say that based on what I've seen outside of their campaign headquarters because of course everyone there was working hard. I've seen a lot of signs, stickers, and buttons for Hillary but few for Obama. I don't take it as a sign of reduced support for Obama, just more "ground game" on behalf of Hillary.

I've heard that 800,000 people voted early and another 800,000 are expected to vote today. I haven't heard anything about voting machine or ballot related shenanigans (yet). I've got no predictions at this point... I'm just trying to make the time pass until this evening when we hear the results. I'm also really proud of all of the Texans I've seen getting involved in the political process and paying attention!!!