A Clinton campaign volunteer I just talked to at the Hotel Fort Des Moines thinks Barack Obama won by cheating.

“Bill Clinton came in third his first round, so it’s nothing,” said Linda Dugan, a retired Des Moines resident. “She’s still in the ball game, and she’s ahead in the nation. And she’ll stay that way, as long as Obama doesn’t continue to cheat.”

I asked what she meant.

She said that in the precincts, people don’t have to show proof of where they’re from to caucus, and she thought that lots of people must have come in from out of state to caucus for Obama.

“They don’t have to prove that they live here when they sign in,” she said.

She suggested that Obama’s “persuaders” – the people responsible for poaching supporters of non-viable candidates at the caucuses – were campaign plants. “Their persuaders were official staffers, and they’re not supposed to be,” she said.

Why did she think that?

“Because they came on gangbusters and knew all their facts, and with normal people you just don’t get that,” she said.