Well Iowa had its 15 minutes of fame that occurs every 4 years. Huckabee and Obama came out as big winners.
I guess I'm not all that suprised at who won...I'm even stoked for Obama. That Obama/Edwards 1-2 punch is a great win for the Democrats. Having Hillary in 3rd in Iowa is "a good thing". Personally, I'd LOVE to see an Obama/Edwards ticket. As Ian put it, it would take a 60% vote from the legislative end for Obama to actually accomplish any of the bullshit-liberal-economic-ideas-that-sound-pretty-but-are-disastrous-in-real-life ideas. So there's that. My big issue with him is that he wants to Federalize health care. How the fuck he arrived at that idea is beyond me. Yeah, lets have the same people who run the post office and immmigration run hospitals. Cos god knows the Post Office is a model of efficiency and responsible fiscal management. If the post office were a real company that to compete in a real marketplace, their arbitrary price changes etc would run them into the ground. I can see why joe-doesn't-know-any-better would tend to think that if the Federal Government incurs the costs, then it's 'not his problem', but there's a reason 75% of the doctors in Canada come to America to have any major surgeries.
I also don't agree with the idea that immediate withdraw from Iraq is a good idea. First of all, it's not fair to the Iraqi people. Think about it, we go in and screw up their country and any semblance of stability it had (Saddam was a "bad guy", but ya gotta admit, he DID manage to keep law and order) on false pretenses. How on earth can anybody think the "right thing to do" is leave all those people with the warzone we left their country in when it turned out our reasons for going there were wrong in the first place? I think we owe it to the Iraqi citizens to leave them with a safe environment where they can at least go to a cafe without fear of getting blown the fuck up. Don't get me wrong, an exit strategy makes sense, but it shouldn't be based on how quickly our troops can get out and let it be the Iraqi's problem...it should be how quickly/effectively we can clean up the mess we created in their house.
Huckabee is just plain scary. I didn't actually think people who think the earth is only 5,000 years old, that AIDS patients should be quarantined and convicted rapists should be released from prison because "they found christ" (only to go on to kill two more people) actually existed until this guy shuffled onto the scene. I'm not entirely suprised he won Iowa because he spent so much money there. I'm just glad he beat Romney cos well, Romney is a fucktard. I was definitely suprised to see Fred Thompson take 3rd place. Did he even campaign?
On Huckabee...if, on the off-chance he managed to get the GOP Nomination, he would be destroyed by whatever democrat is run up the flagpole. And when that day comes, when they release the audio of some of his sermons (southern baptists LOVE fire 'n brimstone), there'll be some interesting/humorous explanations coming from his camp.
Personally, I'm pulling for Guiliani or McCain (or a ticket of same against Obama/Edwards). It was good to see McCain take 4th...especially since he all but glossed over Iowa, as did Guiliani. It looks like McCain will in fact take New Hampshire and hopefully Huckabee's momentum is stilted.
But I guess @ the end of the day, Ian is probably right to say that the caucus campaigns don't really mean shit since all anybody is doing is trying to appeal to the hardcore right or left (who the fuck else goes to a caucus?).
Comments (5)
You'd be surprised. I thought the same thing, and then I realized, but then that just means that if only the hardcore right and hardcore left caucus, then in the general election I'm stuck with whoever the hardcore right and the hardcore left approve for me to choose from, and I'm sick of that. So I attended my first caucus last night, the Republican one in Waterloo, and did my little bit to help Thompson come in 3rd. It was pretty fun.
BTW Thompson didn't campaign the hardest (I'd have to say Ron Paul's campaign seemed the most aggressive in my locale), but he did make his second appearance in Waterloo and get some mailings out in the couple weeks before, so it wasn't like he was just sitting on his ass either.
I think a lot of people have gotten the same idea I related above, as I've been hearing a lot about the unusually large turnouts and the numbers of new Republican registrations. It was definitely apparent that they hadn't planned for anything like the turnout they got -- if they had, they'd have booked more locations and organized a bit better methinks -- and I was rather surprised at some of the people I know that I saw there who I'd never have expected (though perhaps Ron Paul's candidacy brought several of them in).
Posted by chuck | January 4, 2008 1:43 PM
Posted on January 4, 2008 13:43
Yeah I heard the same thing about Ron Paul from my parents in the Quad Cities (where Mitt Romney and him "personally" called every 7 minutes inviting them to the caucus).
Sam Buck was one of the non-traditional republicans out pulling for Ron Paul, so no doubt he had that effect elsewhere
I didn't mean to imply Thompson was sitting on his ass, I just figured he was pushing for more of the super Tuesday states like McCain and Guiliani are.
No doubt we'll lose a lot of people before the primary, but as close as the races are this year, I imagine we'll still have 3-4 candidates running, among which 1, maybe 2 I can stand.
Of course this is all a moot point because I live in Illinois and we will most definitely be a blue state, so I really should be looking at which democrat I wanna pull for :-)
Posted by Dave McAnally | January 4, 2008 1:57 PM
Posted on January 4, 2008 13:57
Dave, more often than not you and I don't exactly see eye to eye on politics, but I always read what you have to say, mainly because you are perhaps the must down to Earth and well read person I know in economics and politics and how those two things play together and for that my friend I really appreciate what you have to say. So I read this above and for once I'm in almost total agreement with you. There is no way Huckabee is going to get out of Iowa and there is no way he is going to make it to the White House. The dude just plain scares me. Romney is fucking creepy as hell. My wife says you can see the pits of Hades in his eyes. I'm not so sure about that but Romney is a fucktard. I'm digging McCain as far as Republicans go, he seems like a man of his word and honestly until a few years ago he seemed like a voice of reason in the republican party, then of course the Bush administration had a gag order placed on him and he fell in line with our current administration. I would easly vote for the old McCain. I'm also glad to see that Obama won. For me it really came down to Obama or Edwards. Fuck Hillary, I don't trust her at all and I really don't believe a word she says. I'm glad the Caucus turned out the way they did for the democrats last night, but you're right about Health Care. A federally run health care system would crush the United States, you think you have troubles now with insurance and HMO's you have no idea how fucked it will be with some government pencil pusher signing yes and no to what you can and can't have done (and believe me I speak from experience since I have a son with some serious health issues that we need to fight our insurance company about all the time to make sure he gets the care he needs). Fuck that noise. Health care needs to change, and I'm all for universal health care but it has to be done correctly and not destroy our already shakey balancing act of an economy.
And the war in Iraq. Fuck I don't even know what to say about that. Up until my cousin was wounded in Iraq I was all about bringing our troops home, which I still want our troops to come home as soon as possible but to hear my cousin speak about the good he believes he was doing in Iraq with conviction and tears in his eyes, it makes you wonder if an automatic withdrawl is the right thing to do. I don't know and I don't pretend to have all the answers, I'm just sick of reading in the paper every day of another young American being killed in Iraq for a war that was started under false information.
So once again dude, much praise for your well thought out opinions.
Posted by Microwaved | January 4, 2008 2:05 PM
Posted on January 4, 2008 14:05
Heh thanks man.
On Iraq...it's just a side of the coin the hardcore liberals ignore (who are supposed to be so compassionate are thinking about). Everyone who is so gung ho to get the troops home immediately are only thinking about what's good for America. What about all the Iraqi's who's lives are destroyed? I think its safe to say if we pull out, it'll become a power struggle and probably end up in some sort of Taliban-esque regime.
I know how you feel about your cousin. My brother has been over there twice now, one guy I know was killed there and I have a cousin set to deploy in April. It's easy to grandstand the thing when you aren't affected personally by it.
The other thing that irks me is the lack of history people associate with Iraq. I'm of the mind that Iraq is probably always going to have an American presence in some capacity. We still operate bases in Europe because of our involvement in WWII, we're still operating bases in Korea and those wars have been over for decades. I'd also say there's a pretty good argument to made that us having that presence has engendered quite a bit of economic benefits for the US and Korea/Europe. Not to say that negates all the people who died...but still. We get none of that if we just up and leave Iraq to go to hell.
And I'm with your wife on Romney's eyes ;-)
Posted by Dave McAnally | January 4, 2008 2:21 PM
Posted on January 4, 2008 14:21
what's up with people like Richardson, AND Kucinich? they have some funky Ideas, but I don't get why they're still in the race. they can't honestly believe that they have a chance. Richardson had what.. maybe 2% of the votes (and that's being generous. as for Kucinich.. he didn't even register in the final tally. why do they still run if the can't/won't win?
Posted by mike f. | January 7, 2008 9:54 AM
Posted on January 7, 2008 09:54