The Iowa Triumvirate?

The Iowa Triumvirate?...

We were thinking about the possibility of a virtual three-way tie coming out of the Iowa caucus, particularly on the democratic side. We're thinking Obama will get the youth and/or student vote, mainly. He might also get the votes of those Caucasians (a little irony, here) that want to vote for a diversity candidate. We think these numbers of votes will be roughly equal to those garnered by John Edwards and Hilary.

Personally, we like Edwards and his strong ethos towards/against corporate America. We were thinking he will get the labor and unemployed and buyout voters to take up his side. We would like to see an Edwards presidency, but the Iowa caucus will be so close (we think) that this is going to be a tough race for him or anybody.

We mention Hilary last, because we believe she will get most of the die-hard Democratic party vote and the Clinton lovers' votes. We expect this to be about equal to the numbers that the other two major candidates (above) will score. She may come out ahead by a fraction of a percent, but it will be no clear victory. However, the Clinton camp will probably declare it a clear victory if it does happen (and probably will) and a win for America, too.

The other Democratic candidates will either die a miserable political death, or just tough it out and keep on going. We expect Kucinich to tough it out for as long as he can. Which is OK with us, we like him, too.

The truth of it is, we think it very likely that there won't be a clear political victory in Iowa. We're looking all the way to the Democratic Party Candidate Nomination - that's how tight we think this race will be.

The other side (GOP) is shaping up like a ugly barroom brawl. Huckabee and Romney have spilled political blood like its water. We can't predict if either will come out ahead. There's just too much mud on the windshield. Well, if you can't see them, you can't vote for them, can you? This leaves the door ajar for McCain and Ron Paul. McCain is rising in the polls and Ron Paul's supporters are truly inspired (we find political leaflets from is supporters cleverly displayed in restrooms). Both are colorful, seasoned and inspired politicians. We take particular interest in their stands on the issues. It is just possible that McCain and/or Paul could walk away victorious in Iowa.

We do have some "family ties" to Mr. McCain and are deeply sympathetic to him and like him a lot. Supposedly, one of our granduncles served under his father on the USS Missouri and witnessed the signing of the treaty.

Link to Iowa Poll graphic from BBC here.

Hilary Gets Ripped A New One, Dick Cheney & Barack Obama - Related???

Clinton blasted over 'hippie museum'

Cheney, Obama 'distant cousins'

Mich. lawmaker: Let turtles be roadkill

Indeed, politics does make for strange bedfellows.

The Shadow, The Passion and The Fury

The Shadow, The Passion and The Fury...

Is the title for this post, because we thought it described two or three of the major themes from last night's Democratic Presidential Forum sponsored by the AFL-CIO. Our apologies in advance if any feel that this title is plagiarized.



We plugged into this event expecting to be bored to tears, eyes glazed, benumbed by political rhetoric and surrounded by substance over style. We were right on the last part. It was high political entertainment and grandstanding of the old time politics. We were reminded of Barry Goldwater, Hubert Horatio Humphrey and Mario Cuomo. It was almost a nostalgic time.



Instead, we got a fiery John Edwards (who almost told Keith to shut up a couple of times), a tempestuous Hilary Clinton and a conquering-heroic Dennis Kucinich. God, we loved Kucinich...he got cheers almost every time and he lit up the stage. Somewhat less incandescent (in order) were Edwards, Hilary and Barack. The others were hardly worth mentioning. Except for the even-handed Keith Olbermann (as moderator) who represented fairness and calmness above all without displaying hardly any sweat on his brow or his usual smarmy-good humor wit. It was bread and circuses, without the Romans (except for the almost victorious-like, caesaresque Kucinich).



Pathos, in the form of the AFL-CIO membership presenting their questions (keeping the truth in the forum part of the political debate) brought the audience to near-tears and near-bawling. Especially, the gentleman who had been disabled whilst working for LTV Steel, lost one-third of his pension after they went bankrupt, and choked up when he bewailed how he cannot afford health insurance for his wife of 36 years. We then witnessed him (from the back) using his two braces and false-limb legs to lower himself back to his seat. You could hear the collective heart of the crowd breaking in the background. In this respect, the AFL-CIO membership provided great political theater. And it was all real.



Here was the fury, the fury and passion one feels when faced with such overwhelming political and economic circumstances. Here was the fury, when one feels overly-betrayed by the corporations and business ethics and marketplace that has become/is the world.



John Edwards' passionate response to this poor gentleman's troubles gave us some inspiration and hope that most of these Democratic contenders were well-meaning, full of the fury and the passion, but short on the substance and philosophy. We felt this was mostly true of the other contenders. But passion and exuberance were not in short supply that last night.



When pushed almost into a corner by his fellows over his comments to consider invading the Afghanistan/Pakistan hinterlands,we were almost as shocked as Barack. We thought the hounds had been loosed on him and he had to do some baracking up. (See the Anti-Zen Dictionary for this entry). Indeed, Mr. Obama may indeed have picked just the right venue for the war on terror. It seems to us, where else could Osama and his henchmen be hiding? Yes, right there. Just a few border-hops away from Iraq (not to mention Iran).



It would be so ironic if a terrorist named Osama is eventually put out of business by a President named Obama. It seems to us almost fated. Even though he was roughly put into defensive mode by these men and women, he may have revealed himself as the true king-in-disguise amongst these kings-and-queens-in-disguise. By which we mean, any one of them (Dennis, John, Barack or - yes even Hilary) would be just as competent and effective a supreme leader.



Noteworthy was Hilary's persistent attacks-in-response to the Bush administration and the failure of the war-on-terror-strategy. She could have pushed this hot-button too many times - but nobody noticed that.



Lastly, a comment from Barack responding to the question about the almost half-a-billion dollars spent renovating Soldier Field. We think his response to this should have been how the money should have been spent on health and human services for some of the poverty-stricken environs near there. Don't think so? Then take the Number 28 bus from downtown Chicago to the south side and watch the neighborhoods change.



(P.S.: A clever little retort from Dennis on that one. That we, the nation, should buy the teams and make money from that! Talk about nationalization! We looked over our shoulders to see if Hugo Chavez was around).