It’s immensely entertaining to watch the media froth over Iowa — or, at the very least, listen to half the pundits grumble that such a small state and oddball primary (caucus) system has such a large effect on the elections (read: “We can’t proclaim the outcome in advance”), while the other half point fingers at the first half and laugh.<\/p>\n
Well, I’m mildly annoyed that Iowa (and New Hampshire, and even South Carolina) will largely decide (one would guess) who ends up running next November. But I’m greatly pleased that it’s still too close a race to call for either party. Perhaps a wake-up call that the electorate is getting tired of politics as usual.<\/p>\n
On the Democrat side, Iowa is more or less a dead heat for Clinton<\/strong>, Obama<\/strong>, and Edwards <\/strong>(depending on which poll you read). I have problems with each of the candidates on a meta level — Clinton’s too political, Obama’s too inexperienced, Edwards (who was the “inexperienced” one last time) is too implausibly populist. On the other hand (and the flip side of the above), Clinton has the background and connections, Obama brings a fresh and inspiring outlook, and Edwards has some valuable things to say about the “two Americas.” I’m probably leaning toward Clinton more as the least “challenging” candidate, but I’ll be the first to admit that might not be the best basis for such a selection. <\/p>\n And I’d choose each of them over the flock of remaining GOP competitors — Mitt “I changed my mind about almost everything, please don’t reject me for my good looks” Romney<\/strong>, Mike “Taking the country back for Christ” Huckabee<\/strong>, Rudy “Pay no attention to my personal life, just trust me to be the progressive leader who SAVED NEW YORK ON 9\/11” Giuliani<\/strong>, or John “Hey, I mastered brown-nosing the conservative right long before Mitt” McCain<\/strong>. All of them have something good to offer, but are overwelmed by the negatives that (to my eye) they’ve accrued in the primary process.<\/p>\n What will Iowa think? Or New Hampshire? Or even (depending on whether those states don’t decide things for us) South Carolina? Who knows? And that’s makes this all a lot more interesting than it has been for quite some time.<\/p>\n I look forward to seeing it — and seeing the election move into its “real” phase.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s immensely entertaining to watch the media froth over Iowa — or, at the very least, listen to half the pundits grumble that such a small state and oddball primary…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elections-2008"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":129638,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/02\/yes-i-am-so-glad-that-ted-cruz-won-in-iowa-or-not.html","url_meta":{"origin":11911,"position":0},"title":"Yes, I am SO glad that Ted Cruz won in Iowa. Or not","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 2-Feb-16 11:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Because clearly Donald Trump doesn't adequately serve the Zany Right wing of Christianity.I suspect I'm going to use this C. S. Lewis quote [http:\/\/wist.info\/lewis-cs\/2455\/] a lot this election season, especially while we're dealing with a Trump v Cruz race:'Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":129626,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/01\/for-everyone-squeeing-over-the-iowa-caucuses-for-whatever-reason.html","url_meta":{"origin":11911,"position":1},"title":"For everyone squeeing over the Iowa caucuses (for whatever reason)","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 1-Feb-16 11:28pm","format":false,"excerpt":"They're rubbish. They are an artificial horse race on an abnormal track with strange rules, and the only reason anyone pays attention to them is that the media lurves reporting (breathlessley) on horse races, especially the first one.The only people who the race actually had a concrete impact on were\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/3626269742_03c03f6466_b5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/3626269742_03c03f6466_b5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/3626269742_03c03f6466_b5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":43089,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/17\/the-next-senator-from-the-great-state-of-iowa.html","url_meta":{"origin":11911,"position":2},"title":"The next Senator from the Great State of Iowa?","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 17-Jun-14 8:40am","format":false,"excerpt":"Personally, I think she's angling for a VP nomination. I mean, she has the Palin hokey-folks delivery and policy idiocy down pat.She currently holds a slight lead over her Democratic contender.\ufeff Embedded Link Iowa Senate Candidate Joni Ernst Will Castrate UN\u2019s Evil \u2018Agenda 21\u2032 Plot To Make You Ride A\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7061,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/11\/04\/by_the_numbers.html","url_meta":{"origin":11911,"position":3},"title":"By the numbers","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 4-Nov-04 9:31am","format":false,"excerpt":"Some interesting stats on the Election Season, via the NYT. A few fun excerpts: The money race was fueled by changes in the campaign financing law that allowed individuals to...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2004"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2004","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2004"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25072,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/01\/04\/rick-perry-lost-because-of-vast-democrat-conspiracy.html","url_meta":{"origin":11911,"position":4},"title":"Rick Perry Lost Because of Vast Democrat Conspiracy!","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 4-Jan-12 2:51pm","format":false,"excerpt":"It's true! Iowa Democrats were so utterly terrified of Rick Perry winning the presidential election, that they invaded the GOP caucuses in Iowa and voted for liberals like Romney and Santorum and Paul and Gingrich in such incredible numbers that they drowned out all the True Republicans(TM) who were lined\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25323,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/01\/12\/ron-paul-and-the-gop-youth-vote.html","url_meta":{"origin":11911,"position":5},"title":"Ron Paul and the GOP youth vote","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 12-Jan-12 11:15am","format":false,"excerpt":"Paul reeled in almost half of the 18-29 age cohort in the New Hampshire GOP primaries. He apparently scored very well with younger participants in Iowa, too. In a GOP desperate to attract young voters (the mean age of registered Republicans is climbing faster than the mean age of Americans\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11911\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}