Friday, January 4, 2008

Brief Thoughts on Iowa, as Interrupted by an Old Friend

Tacoma, WA -

In spite of a karmic effort to drink my Western Beer in a Western shirt with a Western hat at a Western bar, my Northeastern endorsement of Bill Richardson, America’s Western Governor, did nothing to help him win tonight’s Iowa caucus. Instead, it is Barack Obama who stretched his lead as the night went on from a near three-way tie to a 38-30-29 delegate victory over Edwards and Clinton. That last bit, at least, we may look favorably upon heading into New Hampshire. The real early state.

As if to validate the clear three-way race in Iowa, Sens. Dodd and Biden immediately dropped out tonight upon hearing the dreadful results. Dodd, you will recall, moved his entire family to Iowa three months ago in order to campaign full time. If he didn’t drop out I would have lost all respect for him. As for Biden, the Elite Media tried their darnedest to make their case for him in the days immediately preceding the caucus with fables of Romney-sized crowd events and surprises in store, but he blew out harder than a cold, dark prairie wind. What classic cases of “the second-tier candidate syndrome.”

Who among us does not like Dodd or Biden, I ask? Yet, so few would choose them as their President.

The Clinton beast is wounded, but far from mortally. This next week will tell if she can stop the bleeding, and how much damage the monster can inflict while self-medicating. New Hampshire is officially up for grabs. I know Clinton has led the polls all along, but I can tell you from experience that I saw a hell of a lot more bumper stickers and yard signs for Obama in the Granite state than I did for Hillary. And then you've got Edwards who won't even concede defeat. I'll see you on the 8th, and probably even before then.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am utterly fascinated by the poor reception of Biden and Dodd. In these days of chaotic world affairs, the voters did not care about Biden's forceful and thoughtful eloquence in foreign policy.

And in these times when immigration is a major issue and our image in the world is questioned, the populace shunned Dodd, a Peace Corps volunteer fluent in espanol.

Their main crime? Perhaps being from tiny, solid blue states. Perhaps no sex appeal from too many years in Congress. I doubt it was any of their policy stances.

In other news, how about NATO Supreme Allied Commander General Wes Clark creeping behind HRC's right shoulder in her press conference yesterday? Can you say Vice President?

And in what I see as a totally related item, how about Richardson advising his supporters at the caucuses to join the Obama camp as a second choice. Does he see Clark as HRC's VP choice and is now wu-ing Obama? I actually think Richardson looks very vicepresidential, sort of Gore-esque, if you will.

BTB said...

I've always wondered if home states actually made a difference, and in the past few years have begun to firmly believe that they did not. But after this who knows? I think it had more to do with a quarter century in the crusty ol' Senate, especially given how much we all hate the Congress these days.

Yeah, Clark and Albright and all the other Klinton Kronies up on stage legitimately disturbed me.

Very interesting point about the veepstakes. I always kind of thought Obama-Biden, but I think Joe would rather be SecState than VP. More action there.

I always wonder, though, if an Obama gets elected with an older VP, does the VP honestly hold hopes of running in 2016 at a ripe ol' McCain age? Methinks no.