MUDGE’S Musings
A news story that just won’t go away: Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee winning the Iowa caucuses; our post, including a distressingly poor quality but nevertheless inspiring video, is here.
The always refreshingly incisive Steve Chapman sheds some light:
Authenticity is the winner in Iowa test
Steve Chapman | January 6, 2008 | Chicago Tribune
Back in the 1990s, Bill Clinton talked a lot about building “a bridge to the 21st Century.” Right now, his wife looks like an unappealing detour back to the 20th.
Having him stand behind her as she addressed supporters after her third-place finish in Iowa didn’t help. She might as well have invited Fleetwood Mac to provide the music. Nostalgia isn’t everything.
The Iowa caucuses, it should be noted, are rarely as decisive as they may appear. Since 1976, only one candidate has won Iowa on the way to becoming president—George W. Bush in 2000. But if you can’t win the election in Iowa, you can certainly put yourself in a solid position to lose it, which is what Clinton and John Edwards accomplished Thursday evening.
The evening was full of surprises. I would not have guessed that Barack Obama would reprise a German slogan chanted upon the fall of the Berlin Wall: “We are one people.” But it was appropriate, since the polarization of the last 15 years has featured everything short of an Iron Curtain between the red states and the blue.
Regarding Huckabee, Chapman warns that a win for “an evangelical darling” in Iowa may not translate in the rest of the U.S.:
His victory was one for “none of the above.” Once voters get to know the newcomer better, he may look worse than the other options.
And as for Romney and Clinton, he believes that their smooth politician’s pandering became transparent to Iowa’s caucusers.
[Please click the link below for the complete article — but then please come on back!]
Authenticity is the winner in Iowa test — chicagotribune.com
Faithful reader should know by now what side of the political spectrum yr (justifiably) humble svt usually finds himself, not for nothing is this nanocorner of the ‘Sphere© is called Left-Handed Complement.
And readers of Steve Chapman, in the Tribune as well as Reason have every reason (as it were) to believe they know on which side of the aisle he feels most comfortable.
Yet, both of us are (perhaps unexpectedly, or in spite of our selves) impressed by Obama’s victory this past Thursday night.
The key question remains regarding every candidate: can s(he) govern?
This jury is still out. But, this endless presidential election campaign has certainly become a great deal more compelling.
And our increasing concerns about the dirtiest dirty tricks of all in American politics, outright election fraud, will become a great deal more compelling as Obama’s sizable contingent of young and minority voters find roadblocks to casting their ballots.
It’s it for now. Thanks,
–MUDGE
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Left-handed Complement 
Interesting that the only demographic group Clinton won was Women Over 60. This tells us two things: First, women over 60 voting for her are afraid they will die before there is a woman president in the White House. Second, the much larger group (everyone else) would rather die than see Hillary Clinton in the White House. On to New Hampshire. Steve Kirk writes Making Perfect Sense at http://www.theperfectsense.com.
“BUSH HAS TURN THE WHITE HOUSE INTO A DEN OF THIEVES”
President Bush, Vice President Cheney and their executioner Lieutenant Rove have disregarded the values so cherished by the Republican Party. Their ideology have been to channel millions of dollars to those party members who have pledged total absolute loyalty to the Bush administration. This includes creating/channeling campaign funds for their elections, making appointments of the undeserving and/or unqualified boot lickers to high Federal offices and awarding large military/government contracts to thousands of companies that are owned directly or indirectly by his supporters. Many of these contracting companies are sham organizations and/or have no accountability.
We in the “South Eastern States” have surely suffered the most from the presidency of Bush. We are facing a very serious dilemma; we have a new strain of government corruption that is immune to the antibodies of the justice system as defined by the constitution which incudes:
(a) Election fraud, The Bush’s/Cheney’s Staff (Rove) has classified information from Diebold Election Systems, Inc. of Allen, TX.) which was shared with Dan Gans of Riley’s staff. This included Diebold software code and registers addresses for each candidate along with passwords and a method of accessing the voting machines. This was used for vote stuffing in several counties in Alabama in 2002
(b) political favors for illegal campaign contributions (large oil companies, Tobacco Companies, Gambling Casinos, etc.),
( c) corrupt Bush appointed U.S Attorneys that spend millions of dollars profiling high ranking Democrats so that their offices can be freed up for a Bush operative and
(d) Bush appointed U.S. Judges that removes the threat of a political comeback by giving maximum sentences with appeal denials and highly restricted/screened prison correspondence
Thanks go to Steve Kirk and Taylor Hicks for their comments. –mudge
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