Special election night coverage on Eric Three Thousand!
What an exciting primary! I was getting depressed that four people in Iowa were going to decide the Democratic candidate and that we could be stuck with a Republican candidate who would be just as big an asshole as we have right now.
But then everything changed! The polls were completely wrong and Clinton is back in the race and McCain, who I had completely forgotten about, is back in it, too! I can barely believe it!
As I've pointed out in the past, I think Obama would make an excellent president and I will happily vote for him if he wins the nomination. But I prefer Clinton and I at least wanted the chance to vote for her next month.
I was especially annoyed by what happened after the Iowa caucuses. Iowa voters deserve their say just like the rest of the country and I kind of like their method of picking a candidate; it's basically an instant runoff election, with voters getting to pick their first, and possibly second, choice. But when it comes down to it, they make up a tiny fraction of voters but when someone wins there it has a completely disproportionate effect on the rest of the country. This is not Iowa's fault; it's the fault of the rest of the country for reacting irrationally to the Iowa caucuses.
I was also annoyed by comments by Obama and Edwards. I completely understand that we get a lot of rhetoric and posturing in a political campaign but I find a difference between rhetoric and false statements. Campaigning this last week, Clinton made a statement about how Obama talks a lot about hope but that she was the candidate who could truly get things done. Now, obviously Obama is going to disagree with that and you or I might argue with it as well. But I think it was a perfectly reasonable claim for her to make. Obama responded by telling us Clinton is saying hope is dead. That's a pretty outrageous misstatement. I was also annoyed with Edwards for suggesting that Clinton should drop out of the race because she came in third in Iowa (meanwhile, he just barely beat her in Iowa and now that he lost spectacularly in New Hampshire he is not dropping out of the race).
Quickly let me just mention my thoughts on McCain being back in the Republican race. I like McCain. I don't like his support of the war and he really pissed me off with his completely disingenuous support of Bush in the last election but I still think he is a good guy. He is not arrogant, he is a social moderate, and he usually seems genuinely interested in working with people to find reasonable compromises. He may not be the best option to end the war in Iraq but his foreign policy would be immensely better than our current administration's. He is so much better than the religious extremists against whom he's running that I'm relieved to have him back in the race.
If you are a Democrat you may not think it's a good thing to have a good Republican candidate but don't be comforted by the idea of running against the worst, weakest candidate possible. Al Gore ran against the worst, weakest candidate the Republicans could have possibly found and many Democrats were thrilled because there was no way such an idiot could win. Well, we shouldn't hope for that to happen again. I'd rather have McCain than the other Republican candidates.
Anyway, I'm just excited that Clinton is back in the race. I'm still planning to vote for her. But I'm impressed with Obama; I think he is really good with independents and with bringing in young voters. I would love to see him at the bottom of a Clinton ticket and I would love for him to go from vice president to president nine years from now, when he'll have a little more experience.
Seacrest out.
i was delighted with the results last night, after having been depressed about the prospects all day.
ReplyDeletei despise the fact of two states seemingly being the ones to pick our candidate. but in this case, no, and thank goodness.
i despise, too, the venomous, vicious, biting hatred expressed toward hillary clinton by the left, the right, the media, fucking everyone.
it is beginning to really, really, really piss me off. and i'm an edwards fan right now, though it's likely hopeless. i tossed him some $$ last night in an effort to keep him going. the race is better for having three viable frontrunner democratic candidates in it.
if you watched the rethug and dem debates over the weekend, the difference between the two candidate pools is stunning. i hope, hope, hope that this is the year the regular joes who have joined up with the rethug party realize they are voting against their self interest every single time they vote for one of those maniacs.
i am sick, too, of clinton's moment of expressing emotion monday evening being referred to as crying. she was hardly crying, and if you watch the clip, it affirmed what i believe about her: that she honestly wants to do this for the country, that she believes she is the best person for it for a variety reasons, and that she will fight for us ~ the regular folks. that's not arrogance, in my opinion, it's fact.
i have some fear about her electability because of the unbelievable level of clinton hatred in this country. i simply do not understand it. he didn't do everything right and he got a blowjob, but what's happening in this campaign is absolutely stunning.
to think that the media that is ripping hillary clinton limb from limb is the same one that's given a free pass to george bush, who has wrecked the constitution, moved us into a dangerously isolated position in the world, has sacrificed thousands of american lives and hundreds of thousands of iraqi lives on the alter of his ego and big business ~ it is revolting, sickening, shameful.
Yeah, I really don't get the Hillary hatred either. Although I think most people who hate her hate both Clintons. And the fact that so many people hate Bill doesn't seem to have an effect on his amazing popularity. So I'm not sure a vocal minority of Hillary haters would mean she is unelectable.
ReplyDeleteHear hear!!! Excellent points. What I liked is that they said Clinton got a lot of the 60+ women's votes. Not a demographic that anyone targets when campaigning, simply because those women don't usually go out to vote. I would love to see her win by pulling all those "minorities" that the rest of the candidates can't be bothered with.
ReplyDeleteUhmmm Eric?
ReplyDeleteWho are these "religious extremists" against whom McCain is competing?
Uhmmm Aimee?
Women 60+ have some of the highest rates of voter participation among distinct demographic groups. Been that way for a while. They aren't specifically targeted that much BECAUSE they're likely to vote regardless.
Obama's campaign is all about attracting NEW and/or nominally independent voters and inducing them to vote democrat in the primaries and the General Election.
He won handily among nominal independents who opted to vote democrat in New Hampshire where rules make it VERY easy for anyone to vote in either primary. In most States, it's considerably harder and independents play a smaller role.
That benefits the Hildebeest who has more support from sure-voter hard-core democrats. As does the influence of "Super-Delegates" in the democrat-party nominating process. "Super-Delegates" are crafty realist party insiders given extra weight in the nomination-process to counter starry-eyed idealists.
Obama will drop out of the race long before the long-planned Clinton Coronation Convention. He will have induced 3-5 million people who were eligible in 2004but didn't vote to participate this time around. And, probably, an additional 400,000 or so who were too young.
The Hildebeest will get the votes of a majority of those New voters regardless of who the Republican Nominee is. If 80% participate and 75% of those Vote for the Hildebeest, she wins.
And the World loses.