Best and Worst Quotes From the Iowa Caucus Results

"This feels good. It's just like I imagined it when I was talking to my Kindergarten teacher." -- Barack Obama, getting in a return strike after Hillary Clinton's ridiculous remarks insinuating he's a liar when he says he hasn't been planning to run for president for very long, citing a kindergarten essay he composed aspiring to the presidency.

"Maybe other people acted nervous in a situation like this, but this is not unexpected. [...] None of this worries me - Sept. 11, there were times I was worried." -- Rudy 9/11 Giuliani (as if it could have been anyone else), brushing off his dead last place in the Republican vote.

What a jackass.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Iowa Caucus Tidbits

A few trends that might actually be clues to the 2008 race:

1) Democrats turned out 2 to 1 in numbers over Republicans

2) 60% of the Republican voters were Evangelical Christians, twice the number in 2004

3) First-time caucus voters accounted for 56%, 11% higher than 2004, and the majority of whom voted for Obama

4) Of Democratic voters alone, 56% were woman, just 30% of whom voted for the female candidate (Hillary didn't even come in 2d, she was 3d, behind Obama and Edwards)

5) Romney's big spending didn't translate into votes

6) Biden and Dodd have dropped out of the race

7) Giuliani dropped out of the picture, but presumably not out of the race

Tuesday in New Hampshire may be another story.

Trend number 1 might be the most telling for the final outcome in November. The situation is still very flawed, however, and most egregiously in that the person who wins the highest percentage of support can still become president with(much) less than a majority of support. Until we switch to a sensible voting method like instant run-off, that will remain the case.

Other caucus trends are broken down at Politico here.

Election News

You probably already know that Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama won their respective parties' Iowa caucus, if not indicating the eventual 2008 presidential candidates, at least bearing witness to two things we already knew: 1) Iowa Republicans are far and away Christian Conservatives, and 2) as long as white men hold the strings to America, a black man will still win the presidency over any color woman, particuarly if she's seen as a woman who won't be told what to do by a man. The Democrats would do well to remember that if, come nomination time, they are still thinking about running Hillary.

Meanwhile, here in Texas, we are still in the business of scandalous politics.

Harris County (Houston) Republican DA Chuck 'Hang-em-High' Rosenthal, just three minutes before filing deadlines for elections, withdrew from the upcoming DA race after having been busted for sending amorous emails to his assistant (he's married - adultery being a Republican sin - if you get caught), and erasing other emails that might have information about a case filed against Rosenthal and the Harris County Sheriff for alleged prisoner abuse.

The filing deadline had to be extended 48 hours to allow somebody else to jump in, and now that she has, Rosenthal is pulling a Larry Craig. He thinks maybe he'll run after all.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Super Hype

For the record spending in Iowa this year (estimates of $50 million, or $200 per voter), if past stats are any measure, it seems more like a pageant than a purchase.

While they have been a financial boon to the state, the political value of the Iowa caucuses has gone up and down over the years. In 1988, for example, the candidates who eventually won the nominations of both parties came in third in Iowa. In elections without a sitting President or Vice President, the Iowa winner has gone on to the nomination only about half the time .

  Wikipedia

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

George Makes It Look So Easy

Fred Thompson has been “campaigning” in Iowa. Roger Simon covered him in Waverly. He visited a newspaper office and a fire station. The station chief offered his hat to Fred for a photo op. Fred declined.

Thompson looked at it with a sour expression on his face.

“I’ve got a silly hat rule,” Thompson said.

In point of fact, the “silly” hat was the one Chief McKenzie wore to fires and I am guessing none of the firefighters in attendance considered it particularly silly, but Thompson was not going to put it on. He just stood there holding it and staring at it.

To save the moment, Jeri Thompson took the hat from her husband’s hands and put it on her head.

“You look cute,” Thompson said to her. She did.

Jeri took off the hat and McKenzie led the Thompsons over to a fire truck.

The chief invited Thompson to climb up behind the wheel, but Thompson said, “Naw, this is fine.” And he stood there looking at the fire truck.

[...]

Thompson walked away from the fire truck, posed for a picture or two and the event was over. He and his entourage got on his bus and roared out of town.

[...]

Later in the day, I sent an e-mail to Anelia Dimitrova [editor of the Waverly Democrat], asking her about the private meeting she had with Thompson at the newspaper office.

She e-mailed me back that Thompson “was so vague that I would be hard-pressed to write a story. Simply put, there is no news peg other than he came to the newsroom with his model wife and a beehive of staffers. When I asked him specifically what he would do as prez for farmers in Bremer County, he resorted to glittering generalities.”

So the sum total of Thompson’s day in Waverly was meeting with a newspaper editor and saying nothing and then meeting about 15 people in a warm firehouse and saying nothing.

When he was supposed to go out and find voters in shops and diners, talk to them and answer their questions, he decided to skip it and get back on his luxury bus instead.

That’s not retail politics. That’s not Iowa. And that’s not laconic. That’s lazy.

I really don’t get why Thompson is even in the running. He certainly doesn’t act like he wants to do any work to be president. On the other hand, I guess if he takes a look at how George does it....

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Our Cartoon World

A reporter this morning on the campaign trail in Iowa broadcast from a café where he was having a pork tenderloin sandwich. For all of you who have not had the privilege of that Midwest staple, he described it. And then he recalled John Kerry’s choice in Philadelphia of ordering a Philly cheesesteak sandwich with Swiss cheese. That, the reporter claimed, was a “no-no” in South Philadelphia and did him in. So, the reporter said, there is still time for the threat in this campaign of someone making a terrible food-related gaffe.

Is that what makes or breaks a presidential candidate? Is that meaningful reporting? Apparently, the news folks, who must surely have their finger on the nation’s pulse, think these and other trivial issues are the important questions that American voters will be considering when casting their votes.

No wonder this country is in trouble.

P.S. This wasn’t reporting from Fox News. It was NPR radio.