Baracking Around the Christmas Tree with Oprah Did Nada for Obama in Iowa; On the GOP Side, Hawkeye-State Repubs Seem to Like Crazy Rev. Mike
Tattlesnake’s Iowa caucus predictions:
The Democrats:
Barack Obama was surging like the Mighty Mississip until he hauled Oprah in from Chicago to attract a crowd to her notoriety; Obama then mutated into just another chump jumping on the Big O’s couch for attention. Since then he’s been in a very slow spiral downward, although he still leads Hillary in Iowa. (Note to Obama: Perhaps a Serious Candidate for President shouldn’t tout the endorsement of a woman who was gulled by an ex-junkie-turned-writer and features articles on her website sternly advising women to ‘be themselves’ surrounded by giddy ads hawking every cosmetic product known to humanity. She also figuratively sold the toxic Opti-Fast diet out of the trunk of her car, and then had to apologize for that blunder after some in her audience began taking dirt naps. Oprah may have good intentions, but being the richest woman in America has turned her into the worst form of dingbat Limousine Liberal, an annoying creature those on both the right and the left wish would join the dinosaurs in extinction. I mean, how long until you catch her arriving at the Earth Day rally in a convoy of six 15-MPG Hummers?) Besides, Mr. O has of late taken up Republican talking points to slam his opponents, never a good sign in a man who bills himself as a progressive Democrat.
Meantime, John Edwards, mostly under the Big Media (BM) radar (you have to watch C-Span to catch him in action) — has been gaining larger and more enthusiastic audiences as his progressive anti-corpo message hits the target, and he’s garnered the kind of firm union support that will stomp around the icy winter wastes of Corn Country to get out the vote. Since Kucinich has been sent to Coventry by the BM for his ardent populism, Edwards is the next best thing. Iowans can read polls, too: Edwards would handily beat any of the GOP’s pathetic offerings, and probably pick up a few border southern states in the general election to boot.
Poor old Hillary has over-played her hand in Iowa, with a little too much off-putting negativity in her lust to slap down Obama, although some of that may not have been her fault. Also not her fault is her name and the palpable phenomenon of Clinton Fatigue; when Iowa Democrats ponder whether they will raise their hands for Hillary, they have to think: Do I really want another Clinton in 2008, making it 20 years of either a Bush or Clinton in the White House? Methinks many will vote against her, just on that score. Mike Gravel has returned to the Mother Ship, and Joe Biden and Chris Dodd continue to haunt the state looking senatorial, in the Claude Rains in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” sense, but they’re traveling in single-digit circles. Twelve-percenter Bill Richardson is optimistically hoping he’ll edge into the top three, but that’s an impossible dream — still, Bill tossing his voters to one of the frontrunners could make the difference between win and place, so he maintains considerable caucus relevance. He might be striking a deal for a VP nod as we speak. It’s said Biden desperately wants to be Hillary’s Veep; Dodd also seems to be angling for the second slot with Any of the Above, and Edwards just might pick him — Connecticut Chris is the safe choice, although Obama or Richardson would be better.
Here’s The Tattler’s prediction: Edwards, with Obama close behind, and Hillary at least five points out in third.
Note: Dennis Kucinich has told his supporters to vote for Obama as second choice if he can’t get the needed fifteen percent in each caucus room. I’ll still stick with Edwards winning, but it’ll be by a hair.
BTW, Obama is having a problem with Iowa liberals these days.
The Republicans:
Religious nutjob Mike “World’s Only 6,000 Years Old, Folks!” Huckabee only looks good to Iowa Republicans because he’s standing next to repugnant moral Lilliputians like Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani. John McCain has all but given up here, as has the Rudester, and Duncan Hunter holds his nearly empty press conferences in closed missile silos, wearing a Kevlar helmet and mumbling lines stolen from Gen. Jack D. Ripper. Even bedrock generational-voter Iowa Republicans wonder what’s wrong with the man. Of course, they wonder that about the ethically-challenged Giuliani as well, a New York borough boy who proved in his bizarre ‘fruitcake’ TV ads he doesn’t know diddly about the Midwestern zeitgeist. Fred Thompson is still wandering around loose, but the old coot will be put out of his political misery in New Hampshire when he comes in fourth or fifth. Meanwhile, the sturdy Ron Paul is pulling in most of the money not accompanied by a corporate wink and handshake, especially from the hopped-up cellphone-addicted Sonic Youth on the Inner Tubes. Willy Mitt has made slight gains in the polls lately with his negative-ad blitzkrieg against Huckabee, but the Arkansas Baptist Preacher Man still leads the field (cue Dusty Springfield).
The Tattlesnake’s ‘Krystal’ Ball says it’s Huckabee by a decisive margin, Romney aptly at number two, and — a shocker — Ron Paul as a strong third.
BTW, these predictions are all predicated on the votes being counted honestly. Bev Harris of Black Box Voting has noticed some disturbing hinkiness in the way both the GOP and Dems will be posting the tallies from the Iowa precincts. Read her reservations here.
“Senator Larry Craig Goes Down to Iowa”
http://www.ilovepoetry.com/viewpoem.asp?id=94289
Eyes on the BIG prize?
Comment by tsumbra — January 2, 2008 @ 9:00 pm
RS, thank you for the very kind reply concerning the piece I posted several days ago.
I’m surprised you may not think conservative repubs don’t value the environ. Myself I’m a rabid trout stream fisherman and I suppose I have a liberal slip which shows when environment is mentioned.
But I want to see a balance. For example, I want to see drilling in ANWAR, but let’s also have the Sierra Club monitoring the activity to make sure no environ damage is taking place, or that all environmental replacement will take place when oil is gone.
I want nuclear power, but also want responsible use and storage of residue.
I want more water storage built in Ca. but I also want the Hetch-hetchy Dam torn down to create another Yosemite.
Enough. Have an excellent day.
Grimmy
Comment by grimgold — January 3, 2008 @ 12:37 am
Grim, I have some conservative friends who want clean water and air as well — they also like to fish and hunt and are appalled at what has happened to some of their favorite spots — one stream is practically dead from factory run-off that used to be crystal clear, and a Wisconsin deer forest is now being cut down to make way for another tourist attraction they don’t need.
I have no kick with real conservatives, although I might not agree with them about everything — it’s the crazy neocons I can’t stand. Real conservatives care about the Constitution, conservation, obeying the law, taking responsibility for your actions, keeping the government off your back, avoiding stupid wars, and not lying and cheating to get your way. Real conservatives have principles and argue sanely.
Neocons, on the hand, are nearly exactly the opposite of that — they lie and cheat and smear to get an advantage, and they have no moral scruples of any kind that I can discern. Means to an end is their only edict, and the means don’t matter. Winning is the only thing to them, but they forget the rest of that Vince Lombardi quote that says you must win fairly and in a sportsmanlike way. There is little difference between a neocon and a Stalinist, as far as I’m concerned.
I had some respect for Barry Goldwater and even William F. Buckley because they seemd to be honest and sincere and had thought through their positions. And if they criticized someone, they’d have the guts to do it to their face, and not through surrogates.
I don’t see that in most of the current crop of right-wingers, although I still think P.J. O’Roarke is funny, but then, he’s not a neocon.
If you’re a conservative Republican, I hope you purge your party of the corporate swindlers, Swift Boat liars, and Christopublican nitwits and bring it back to something that Barry Goldwater would be proud to join.
BTW, with both oil and nuclear power we’re going to have big problems in the future: the oil is running out and storing the radioactive material — that’s hot for ten thousand years — is a risk. You saw what happened with Chernobyl, and that was just a mild leak. The quicker we go to alternative sources of power — wind, solar, hydrogen — the better off we’ll be. The only reason we don’t have more of this now is because the multi-national corporations haven’t figured out yet how to bill us for the wind and the sun.
You have a good day, too.
Comment by RS Janes — January 4, 2008 @ 6:55 am
After reading the above posts,I realised that
grace and eloquence is what made me proud to be an american and what I’ve missed about her politics for the past thirty years.
One conjecture I’d like to make however is that if the Iraq war debt had been invested in solar and wind farms then the need for convential power generation would be nearly obsolete in this country,but i guess the payback on the investment is too slow for the stockholders.
There is some very,very promising alternative energy research going on right now.
One fellow is working on Bio-diesel from algae,
with yields a thousand fold over fuel from agriculture based bio-fuel including AE-85.
Here is a link to pes-wiki one of my favorite hobby sites:
http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:Biodiesel_from_Algae_Oil
In Canada several large cartage firms use Brown
gas generators to suplement their tractor/trailers or semies as they call them,
The hydrogen and oxygen content allows for a 25 to 50% more complete fuel burn which in turn reduces consumption and emmisions and they get a tax-credit for using them.
Here is a link for the DIY tinkerers:
http://pureenergysystems.com/store/Hydrogen-Boost/
Right now CNG is about the most practical vehicle fuel source with a cost per gallon of about .90 cents and an optimised vehicle is much more efficient due to the caloric energy but the conversions are expensive, five to fifteen thousand depending on the size of the vehicle.
Should this become common though the price should drop dramatically.
I see a lot to be optimistic about out there on the horizon but the good things are going to come at a price,I guess the real question is:
Is discourse and diplomacy too high a price to pay for the embetterment of Humanity and Mother Earth?
You Guys brightened My day,Thank You.
Comment by Rainlander — January 4, 2008 @ 11:23 am