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January 1, 2008
– Consider this fact, as reported by the
Associated Press: "In interviews as they entered the
(Iowa) caucuses, more than half of all the Republicans said they
were either born-again or evangelical Christians..."
Not quite a cross-section of Americans.
And then there's the process. From
the same article: "Republicans took a straw vote, then tallied
the results. Democrats had a more complicated process in which one
candidate's supporters might eventually wind up backing another
contender."
Not exactly basic, secret ballot
elections like we have in America.
Add to this the fact you can vote for
any party's caucus you wish regardless of your party affiliation.
So if you are a Guiliani supporter, for example, since your
candidate didn't run in Iowa, you could pop on over to the
Democratic side to try and, say, make their top contender, Hillary
Clinton, look bad by voting for one of her rivals.
For example, look at the actual results
tonight
from CNN: Go down to the part that shows how people voted
by Party ID.
Yes, that's right. Hillary and
Obama tied among Democrats. But the victory was given to Obama
by, yes, Republicans, of whom obama got more than 44% to Clinton's
10%, and non-registered Iowans, who voted 41% to 17% for Obama.
So Republicans have chosen the
Democratic nominee, in a state where tonight 6 out of 10 of these
Republicans identified as either evangelical or born-again.
They didn't just choose Huckabee, they decided on Obama as well.
Not exactly a good setup for having
Democrats choose the person they think is best for the nation.
And how much say do moderates have in
Iowa? From CBS
News : "Moderates - only 11percent of the pool - split
between Romney and McCain, at 26 percent apiece. Only 22 percent of
moderates supported Huckabee."
So the majority of America, we
moderates, are supposed to have no say in who our President will be
and instead allow a few evangelicals to have more say than the hundreds
of millions of other Americans.
Iowa could be thought of at the moment
as America's Achilles' heel. Every four years the people of
the rest of America do their research, send in their money, decide
on a candidate that could really help the nation, only to have it
all wrecked by the whims - which change even on caucus day, as the
article reports - of born-agains and evangelicals and a handful of
people from a rural state that doesn't represent most of what
America is.
The non-M/I press knows this and still
blows up the results since they are the first exciting moment down
the road to a new president. And these results then are used
to tell America who is a real choice or not. The sloppy,
non-American, non-private, change-in-the-middle caucus process
dominated by one particular minority has more power over the
American presidency than the other 300 million people combined.
And after Iowa, it's then New Hampshire.
Then down to the deep South, South Carolina.
By the time the process gets up to
mainstream America, it's already been decided.
Just to see it in action, right on cure
here's
Newsweek's Jonathan Alter already saying it's over: "With
his victory tonight,
Barack Obama is now the strong favorite to be the Democratic
nominee for president. The only one who can stop Obama from making
history is Obama."
The sickness could not be clearer.
The press has decided this non-cross-section of abnormality, a
handful of Iowans, doesn't just get first say, but that what they
say is all powerful and unchangeable.
CBS chimes in with the story line the right-wing dominated media
wants and is universally trumpeting, that the night means everything
for the Democrats and nothing for the Republicans: "While
Democrats found clarity in Iowa, the Republicans created confusion."
Nice trick, huh? Obama is now
inevitable - i.e. the Hillary they've been out to eliminate from day
one, refusing to give any positive press, they once again are trying
to write off. While somehow, through nonsensical spin, the
Republican result is just one caucus' result.
And so the Republicans now have Mike
Hukabee as their frontrunner. A man who proposes a 27% sales
tax, and elimination of all other income tax, so that rich people
will pay nothing on most of what they earn, and everyone on the
planet, Americans included, will be driven to shop anywhere but in
America. Soccer moms will shuttle up to Canada; people from
the South will head down to Mexico; and wealthy people can simply
set up a nice home in France or any other country of their choosing
and not have to pay a penny in taxes. Yes, a plan so bad it is
virtually guaranteed to destroy the nation economically.
And just to show what type of person he
really is, this tax that would have the poor and middle class paying
27% on much of what they earn while rich people pay it on almost
none of what they earn, Huckabee dubs the "Fair Tax." Yes,
just like Bush dubbed polluting air the "Clean Air" act.
Selling forests off the "Healthy Forests" act. Iowa
Republicans have not learned a single thing over these past seven
years. They have not wizened up. They have not become
even a tad bit savvy. Just as Bush did, any Huckster - funny
how the name fits - can simply say he is an extreme religious zealot
and he will get their vote regardless of all else. All the while,
the sane, intelligent people who make America the great, secular,
Democratic nation that it is sit and cringe, just as we have for
nearly a decade with our current Loser-In-Chief.
On the Democratic side, 850.
That's the only number that matters. 850 people chose Barack
Obama. Out of a nation of 300,000,000, tonight 850 chose
Barack Obama, almost a couple hundred more than chose Edwards or
Clinton.
850.
And so the opinion of these 850 northern
farm state people will get more say of who will run our country than
all the people of New York, California, Illinois, and Texas
combined.
I give you the Iowa results.
A question: if you had cancer, would you
run off to Iowa to let some evangelicals and rural delegates treat
you?
Our nation, in a cancerous state after 7
years of Bush Republican destruction, should think for a bit about
who is writing the prescription before deciding whether to take the
course of treatment proposed.
You might want to go to a place where
education, worldliness, economic savvy, and street smarts exist for
your advice. Just a suggestion.
In the meantime, why not take a stand
for your nation if you care about it, and remind Jonathan Alter and
his loser non-M/I Media that the primary process hasn't even begun.
Here's his e-mail:
webeditors@newsweek.com You might want to suggest that you
and the people of your state should have a say in who will lead our
nation out of the Bush-induced mess it is in.
This is not about Obama. It's not
about Huckabee. It's about this nonsensical taking of
Americans' one true birthright - the right to choose our own
leaders. They want to take it from us. We must demand it
back. Now.
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