Iowa means nothing. Pat Buchanan won the Iowa caucuses, remember. Iowa means everything. A black man, in a rural state, virtually unknown until four years ago? That’s something.
As for Huckabee, ha ha ha ha ha. It appears the GOP meltdown still has legs. Buy more popcorn. This could be good.
And that, I’m afraid, is about all I have to say about that. Years of living in an irrelevant state (Indiana, widely ignored by candidates from across the political spectrum) taught me not to waste hard-drive space thinking about political candidates who will be forgotten by the time I got a chance to cast my ballot (Steve Forbes, anyone?). The Michigan primary is in two weeks, but apart from a Romney ad that runs on the local news, I’ve seen little evidence of a campaign here. Of course, we’re being punished by the DNC, for daring to want a say in things. Takes a little of the wind out of the sails.
I admit to being a bit excited. Man, Obama. (I truly wish Chris Matthews would stop calling him a “son of Kenya,” however.) At this point, the Democrats could nominate a Hannibal Lecter/Britney Spears ticket, and I’d vote for it, so discontented am I with the status quo. The GOP has lost any claim on leading the country. In many ways, it’s just that simple.
Sorry no posts yesterday. I was tired. About once every week or 10 days, the collected weight of sleep deprivation collapses on my wee head, and there’s nothing to do for it but submit. That didn’t stop many of you from getting chatty in the comments, about architects, of all things. I love you guys. (P.S. I’ve never had to hire an architect in my life. Maybe that should be my goal for the second half of my life: Do something that requires an architect. Use NN.C commenters as consultants. I could use a new kitchen.)
One housekeeping note before we go further: Someone mentioned, in the comments, having to boycott this site until “The Wire” runs its course, but that won’t be necessary — all my Wireblogging will take place over at The New Package, with no mention here other than the customary link-whoring. The New Package is up and running, by the way, with a nice look at the numeric themes in season four, by our blogmistress, Virgotex.
And now, a shower. More later. Discuss Iowa, if you like.
brian stouder said on January 4, 2008 at 9:44 am
Let me hasten to agree with your observation about the obtuse tack Chris Matthews’ commentary frequently took – when he wasn’t being simply tacky! Pam immediately reacted to his almost hostile (when not condescending) commentary about Hillary Clinton (repeatedly referring to the Senator from New York as “the president’s wife” particularly struck Pam)
I thought Obama’s big win was altogether superb.
And consider –
2008 presents the single best chance in our lifetimes to see a lanky man from Illinois – a genuine dark horse candidacy, if you’ll pardon the literal truth of the pun – win the presidency of the United States. I thought it was nothing short of electrifying when Obama launched his campaign from Springfield Illinois, right in front of the Old Capital Building where Lincoln served as a legislator, and where he worked for several months, after he was elected president.
And if indeed Barack Obama wins the election and is inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States in January 2009, it will be just weeks before the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth (February 12, 1809) –
and if THAT comes to pass, I cannot think of any other single commemoration of the bicentennial of President Lincoln’s birth, and his meaningful life and career that could be more fitting (or so fundementally astounding) – two centuries out.
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ashley said on January 4, 2008 at 10:21 am
Oh, and that Simon fellow made a comment at teh New Package Wire blog.
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John said on January 4, 2008 at 10:26 am
Britney is underaged to run, but what a ticket! Please check out today’s picture, another priceless moment for her.
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michaela said on January 4, 2008 at 10:50 am
Ooh, I’d vote for the Lecter/Spears lineup, too… Gotta be better than the usual gang of idiots the R’s have put together.
Thanks for the update on the Wireblogging sitch, too, although in the 48 hours since I commented about boycotting we’ve decided to pony up the $13/month for HBO. Heading to Time Warner this afternoon to pick up the dreaded digital cable box that will make it all necessary. If you hear lots of cursing coming from Maine this weekend, that’d be me trying to figure out how to rewire all our mismatched A/v components.
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virgotex said on January 4, 2008 at 11:24 am
thnx, nn. Personally, I think Lecter might make a good Speaker of the House… plus he’d look great in that red pashmina of Pelosi’s.
Matthews WAS particularly odious last night, wasn’t he, Brian? He was downright vitriolic about Hillary. I’m not much of a HRC fan but his subjectivity about her is infuriating.
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Peter said on January 4, 2008 at 11:34 am
I concur in spades. I’ve had it with the I’m so damn witty crap. And that son of Kenya stuff – you think?
And here we go – I’ll admit to being a Republican, but last night might have been the last nail in the coffin. Thank God we have a candidate who wants to zip up the Mexican border so all those Pakistani’s don’t crawl in. Sheesh.
Actually, the Britney idea could be good. I think if she or La Lohan gets elected the world will be a safer place – the Taliban’s heads would explode with that concept and North Korea wouldn’t dare nuke us because they’d be glued to TMZ. And be honest, could she be that much worse than W?
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Julie Robinson said on January 4, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Having been born in Iowa and still having family there, I was shocked to find out there were Democrats there! Never came across any in all our travels in the state.
Obama is still an unknown to us all; thus it is easy to project our own desires on him. He doesn’t have the same baggage as the other candidates, because he hasn’t had time to accumulate it. No doubt his past will now be under the microscope.
That said, I don’t know who I like. As Nancy says, Dem’s in Indiana are irrelevent, so I direct my energy in other places where I can make a difference.
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virgotex said on January 4, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Actually, the Britney idea could be good. I think if she or La Lohan gets elected the world will be a safer place – the Taliban’s heads would explode with that concept and North Korea wouldn’t dare nuke us because they’d be glued to TMZ. And be honest, could she be that much worse than W?
only if Britain agrees to elect Amy Winehouse PM, Peter.
(disclaimer: I think Winehouse, unlike Britney, is very gifted, albeit a complete and utter trainwreck. )
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Jeff said on January 4, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Admitting to the vice of Republicanism myself, this should clearly demonstrate that the R’s national organization . . . isn’t. Organized, that is. The idea that Monopoly gamepiece plutocrats in tuxes are making cigar-scented decisions from their secure, undisclosed location is pretty much dead.
Sadly for his enthusiasts, so is Huckabee. His organizing base has no where to go other than hope for a flare of unity after a last sputter in South Carolina. Romney never had a heartbeat, just a signal, and no one can decode what the dits and dahs were saying — something between “SOS” and “All is well.”
The GOP establishment hates McCain, and has since pretty much forever, and can’t figure out why he doesn’t just go home to his nice pretty blonde wife, since that’s what they’d do (disclosure: i am, in fact, a McCainiac), and they’re scared to death of Giuliani, but — to return to my point — they can’t tell their main funders to stop giving him enough money to keep paying his staff. Which may be the only reason he’s running, to keep a big staff employed.
Thompson is still on the bridge of his sub saying “i still say turn right at the bottom of the hour,” and Paul is worried about the Trilateral Commission.
But i can vote for Obama with a clear conscience, mainly because of what Brian says above, and trust the innately conservative tendencies of Congress (that’s a practical, not political assessment) to keep him from getting too carried away. Yep, that’s from a life-long R, 2 time Bush voter, whose middle name is an inherited bequest from a failed candidacy led by my paternal great-grandfather in . . . Iowa!
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Peter said on January 4, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Virgotex – I’m all for Amy being the PM – can you imagine that G7 summit?
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michaelj said on January 4, 2008 at 7:14 pm
Chris Matthews elides by more syllables than Lou Holtz, but if he isn’t talking about Notre Dame, South Carolina or Georgia Bulldogs, the Really Old Ball Coach generally has some vague idea what he’s talking about. The Swollen Head is rarely coherent, much less rational. Straight out of the W School of Communications. And then there are those creepy man-crushes:
“Does [Fred Thompson] have sex appeal? … Gene, do you think there’s a sex appeal for this guy, this sort of mature, older man, you know? … Can you smell the English leather on this guy, the Aqua Velva, the sort of mature man’s shaving cream, or whatever, you know, after he shaved? Do you smell that sort of — a little bit of cigar smoke? You know, whatever.”
Holy crap, Tweety, get the loofah and order some falafel from the Persian takeout. And this about Rudy,
“I think we want a president — like, we grew up in a big city, you know, I grew up near Boston — four-alarm fire, the police commissioner’s there, the police, the fire commissioner’s there, the mayor’s there. They’re standing on the street corner telling us what’s going on as they look up at the fire.”
Actually, Rudy was trying to reach his safe room in the Command Center. Oops, put that sucker in the WTC after the Blind Mullah Bombing. Dang, I hate when that happens. I wonder if the NYPD was trying to deliver Judith to the bunker with the phenobarb and a copy of My Pet Goat. What sort of panic must have ensued when Rudy only had the Fire Department radio and his Valentine was trying to reach him on the Police band?
The prospective Republican candidates are hilarious. I feel safe in saying that because there is no way in the world any of them can get elected (otherwise, it wouldn’t be funny at all). I seriously hope they settle on the guy that believes Our Lord walked with the dinosaurs descendants of the pair Noah took on the Ark. And when he opens his Walmart Campaign Wedding Registry, I’ll be sure he gets a case of SlimFast in the camo edition cans.
Anyway, Ron Paul has already killed entire rain forests with the campaign tripe he’s sent to our address alone. Nothing will stop him from running, and I don’t see Democratic voters going for the guy that mails out facsimile Social Security cards in the name of Juan Doe. For the Greedy Old Plutocrats, this election could be a defenestration of McGovern proportions.
And I’ll laugh my ass off. Lee Atwater repented suborning the Constitution, on his deathbed, and this will be his Revenge from Beyond the Grave on the obscene spawn of his star pupil’s one-party revolution. What’s going to be left of the Gigantic Oil Purveyors will, in fact, be three parties scrabbling for meager attention: the Norquist Party, the Antediluvianist Rapturites, and the PNACenturions.
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Cosmo Panzini said on January 4, 2008 at 8:54 pm
It’s interesting to see how many of you have become like me. I am a proud, card-carrying Yellow Dog Democrat. (If the Democrats nominated a yellow dog, I would vote for it before any Republican.) Now I will admit to having been a YDD for some years , mostly owing to Richard Nixon, but did not start carrying the card until G W Bush came along. And damn, that michaelj guy is great. BTW, does anybody other than R Giuliani take owned-by-Rupert- Murdoch R Giuliani seriously?
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