Month: January 2004

There’s a lot of good food for thought in the comment thread for this Daily Kos post-Iowa look at the Dem contenders. Some good discussion on whether Dean has suffered as bad of a blow as it may seem, and if so, then who might be the best person to pick up the nomination.

Most people that aren’t solidly entrenched in Dean‘s camp seem to be leaning towards either Kerry or Edwards — not terribly surprising, as they got the top two spots in the Iowa caucuses — with a few leaning towards Clark.

For myself — well, at least for the moment, Dean is still my favorite of the bunch. Kerry has never particularly impressed me (he comes off as too much of a “traditional politician”, Clark I think would make a great VP or cabinet member (his military background strikes me as better fitting to a supporting role), and Edwards I just don’t know much about.

Any supporters of Kerry, Edwards, or Clark want to present a case why I should look more seriously at their campaign? I’m curious.

[Update:]{.underline}

Essentially the same question is being asked on Daily Kos — and apparently generating a good amount of answers. Worth looking into.

iTunes: “Bostich” by Yello from the album Essential (1980, 4:36).

I was only able to watch the first few minutes of the State of the Union tonight before customers came in and I had to actually work for my paycheck (such a sorry state of affairs, really). I did, however, get one laugh out of what I saw.

I’m used to the apparently mandatory applause after every sentence (though whether they’re applauding what was said, or the fact that he managed to get through one more sentence without stumbling, I’m not sure about). I was quite pleasantly surprised tonight when after mentioning that the Patriot Act expires in the near future, the Democratic portion of Congress interrupted Bush’s speech at that point to start applauding.

Not only do I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment, but seeing Bush’s annoyance as he turned toward the applauding people and shook his head (“No, no, that’s not where you’re supposed to clap! You missed your cue!”) was priceless.

I’ll get to go over the transcript of the speech and hopefully catch an archived webcast after I get home tonight. Until then, though, I’ll just carry that moment around in my head for the rest of the evening.

Highly recommended reading: The American Prospect’s America as a One-Party State.

America has had periods of single-party dominance before. It happened under FDR’s New Deal, in the Republican 1920s and in the early 19th-century “Era of Good Feeling.” But if President Bush is re-elected, we will be close to a tipping point of fundamental change in the political system itself. The United States could become a nation in which the dominant party rules for a prolonged period, marginalizes a token opposition and is extremely difficult to dislodge because democracy itself is rigged. This would be unprecedented in U.S. history.

iTunes: “Liar (1991)” by Queen from the album Queen (1973, 6:26).

After paying no more than cursory attention to my computer and the news since the middle of last week thanks to a rather nasty little cold bug, I’m trying to skim through everything I’ve missed as quickly as possible.

All the big news right now is about yesterday’s Iowa caucus, with Kerry coming out on top, Edwards coming out of nowhere to take the number two spot, and Dean ending up in a surprisingly distant third place. As a Dean supporter, it’s a bit of a bummer, but at the same time, this is only a first step, and there’s still quite a bit of jostling to go before the final nominee is chosen. While Kerry has never really caught my interest, I should probably find out a little more about Edwards, who I don’t really know much about at all.

One thing I’m curious about, though, and have yet to find hard numbers on, is the turnout for the caucus. In the weeks preceding yesterday’s event, I got the impression that as dismal as voter turnout is for major elections, turnout for the caucuses is generally even lower, usually consisting only of the really die-hard political junkies who are paying attention to all this stuff this early in the game. Yesterday, while skimming over news reports and when I caught a little bit of a news report while on my lunch break, I got the impression that the turnout in Iowa was surprisingly large, with many more people showing up to make their voice heard than anyone expected (which probably influenced the final tallies).

If this is true, I think it’s an absolutely great thing. I’ve said for a while that the only good thing I can really attribute to the Bush administration is that it’s gotten a lot more people paying attention to and willing to participate in the political process, and if we’re getting record turnout for the caucuses, this could be a strong indication of just that. If people are tired enough of Bush’s leadership to show up in surprisingly large numbers to be a part of the process of finding the best candidate to oust Bush from office nearly a year before the general elections, it makes me even more optimistic that come November, we’ll be putting a Democrat back in office again.

It’s not often that political news makes me feel optimistic these days. I like it when it happens, though.

(The caveat being, of course, that if I’ve misinterpreted the bits of news that I’ve skimmed over and the numbers aren’t all that large, it may not be that newsworthy after all — but I’ll continue to keep my fingers crossed.)

iTunes: “Hollow Man” by Kula Shaker from the album K (1996, 19:26).