Caucus This

Iowans love both Barack Obama and crazy evangelical nut jobs.

Barack Obama pulled an impressive first place finish out of his hat, with an almost 8-point lead over his closest rival. He, as predicted, did an amazing job getting out the vote. Caucus-goers turned out in record numbers, and the first-timers reportedly contributed heavily to Obama’s win. I think I’m happy Obama won. As some of you will no doubt remember, I was an Obamaniac when he first came on the scene. I loved him when he ran for senate in Illinois (when I was still in Chicago), and his stands on most issues impressed me. All three leading democratic candidates let me down on some important social issues such as gay marriage, but that’s for another post. Since then, though, Obama lost me a little with some serious money grubbing and a few seemingly naïve statements about foreign policy and healthcare.

On the healthcare front, Edwards, who came in second last night, seems to have the position I like best. He’s the only one of the three advocating for a single-payer universal health care plan similar to what other countries already have. And he is far more realistic about the efficacy (or lack thereof, to be more precise) of negotiating with pharmaceutical and insurance companies.

Which brings us to one Hillary Clinton. I’m a little worried about ellebee’s level of sadness this morning, as her girl Hillary came in a very disappointing third place. Granted, Edwards had only a teeny tiny margin over her, but third place is still third place. With less than a week before the New Hampshire primary, Clinton has a very small window in which to stop Obama’s momentum and give her own a boost. It’s true that she still leads in the national polls (though I haven’t seen any new ones since the Caucus results), but if Obama successfully builds off his Iowa finish, she could be in trouble. The air of inevitability has definitely been let out of her tires.

I can already hear Laura’s protests, but I’m going to say this anyway: If Hillary does win the nomination and subsequently the election, and assuming she gets reelected for a second term, we’re talking about 28 straight years of Bushs and Clintons. As much as I love Bill and respect Hillary, that still gives me pause. It just can’t be good for democracy to have so little variation.

On the Republican side, lunatic and possible antichrist Mike Huckabee walked away with the number one spot with a nine point lead over second place Mitt Romney. While democratic Iowans clearly embraced change, the republican caucus-goers embraced an almost laughably (if it weren’t so scary) bad candidate. A few notes on Huckabee:

• Huckabee would take away women’s reproductive rights and has sworn to support a constitutional amendment banning abortion.

• He happily and proudly admits that his faith drives his decisions. Apparently separation of church and state doesn’t resonate with him.

• Huckabee does not believe in evolution. WTF?! Americans are seriously considering a jackass who doesn’t believe in science for the White House?

• His ethics are for shit. I’ve already written about his role in the release of rapist and murderer Wayne Dumond. But check this one out, too: during his first Senate campaign, Huckabee paid himself out of his campaign funds to act as his own media consultant. He paid himself!
  

I seriously don’t understand how so many people in this country make their decisions. Is Huckabee interesting and funny when appearing on the Colbert Report? Sure! Does that mean that we should entrust him with our entire country? Of course not. And yet, so many people seem to vote based only on personality. And with the awful results of eight long years of religious fanaticism driving our country’s decisions, I cannot believe that anyone would vote for another candidate of the same ilk. And yet, here we are. I only take comfort knowing that the Iowa Caucuses often don’t predict the long-term winner.