The Iowa caucus victories by Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee Thursday night were also stunning defeats for the status quo in American politics. Angry voters sent a strong message that they are mad as hell and they ain’t gonna take it any more.
Democratic caucus attendees told Hillary Rodham Clinton that America doesn’t need four years of her kind of politics. She finished well behind Obama and a close third to John Edwards, a slick trial lawyer with an anti-corporate greed platform.
Clinton, in many ways, is both the face of the status quo and a poster girl for corporate greed. Her campaign is funded in large part by big business.
On the Republican side, one-time GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney also represented the face of corporate America and he dumped millions of his own money into a do or die effort in Iowa. Republican straw voters said no dice and went with Huckabee, who emerged from the second tier of candidates to crush Romney.
In their victory speeches, Obama and Huckabee sounded similar themes: Unity, not division; coalitions not partisanship and America, not political parties.
Obama noted that his victory, built on a coalition of Democrats and young independents, showed that there are no more red or blue states but, instead, “the United States of America.”
He added:
You know, they said this day would not come. They said our sights were set too high. They said this country was too divided, too disillusioned, to ever come together. But on this January night, at this defining moment in history, you have done what the cynics said we couldn’t do.
Huckabee noted that his victory showed his opponent that attack politics doesn’t work in Iowa and he predicted it wouldn’t work elsewhere.
Tonight what we have seen is a new day in American politics. And tonight it starts here in Iowa, but it doesn’t end here. It goes all the way through the other states and ends at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
The victories by Obama and Huckabee left the campaigns of Clinton and Romney, once hailed as well-oiled machines, in disarray. A subdued Clinton met her supporters and promised she was in the race for the long haul but muted applause and a dour Bill Clinton standing silent behind her sent a more downbeat message. Romney, invoking Olympic metaphors, said he had one the silver but would go “for the gold” in New Hampshire.
By contrast, Obama’s victory speech came amid loud cheers with all the trappings of an old-time revival, eclipsing even the evangelical style of former Southern Baptist preacher Huckabee.
Voters in Iowa reminded America Thursday night that pundits, politicians and talking heads don’t select Presidential candidates.
That privilege still belongs to those who vote and the record numbers who took part in the process in the frozen tundra of Iowa told us that this Presidential election year will not be business as usual.
41 thoughts on “Change is in the air”
EARLY RESULTS FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE
17 votes from a tiny hamlet in N.H. has been totalled as follows:
10 votes went Democratic candidate for Barak Obama
7 votes went Republican….McCain with 4, Romney with 2 and Giuliani with 1.
Hillary got ZERO as did Ron Paul.
It is not right to lose respect for a person over one issue. Especially if that issue is money. One loses respect for a person when he or she is dishonest or immoral. You said you wanted changes. The one’s you listed are among the concerns of DR. Paul. And as I said, and it is still true, no other candidate is espousing the kind of changes you want.
You probably have a layman’s understanding of economics. Before I I would lose respect for DR. Paul, I would study his economic background and I would study his plan for implementing a gold standard. The point here is,
I wouldn’t throw the baby out with the bath water over something like that. WE have too much to gain and everything to lose if we, as a nation of people, do not thwart the machinations of world government here in this country. It is our duty to thwart those machinations.
Every person who names the name of God has this responsibility.
The bible says that the powers that be are ordained of God. And as Christians we are to render unto those powers their rightful due.
The power that was ordained of God in this country is the Constitution ratified by the several states.
A rogue power has usurped this God ordained power in order to use the greatness of this nation to spread one world government. It is evil on the face.
This watchman is telling everyone to register and vote for the one candidate who is for returning to Constitutional Government. Politics be damned. Return to the God ordained power over you and then trust in God to protect you. This is what purtting yor trust in God is about. This is how to do it now. BFS
I lost any respect for Paul when he suggested going back to the GOLD STANDARD, with a straight face. He proved once and for all that he has no understanding of global economics whatsoever. How the heck this moron ever got a doctorate is beyond me. No, i take that back. I know plenty of really stupid academics……
The gold standard does nothing except limit the GNP of a country to the amount of gold it can mine. That may have worked OK when the country was young, but it would be financial suicide now. Although, coin collectors like it. The redneck hobby of choice. I suggest some of you numismatists get another hobby, like learning to read, so you could become aware of the fact that we don’t live in a hermetically-sealed bubble-wrapped Shire anymore.
“How anyone could call Ron Paul’s ideas looney is beyond me.”
It must be all that looney rhetoric contained in that goddamn piece of paper otherwise known as the Constitution.
Having said that, I have to agree with SEAL, below. Paul has lots of good ideas and lots of looney ideas.
— Kent Shaw
I certainly do not want to attack you Seal. But i don’t see any othere candidate supporting your concerns.
The kind of change that you require cannot be trusted to any johnny come lately like Huckabee and certainly not Obama. We need to send a message and that message is RP. Even if Paul don’t win we need to send the message. it is our chance to say something that has needed saisd for a ong time in this country. let us come together for that very purpose. Just once SEAl. PLease!! BFS
BFS: I said some of Ron Pauls ideas are loony. I also said 40 (forty) years ago the IRS was illegal and should be abolished. And the day they handed me a piece of paper that said “FEDERAL RESERVE NOTE” across the top of it and told me it was money, I told them they were full of shit. It isn’t money unless it is backed by something of value equal to the number on the paper.
BFS, you stated: “If you do not have a respect for the constitution in that it is “THE” God ordained law in this country, then you are part of the problem.”
Anyone who would make that statement is the person who is not educated about this nation and its institutions and THEY ARE THE PROBLEM. None of the gods that are worshiped by the various religions had anything to do with the creation of the Constitution of the United States Of America and it certainly was never “ordained” by any of them as the law of the land. Anyone with average reading comprehension who read the Declaration Of Independence and the Constituton would know that.
You and the others like yourself that believe in and follow a person like Ron Paul scare the beejeezus out of the rest of us that are “Educated” in the various government institutions and do understand the criminal acts that have been committed by the cabal of criminals that are presently in control of this nation. We also understand that replacing them with someone who has a few good ideas and many loony ones is not the solution.
Either you agree with his nutty ideas or you have failed to research your idol and learn about anything beyond a couple of good ideas you heard him say. Either way I consider people like you and Ron Paul a danger to this nation.
If you wish to attack me further or discuss this, please send your comments to
thedragaonsview@yahoo.com
instead of using Mr. Thompsons site which specifically prohibits this type of thing.
SEAL
How anyone could call Ron Paul’s ideas looney is beyond me. They may be against the status quo but looney?
It goes to show that even people who sense that something is wrong and want change, they still have no edcation on what it takes to produce the change they want. They are so entrenched in the idea of having the IRS and the federal reserve in tact. They cannot conceive of the idea that we need to do away with those institutions. They are not educated in knowing that it is these intstitutions that have caused the problems they want rid of. If we are going to have liberty and if we are going to operate our government under the law, then we are going to have to admit that our leaders have flaunted the law and criminally worked around and against the constitution. If you do not have a respect for the constitution in that it is “THE” God ordained law in this country, then you are part of the problem. HOld your elected leaders accountable when they have criminally broken the constitution. It is the law if the land, not some GD piece of paper as GWB calls it. They are the criminals because they have not kept faith with their promise to uphold and protect the constitution. First you must swallow that down and accept it along with the conviction to do something about it. Vote for ther candidate that wants to do something about it. Quit voting for who you think will win and start voting for what is right. If you cannot do that then you do not deserve lawful government or liberty. BFS
Sadly I don’t believe Kucinich has snowball’s chance of getting the nomination, so I’m hoping for Edwards/Kucinch slate.
— Kent Shaw
Very Interesting “Debate”
Fascinating to watch the dynamics between the various cadidates. No one seemed to hesitate to take a shot at Romney and his performance left a lot to be desired. In general, McCain cmae through in relatively good shape whereas Thompson added little and was just going through the motions. Rudy was ok, Huckabee was simply staying out of the fray, and Ron Paul added the comic relief. One can’t help but feel that Paul’s message would be better received if delivered by someone else. Sort of like shoot the messenger but keep the message.
We comtinue to be bombarded with phone calls either promoting specific candidates or calls doing polling. One of Ron Paul’s senior people told me that Paul is very pro-choice and wanted a Constitutional ammendment stating that “life begins at inception”. I was also told that Paul puts earmarks in major bills but then votes against the bills knowing that they will pass. Sounds rather hypocritical to me. My support for Paul is wavering.
The Dems side was equally interesting. Hillary did ok but her attempts to go after Obama were totally unsuccessful and contrived. Obama stayed on message and came through relatively unscathed whereas Richardson seemed to be pushing harder to be someone’s Secretary of State now that Biden has dropped out. Edwards was very impressive, we thought, making some excellent points and did a superb job of putting Hillary in her place.
Above are random observations from a NH voter who is looking forward to Tuesday. BTW, I think ABC and Charlie Gibson did an outstanding job, especially the part where all the candidates were on the stage at the same time.
Hillary got trashed!!! One Dumb Dame Down, one more to go with booting Fancy Pants Pelosi out of office.
Kucinich is my man when the Kalifornia (as Governor BoobenGrabber calls it) primary rolls around in February.
But if Pillary Dillary Crock wins the nomination in the end run, I will not vote for that Dumb Dame.
Still not sure about Obama, Edwards is the least ‘CorparateKrat’ of all of them (save Kucinich).
As Seal has said, the priority is to get Go-Girl-Go Hillary knocked off her perch and that looks good so far.
Hey: BelieveDoyouBE NHTIFIED?Or are you many of the inhabitants of New Hampshire?
There is a revolution taking place in this country and as far as I can see, Capitol Hill Blue is either ignoring it or doesn’t know of its existance.
For a media outlet who claims to despise tyranny as much as Capitol Hill Blues, I would think they would be on the bandwagon. I suspect that Capitol Hill Blues as well as several other media outlets will be more attentive after the NH primary.
BFS
“new entitlements (especially Part D),”
Yes, and the Medicare Part D bill was written by lobbyists for presentation in the legislature to explicitly prevent the government from negotiating lower drug prices due to volume purchases. Tell me big business doesn’t control our government AND press.
— Kent Shaw
It’s not a rant when it’s fact, cobaltkid
Excellent Points, Keith
Somewhere I read that our new national debt is now running at close to $4 billion EVERY DAY. We hear nothing from any of the candidates re how to correct this looming disaster. The Dems want to increase spending, especially entitlements, while the R’s want to cut taxes. You are correct in that W and his fellow R’s have only made the problem worse with their incessant spending, new entitlements (especially Part D), lower taxes, and those wonderful earmarks.
Our budget deficit, trade deficit, and current account deficit have devalued the dollar and made us bankrupt. We should be teaching our kids Arabic, Mandarin, and Cantonese so that they can better negotiate with the economic powers that own us. As Pete Peterson so correctly stated in his book “Running on Emty”, we are becoming a nation of sharecroppers. What is really shocking is that his book was written in 2004.
Sorry for the rant, but I can’t stand to see our once great nation go to hell in a handbasket due to corrupt politicians and their special interest cronies.
Perhaps….
I have always called state lotteries “elective taxation”
Perhaps a national lottery could bail us out if all the profit went to pay off the debt?
Sandy, once again, you are right on!
Few Americans have a clue as to the economic hole our elected politicians have now dug for the rest of us. Saying they can fully fund Social Security, Medicare, government pensions and other, so-called “automatic increases” in such programs with ever-dwindling future revenues is sheer folly. There is absolutely NO WAY future generations will be able to pull all those economic “bandwagons” and still keep our nation solvent.
In fact, if our country were a private corporation, we would have been forced to declare bankruptcy years ago.
We are finally starting to see the “wheels” come off this “wagon”. NONE of the politicians (except perhaps Mr. Paul) now running for President dare use the “R” word (Recession). However, EVERY economic indicator I’ve been looking at lately says we are already there…if we aren’t now well on our way toward another Depression which will make the one we had in the 1930s look like nirvana by comparison.
Now that other countries in the world are rapidly dumping the US Dollar in favor of other currencies (such as the Euro) to be their “reserve currency”, it’s only a matter of time before our whole US economy utterly collapses. Mark my words; while the grand spending “party” of Bush and his Cabal is all but finished, the “hangovers” have yet to begin.
Bush and his Congressional cronies’ illegal war-mongering and pork barrel politics have all conspired to now “sell our country down the river”…. not only in international prestige as a shining light of democracy, but in having to now foot all the bills for their mind-bogglingly expensive, “total wars of preemption”.
Unfortunately, simply cranking up the printing presses at the Treasury to underwrite it all is only going to result in a horrific inflation of our currency, which is the one of the worst forms of tyranny any government can ever impose on its people.
So, regardless of who wins the White House in November, the free-spending legacy of George W. Bush and his “good old boy” cronies in the US Congress will be with us for as long as we remain a nation.
Unfortunately, arrogant ignorance isn’t an impeachable offense. But in light of what Bush and his Cabal have now done to our nation’s economy, it very well should be.
Here’s my take on the whole Primary situation. Economics is totally broken in America. I think it is the most important item to be discussed. The voters have no clue about the background of American economics and freedoms. Yes they are connected!
Ron Paul is the only Republican who understands the situation and how we were diverted from our basic capitalism through the greed of having the White House manipulate the corporations who screwed all of their employees and investors. The word “Capitalist” is now the worse thing anyone can be called. I know this and nobody running for office has even addressed the situation and continue to call capitalists the evil in America. Did it ever occur to anyone that this was a brilliant plan to destroy our nation?
Everyone is so eager to label others that we overlook the solutions to all our financial problems. The longer I look at the Bush/Clinton/Bush actions and the speeches from the candidates I see only utter destruction.
I don’t think the voters at this time are ready for a financial fix in D.C. You want your hand outs and you overlook your debts. The Democrats sound like sugar and honey as do most of the Republicans. Only one man has tried to discuss the economic fix that will save what is left of our nation.
Ron Paul has studied the economics of the Austrian school but it is not a simple solution. First we must stop the waste and abuse from the White House. We need to stop the threats from the IRS and the loss of our freedoms.
I will vote for Ron Paul in the Primary and I have money into his campaign to show my intent. But if Huckabee or any Christian runs on the GOP ticket I will pick Obama as we know he will beat those two-faced Conservatives.
This morning on CSPAN all the Democrats were featured at the Dem. dinner party last night. They will take us back to Carter and LBJ which may sound great to many of you but take a look at the interest rates that were double digit and the terrible school academic scores during those years. I even heard Kucinich talking about federal programs that will cost more than handing them over to private corporations. I know many of you believe that Americans need the government to handle manufacturing and safety standards that will drive up the cost of everything. Our taxes will be unpayable.
Many of you want a big fat overblown government and others want it slimmed down to be affordable. Big government has never improved the quality and that includes our schools.
It looks to me that many here are too lazy to improve their own lives and would rather sit back and wait for Big Daddy. I’ve been there several times and big government stands only for big government.
Ron Paul will stop the war and bring all our troops home. He will close the borders and he will slim down the federal government so we do not need the IRS.
It might take a couple of years before the budget will allow health care for everyone but you want it tomorrow and that will never happen without borrowing more money from the Arabs or China.
Anything would be better than what we have now, Bryan. It really is frustrating to have an election to select a person for the most important position in the world and not have a single person you really want to have it. I don’t consider any of them presidental material. A couple might make good VPs but I don’t feel like I want to “follow” any of them.
Given the cast of characters, I think things have gone as well as they could, so far. But then, as I have stated many times, stopping Hillary Clinton is the top priority. I’ll take Obama or Edwards (the only ones who could) to accomplish that. However, I have never cared for Edwards if I have to choose between those two. I have never gotten over how ridiculous he looked in his debate with Cheney in 2004. Like a little boy competing with a man. It was disgusting. And he was a trial lawyer?
Clinton is going to attack Obama in New Hampshire with everything she has. If it is extremely negative stuff she may hurt herself more than him. But he is going to have to be more assertive and direct in the debate Saturday night than he has been in the previous ones. He must come off as a confident man who will command and lead. That is the only thing lacking in his campaign so far.
He gives the impression he is always holding back. Lets all hold hands and be one nation is great, but the President Of the United States is a “leader.” I will say he is the only one of the three who gives the impression that you can trust him to keep his word. And he has taken NO corporate money for his campaign. But I do not like his health care plan that includes the insurnce corporations. The insurance companies should be excluded, period – exclamation point!
My hope is that Hillary comes in third again in this one. Obama will surely win South Carolina with its predominate black voter base. The polls indicate he will. Should he win all three the only thing that could keep Hillary in the race would be winning Florida where the Clintons are very popular. But even if she won there I doubt she would have a realistic chance for the nomination. Obama would probably sail on home to an early victory at the convention.
[Sorry – I know a lot of my writing is substandard right now but typing is so painful for me now that I just want to get it said and over with. I must correct mispellings in every sentence due to spasms and that is enough as long as I get my point across]
Change? YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING! Why has Doug not brought up the connection in Hawaii with Obama and Clinton? LOOK IT UP IN THE SEARCH ENGINES! Huckaby is a well-meaning average Joe that has no more ability to take on our problems than… well I could.
“If Jesus saves, well He better save himself… from the gory glory seekers, who use his name in death. Oh Jesus… save ME!” Jethro Tull
Jay Sr.
I couldn’t agree more, Doug. Except for one thing: Is there REALLY frozen tundra in Iowa? Are frozen, burned-out, ex-corn-stalks really considered tundra? I think you guys need a botany consultant over at CHB.
Just kidding. Nice piece, as usual.
Which is worse,a well intentioned Loon,or the full blown lunatic we have now?
You Ron Paul supporters are amazing. He has no chance. If he ran as an independent he would receive no more than One per cent of the vote once people found out about all of his loony ideas.
Doug, you should always rub the hard drive’s back and bring up a good burp.
I got a phone call this afternoon from a fan of yours (and mine). Very nice indeed.
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