Iowa Fallout

Okay. First of all, I was wrong in one earlier assessment. Barack Obama doesn't bore me. The idea of Obama bores me. But, I forgot about his speech at the Democratic National Convention last time around, and I happened to catch his victory speech. Wow. He's a talker. I may have to consider throwing my non-voting support to Obama. On the other hand, Huckabee mopped up Romney and the field in Iowa. And he's a talker, as well. He also plays the self-deprecating humor well.

What's interesting is that I don't have a clue about what either guy's policies are, as a whole. I know some snippets, like the "fair tax" thing that Huckabee's going on. But, like what I've been talking about, both here and over on IJAB (R.I.P, Greg, by the way), it's not your policies. It's how tall you are, how good your hair is, and how well you perform on TV. I mean, did you see Huckabee on Leno? The candidates that have a winning personality, and let it show on TV do well. I'm convinced that Bob Dole could've made it a closer race against Bill Clinton, had he done SNL and Conan before the election. Instead, he was a punching bag for Conan. But once he got on there, people saw that he was funny, good-humored, and was more than just a stodgy war vet with a pen in his hand.

The thing is, you saw Obama pull it off on SNL last year. You see that Obama's got his serious side, but he can be a cool cat to roll with. But when Hillary tries to do it, she comes off flat. She's just a bitch, no matter where she is. Bill rocked it out on MTV, with his sax and his "boxers or briefs" questions. The best thing for Hillary could be rocking it out on TRL, and having some college kid ask her if she wears a thong... of course, that could also be the worst thing for her, as well if people start visualizing that... yikes.

On the elephant side, I think that McCain can start to get some momentum, as can Fred Thompson, if they have similar success in New Hampshire. I can see this Romney bid falling apart quickly if he doesn't improve, because he won't be fighting for 1st in South Carolina...
The Ron Paul movement's an interesting one to watch. I enjoy seeing how people are willing to waste millions of dollars on an unelectable candidate (honestly, he just comes off as being the very nice, but sort of crazy old man that gives out loose change on Halloween, not a leader of men) so that they can express the sentiment that they support the basic theory they don't have to do anything unless they want to.

With the donkeys, I'm intrigued by Edwards' success, sort of waiting for Obama and Hillary to slug it out, and maybe slip in. His "everyman" message still seems reminiscent of those old carpet baggers who swindled poor folk back in the day. He's just too slick, too pretty, with hair that's too good, to be in it for a grass-roots sort of thing. I think that's why I think that he's shady... it's just not a congruent story.

Next posting will be talk about ignorance, implicit racism, and sports here in the heartland. I'm already riled up about it...

-Chairman