Democracy At Work

[Gayle in MD]

As much as I look forward to my league night, I stayed home last night to watch the Iowa caucus live, on C-Span.

I've never actually watch the process in progress before, and all I can say, is that I was so full of pride in my country, and so impressed with the sight of democracy in progress, that I think I fell asleep with a smile on my face.

What I saw last night gave me renewed hope for our country, and the ability of its citizens to plow through the tools of distraction, to the heart of the issues.

Additionally, is was telling, flipping back and forth, from the live coverage, to the usual political talking heads, and watching them trying to dramatize the petty, and unimportant, while the great celebration of democracy which was right there under their noses, recieved so little notice.

What a great country we live in. I am looking so forward to observing the rest of our election process, and hoping that nothing untoward arrises to cloud it, or disenfranchise the spirit of American voters.

Gayle in Md.
Believing in the greatness of the United States Of America!

[LWW]

On that we can agree.

LWW

[Deeman3]

Gayle,

I enjoyed it as well. Although it is a small sample of the entire electorate, I think Obama has won a very decisive victory despite Hurculean efforts by Clinton to literally drive 5,000 people to the events. While this does not put her out, it gives Obama a big boost that he quite frankly earned in a state that you would expect him to not do very well in.

On the Republican side, I think Huckabee's victory, while impressive, is probably short term. I don't know if McCain can come back but the process, like you say, is great to watch, if not a little drawn out. Huckabee, unlike Obama, won't see a surge of incoming funds over the next few weeks and his lack of a national organization will hurt him.

My interest is to see what behaviour we now see in terms of attacks on the opposition by both party's now second and third place candidates, if the "let's play nice" that has for the most part, been observed, turns into gorilla warfare.

It would seem, because of race, that Obama may be a tough "target" for Hillary now while Romney certainly has some openings on Huckabee in his soft underbelly of his handling of Arkansas, (Pardons, taxes, etc.).

I think the biggest questions perhaps answered last night was "can a black man be elected as President?" Certainly if he can carry a state like Iowa, he is electable. Also, it will be much harder for the DNC to side with the Clintons now, which, I think, is a relief to a large group of Democrats who doubted her ability to be elected.

It's gonna be a fun run up to Feb. 5th....