Huck & Obama - It Means Nothing

That's my take. There is no way schmuckerbie is grabbing the brass ring. Say what you want but Iowa is not picking the President in the 08 race. It don't mean a thing, if he aint got that schwing. But I will say one thing, this is going to be a brutal year.

The Obama win over the Clintonistas is quite delicious though :)

Huckabie will never beat Obama. Never

Huckabee Defeats Romney in Iowa

DES MOINES, Iowa (Jan. 3) - Mike Huckabee, a Baptist preacher turned politician, rode a wave of support from evangelical Christians to victory Thursday night in the Iowa caucuses, first test in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards struggled for supremacy in a close Democratic contest.

Obama takes Billary - this should be good. Watch how ugly this gets

Gateway had the best on the scene coverage - his sister (so great!)

Surber reminds us; all links indispensably provided by Larwyn

Iowa explained

President Muskie meet President Gephardt.

I ran this post on Dec. 12 but I am trotting it back out today since this is caucus night:

Ken Rudin of NPR gave a nice rundown of the rise of the Iowa Caucus from a curio in 1972 to the center of the universe in 2007.

His recap of 9 presidential races reminded me that the presidency is like any other priesthood: Many are called, few are chosen.

The cattle call included Birch Bayh in 1976, Phil Crane in 1980, and Reubin Askew in 1984.

The list of winners (incumbent presidents excluded) include Edmund Muskie in 1972, Jimmy Carter in 1976, Bush (over Reagan) in 1980, Mondale in 1984, Dick Gephardt and Bob Dole in 1988, Dole in 1996, Bush 43 and Gore in 2000, and Kerry in 2004.

I left out Democrat Tom Harkin in 1992 because he was a homeboy.

Of the 10 contested races, only 6 winners were their party's nominee and only 2 (Carter and Bush 43) were elected that year. But also note that Iowa has a 4-man winning streak on nominees.

 

Press Should Withdraw From Iowa & Get New Journalists Democracy Project

The Newsosaur blogger Alan Mutter brings his heavy experience in newspapers, cable-TV and making lots of money to examining the media. He emphasizes more local coverage.

Another blogger, Steve Boriss of The Future of News blog, is Associate Director of the Center for the Application of Information Technology at Washington University in St. Louis. Boriss emphasizes that a new breed of journalists is needed.

Mutter points out the declining market value of newspapers

[...]

Mutter also points out that there is one journalist in Iowa for every 100 caucus voters :

While I am as interested as anyone in whether Barack Ob-literates Hillary or Huck Romps Romney, I can't see the point of concentrating more than 2,500 representatives of our resource-constrained news organizations on this one-night wonder of a set-piece story.

The number of journalists issued credentials this year is "almost twice the 1,400 that were authorized in 2004," reports the New York Times…

Meanwhile, down south a ways;

A Shocking Statistic 01/03 07:06 PM

A Rudy campaign source notes that more absentee ballots have already been requested by Republicans in Florida than the number of Republicans who will participate in tonight's caucuses.

In 2000, a record 108,000 participated in the Iowa Republican caucus. This year, organizers expect around 80,000.

A dozen states are voting absentee right now.

Team Giuliani must find not participating in Iowa as a double-edged sword. Sure, they're out of the news, but it's hard for them to underperform expectations, and either Huckabee or Romney is going to find themselves with some bad buzz for coming in second. Thompson may be facing a pivotal moment. Meanwhile, Team Rudy can pop the bubbly if they hit double digits, and know that they don't start hitting must-win moments until, oh, Florida or so.

Read it all folks

Somebody's very afraid of Fred

Back in June Charlie Foxtrot was saying that

You know that the left is feeling threatened, when they have already started trying to tear down Fred Thompson. And he isn't even in the race yet....

There's the time the NYT phoned one in, fireman's hat non-story , and more recently the Mad Magazine School of Journalism.

And let's not forget about the gun-toting womanizing twice-married gay guy who is loved by his children and liked by attractive women lawyer -who might have lobbied on abortion sixteen years ago -Senator movie star on horseback meme, which was preceded by a racist smear , plus that other time an idiotic reporter named Monica who - of all people - said the name Fred is low rent.

Today's attack was more direct: Jonathan Martin at Politico is quoting unnamed sources trying to make us believe that Fred's about to drop out and endorse McCain.

The one thing I've learned since I started blogging is that unnamed sources should make you ask one thing:
Who has the most to gain from spreading a rumor?

And that was exactly what crossed my mind when I first read about this rumor at Betsy's this morning. I'll leave the speculation to you, but I don't believe it was the McCain people.

Fortunately Fred's speaking out for himself:

GOP presidential hopeful Fred Thompson said in an in-studio interview with KCCI-TV in Des Moines that there is no truth to rumors that his campaign will fold before New Hampshire if he doesn't have a strong showing in Iowa.

"That is absolutely made up out of whole cloth," said the former U.S. Senator from Tennessee.

Thompson said a rival campaign was likely the source of that rumor.

"Can you imagine such a thing in politics?" he asked.

Comments

[Surak]

I'm going to try to post this again.

We have such an excellent team in the primaries, it seems a shame to whittle it down. So here's my suggestion:
Pres.: Fred Thompson
Vice-Pres.: Mitt Romney
Sec. of State: Rudy Giuliani
Sec. of War: John McCain
Sec. of Treasury: Steve Forbes
Atty. General: Andy McCarthy
Sec. of Homeland Security: Duncan Hunter
National Security Adviser: John Bolton
A team that can take on the world!

[Surak]

I'm going to try to post this again.

We have such an excellent team in the primaries, it seems a shame to whittle it down. So here's my suggestion:
Pres.: Thompson
Vice-Pres.: Romney
Sec. of State: Giuliani
Sec. of War: McCain
Sec. of Treasury: Forbes
Atty. General: Andy McCarthy
Sec. of Homeland Security: Hunter
National Security Adviser: Bolton
A team that can take on the world!

[Surak]

BTW, I'm glad Fred's still in it. Iowa is one state. They voted for national chaplain. Fine. Now give us someone who doesn't apologize because someone in another country murdered someone else, who doesn't reward illegal aliens, who doesn't set violent criminals loose on the street, etc. The other 49 states can teach Iowa a lesson.

[luckybee]

I am worried about the victory of Barak Obama in IOWA. If he become the president of the USA,that could be the end of Israel en the EU as we know it now.