Obama Wins Iowa: Why Everyone Has a Reason to Celebrate
Even if your candidate didn't win tonight, you have reason to celebrate. We all do.
Barack Obama's stirring victory in Iowa -- down home, folksy, farm-fed, Midwestern, and 92 percent white Iowa -- says a lot about America, and also about the current mindset of the American voter.
Because tonight voters decided that they didn't want to look back. They wanted to look into the future -- as if a country exhausted by the last seven years wanted to recapture its youth.
Bush's re-election in 2004 was a monument to the power of fear and fear-mongering. Be Very Afraid was Bush/Cheney's Plans A through Z. The only card in the Rove-dealt deck. And it worked. America, its vision distorted by the mushroom clouds conjured by Bush and Cheney, made a collective sprint to the bomb shelters in our minds, our lizard brains responding to fear rather than hope.
And the Clintons -- their Hillary-as-incumbent-strategy sputtering -- followed the Bush blueprint in Iowa and played the fear card again and again and again.
Be afraid of Obama, they warned us. Be afraid of something new, something different. He might meet with our enemies. His middle name is Hussein. He went to a madrassa school. A vote for him would be like rolling the dice, the former president said on Charlie Rose.
And the people of Iowa heard him, and chose to roll the dice.
Obama's win might not have legs. Hope could give way to fear once again. But, for tonight at least, it holds a mirror up to the face of America, and we can look at ourselves with pride. This is the kind of country America was meant to be, even if you are for Clinton or Edwards -- or even Huckabee or Giuliani.
It's the kind of country we've always imagined ourselves being -- even if in the last seven years we fell horribly short: a young country, an optimistic country, a forward-looking country, a country not afraid to take risks or to dream big.
Bill Clinton has privately told friends that if Hillary didn't win, it would be because of the two weeks that followed her shaky performance in the Philadelphia debate.
But it wasn't those two weeks. Indeed, if we were to pinpoint one decisive moment, it would be Bill Clinton on Charlie Rose, arrogant and entitled, dismissive and fear-mongering. And then Bill Clinton giving us a refresher course in '90s-style truth-twisting and obfuscation -- making stuff up about always having been against the war, and about Hillary having always been for every good decision during his presidency and against every bad one, from Ireland to Sarajevo to Rwanda.
So voters in Iowa remembered the past and decided that they didn't want to go back. They wanted to move ahead. Even if that meant rolling the dice.
Again, this moment may not last. But, for tonight, I am going to savor it -- and cross my fingers that it may stand as the day that fear as a winning political tactic died. Killed by an "unlikely" candidate -- as Obama called himself again and again -- who seized the moment, and reminded America of its youth and the optimism it longs to recapture.
Follow Arianna Huffington on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ariannahuff
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I know a small number of individuals who voted for Bush in 2004 who have changed their minds and are willing to vote for a Democrat. Judging from the polls, it would appear that these folks are not alone. There appears to be a majority of citizens who understand how far off the path the Iraq war and tax breaks for the rich and deregulation and privatization and presidentail superpowers have taken us. So, we have an opportunity to get back on track in the next election. You Huffpro purists who hate Hillary more than you hate Bush might well help to derail that opportunity. If you run Obama against - say- McCain - who will win, do you think? The highly respected, well-known veteran of the Vietnam war with years of experience and a soft-spoken solidity that engenders that sense of security sought by so many voters, or the cute black guy with limited experience and the ability to give a fine speech who is not well-known? So, roll the dice, Huffpro purists. Be right. Be noble. Be pure. But, for the sake of this country, do not blow this election.
It does not diminish the significance of Obama's victory, but to a large extent it is the result of the anachronistic Iowa Caucus system itself, which was played with virtuosity by the Obama campaign. His campaign focused on inspiring participation by non traditional voters; students, independents, disgruntled Repubs to help dramatically expand his voter pool.
This may not translate in the same fashion in the future contests.
The difference between Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama is that Hillary wants to be President and Barak wants to change America into a more just, fair and respectable country. Obama's race is important because it proves that he is not of the old school boy network. He has had to work hard, care hard, and be hardened from all the criticism in order to succeed. Talk about experience! Obama knows America from the inside, as he knows himself.
Sorry folks. But if you think that Obama supports America and Americans first, you really need to read this. Why can't we find a candidate who thinks of us first. Our country is in dire need of AMERICAN leadership. Article from The Canadian Jewish News:
Friday, 04 January 2008
And he chose a gathering of the pro-Israel lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, last March to deliver his presidential candidacy's first foreign policy speech.
"Some of my earliest and most ardent supporters came from the Jewish community in Chicago," Obama told JTA in 2004, after his keynote speech galvanized the Democratic convention in Boston.
Three years later, addressing the National Jewish Democratic Council's candidate's forum, he made the same point when he was asked about his ties with Arab Americans and Muslim Americans in Chicago.
"My support within in the Jewish community has been much more significant than my support within the Muslim community," Obama said at the April forum, adding: "I welcome and seek the support of the Muslim and Arab communitie
His Jewish followers are fervent, distributing "Obama '08" yarmulkes early in his campaign.
His rock-star status as well as the relationships Obama has built in the community have helped avoided murmurings about his otherwise notable divergences from pro-Israel orthodoxies.
In his AIPAC speech, for example, Obama favored diplomacy as a means of confronting Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program. "While we should take no option, including military action, off the table, sustained and aggressive diplomacy combined with tough sanctions should be our primary means to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons," he said.
AIPAC does not oppose diplomacy in engaging Iran, but dislikes it as an emphasis, believing that talks could buy the Iranian regime bomb-making time. But his words did not stop the Chicago hotel ballroom packed with 800 AIPAC members from cheering Obama on.
http://www
An America Blacks dont believe. But maybe they will.
The Kennedy-esque Kenyan and the Aw-Shucks Bass Player
I feel proud to be an American today. We, vicariously through Iowa, are showing the world that change is coming, that here in the land of the free and the home of the brave, we can lift a man named Barack Hussein Obama to the world stage on our behalf. Obama is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, and was president of the Harvard Review. It's beyond reassuring to imagine replacing Georgie Porgie with real brain power. Imagine a great orator in the White House! Remember Kennedy!
Mike Huckabee is a Baptist preacher who can rock the bass guitar. Let's not forget how he morphed physically, losing a hunded and twenty pounds a few years back. Mysteriously, if you look over Huckabee's shoulder, you may see a cross or you may see Chuck Norris. I look at him and am reminded at times of Kevin Spacey. This kind of stuff catches ordinary folk's attention. Huckabee has captured the Iowans' votes with relatively little money and virtually no political machine.
I can't wait to see what will happen in New Hampshire. It's fabulous to see democracy in action, and to watch the race crystallize. It can make a person feel vital, young, excited, hopeful, proud, and alive.
Power to the people!
www.thehur
I'm an Obama supporter, and I thought he did good tonight, especially early on. In fact, early on, I thought it was incredibly one-sided in his favor. By contrast, early on, I thought Clinton seemed defensive; Edwards seemed bitchy. In the middle of the debate, though, I thought Edwards and Clinton really started shining. Wow, Edwards was good! And Hillary was intelligent AND likable. For a while there, we were privileged to be witness to three titans, each of whom made an object lesson on what a great president would be. Toward the end, I thought that Obama seemed deflated; Edwards was still strong; and Clinton was getting stronger. In the end (as I've been all season), I felt that we would be in good hands with any of the three, but that Obama remained my first choice. The only question I had was, Who was that dope sitting between Obama and Clinton?
I think Obama deserved to win. Quite frankly, Hillary's mantra of experience does not give me any warm fuzzies. In fact, her close ties to the power elites gives me the shivers. I simply don't believe her and I don't trust her.
And people have asked: "Are we ready for a black man or a woman?" And the people said, "We are ready to turn this country upside down if that's what it takes to get it back to our people." And then there was hope.
We need someone different from the status quo. Senator O. might help us through the comming horrors caused by the crimes of the real rulers; the military industrial energy complex elite. Based upon the mega crisis in the financial markets and the destruction of jobs by "free trade" or "the two billion Asian slaves innitiative", people around the world will soon have to revolt against the rulers in order to eat, and revolutions are bloody and wreak terror upon everyone. Only someone at the top of society, say a President, can possibly stave off such bloodshed by enforcing the laws of common humanity and holding the rulers accountable for their crimes.
You want "experience",I give you Messrs (Messers) Cheney,Rum
BILL CLINTON DID IT--IT WAS THE WHOLE MESS OF THE
NINETIES, AND PEOPLE ARE SICK OF IT--AND THE TWISTED WRANGLING OF WORDS IS SO MUCH LIKE THE
DETRITUS OF TWO BUSH TERMS, THERE WAS A PROFOUND GAG--AND PEOPLE WENT ELSEWHERE. LLET US HOPE IT LASTS, AND THAT WE ARE ON THE WAY FAR
AWAY FROM THE CENTRIST COMPROMISES OF THE CLINTONS WHO CHOSE THE IRAQ WAR TO GEORGE BUSH
WHO LIED AND DEFRAUDED HIS NATION WITH A FAKE WAR---TREASON. JAMES MC CORMICK--WITH MODEST HOPE FOR THE REPUBLIC
People get a grip.
Only 11% of Iowans bothered to show up last Thursday. Obama got 3% of Iowans to vote for him, and Edwards and Clinton each got 2%. The number of people that did show up and vote represent only .0001% of the US population.
Everyone is falling all over themselves to say that the people voted for change, except you overlooked the 89% who also voted not to show up and hence voted for the status quo.
If you look at the entrance polls for new people that showed up for the Dems 30% showed up for Obama, 28% for Clinton, and 24% showed up for Edwards. This by the way represents the Dems as a whole for that night. When you add the 2nd choice to these numbers you arrive at the final totals of Obama 30+8=38%, Edwards 24+6=30%, and Clinton 28+1=29%. No where else can you force someone to pick another choice when the first is not high enough.
What all this means is the Dems were able to all get more people to show up but it was a pathetic 11% (7.5% for Dems/3.5% for Reps)of the population that said anything.
That is all it said.
* NO HISTORY
* NO CHANGE
* NO DECISION
We all need to wait until Feb 5th when 28 states will have had something to say, it is that simple.
Hillary is beginning to come across like
'Mistress Clinton'.
Yes Madam, may I have another?
Thank you, Madam.
Those who are tardy will not receive fruitcup!!!
Yes Arianna who love yeah. The voting was both refreshing and inspiring. As an old veteran I smiled for the first time in a long time.
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