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 am befuddled by the idea that Republicans would rather run against Obama. Wasn't Karl Rove himself declaring Hillary the inevitable nominee a few months ago? They would rather not run against someone who half the electorate have said they would never vote for? They would rather run against the eloquent and inspiring change agent over the devisive Hillary with all the baggage and the shrill voice? They prefer not to run against the one that loses almost all the head to head polls to the Republicans, in favor of someone that wins almost all those polls? Am I missing something?
"Obama's win might not have legs. Hope could give way to fear once again. "
funny, using the prospect of fear as a fear tactic. Not exactly... "Fear Itself".
Again, the left shows off their true colors, Sutpidity, hypocriscy, dingbattery, thurst to control over every aspect of everything .... "takes a village", blah, etc .. Obama gives me everything but hope.
The Clinton years were the best for this country in my lifetime. Why wouldn't anybody want those years revisited which is what will happen if hillary is elected.
I'm glad it wasn't Hillary but I have no faith in Obama. He and Hillary are basicly the same candidate with a few minor diffrences. What change can Obama bring? He has lobbyists working for him and he is taking big money form the same people Hillary is.
If you saw him during the debates he looked lost. except for a few moments.
Edwards would be the one to change the face of the nation. He's been fighting against the big Corp's....
Arianna, the message sent from the Caucus outcome in Iowa is load and clear.
WE WANT OUR COUNTRY BACK.
This message came from both the first and second place finishes for Obama and Edwards and the victory of Huckabee on the Republican side with his growing populist message.
The big losers were any candidates that seemed to represent the Corporatist Status Quo.
A friend of mine from Italy once told me that National Leaders can get away with pretty much anything they want as long as the people's stomachs are full. In a very real way the American People are hungry. The People of Iowa signaled that with the way the Caucuses played out.
I am very happy Obama won, it is great for America in a myriad of ways, but there is something very important here as well ... America is beyond the time for Platitudes. Obama hit a Grand Slam with the sentiment of his speech yesterday, but there needs to be real ACTION associated with the words. Obama and everyone else needs to understand that the stakes for America have never been higher ... we need an FDR or a Theodore Roosevelt to get us out of the mess we are in.
I think the message of Edwards needs to be heeded ... Obama needs to be a Fighter to the core, and recognize that as important as national reconciliation is, there is territory that needs to be reclaimed from the Republicans for the good of the Nation and the Republicans will fight like hell to prevent any loss of ground.
I celebrate the Victory of the Democratic turnout ... I celebrate the second place finish of fighting John Edwards ... and I celebrate that the Iowans rose to the occasion and rewarded Obama, an amazing Democratic Candidate with a tremendous, and well deserved victory.
America is a better place with the results from Iowa, but there are still a lot of battles left to be waged.
TO: Senator Barack Obama's Victory in Iowa January 4, 2008
Clearly, Senator Barack Obama's victory at Iowa is an indicator that people want of Iraq. I'm glad he defeated Ex-gov Mitt Romney because I remember how when Sen. Barack Obama who was the only one by the way who did the most intelligent thing he wanted to catch the enemy Osama Bin Laden over there in Pakistan. Anyone knows that if you catch the head of an organization that this can quell the organization and defeat its bad intentions and purposes. How courageous that was for Sen. Barack Obama to do this. Yet, Ex-gov Mitt Romney twisted his words and his intentions so dishonestly. Just one thing though, Senator Obama, please prove your a Christian since people are wary of this. You must have some proof of this so again you can quell peoples' fears for hope once again.
President Thomas Jefferson stated,"Although he believed in the will of the majority of people, he yet was insistent that the Rights of the Minority be protected. By the way it was Pres. Jefferson's wife whose father left her slaves as to why Pres. Jefferson had slaves. I feel he came to his own rightfully and intelligently knowing slavery is wrong. President Jefferson also was a Christian and believed in Jesus.
Eva Hart Christian Army 62-70 670 Eddy St. Sfc 94109
Obama won by using repug talking points against Hillary and JRE. He says that Gore and Kerry were unelectable from the beginning when Gore got the most popular votes of any presidential candidates. I am a yellow dog democrat but if Huckabee is the nominee for the repugs I am going with him because he is a populist which I think america needs right now. If JRE does not win the nomination for the dems, I will go with Huckabee.
"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-monge
Come on, Arianna. I'm a huge CR fan, but how many people watch the show? That's just a bad attempt at poetic justice. Hillary was a mistake away from losing ground because while most Democrats dislike her, the only thing she had going for herself was that "aura of inevitability" that even I bought into at some point.
For all the positive things about Obama's win that you mention, I thought Huffpost would be awash with Obama's news and op-eds. Instead I'm reading about Chuck Norris' wife and Jeff Beck's surgery. I find that puzzling.
If this is a contest of style over substance, Barack would win.
All I keep hearing about is Obama's potential. Good intentions are nice, but I can't imagine the voters needing and investing in that.
Hillary's presence is real. She's already accomplished many of the things they say he "might." A good speech and shiny package is nice but her relationships, experience and knowledge are required to do the gig.
Obama likes to talk a lot about "kicking the tires and looking under the hood." But he has not been test driven. When you get the car home does it perform well under stress, under rough conditions, in stormy weather. Can it hold up to the slings and arrows?
He's talking about taking the trip, but he's still on the lot.
Hillary began her journey long ago. She can get us there. She's already moving.
It says more about America's ease of being lied to than about race relations.
A halfway compitent salesman can sell water to thristy customers.
An overly well-funded unknown candidate, given enough money and press coverage, can be sold to a nation so traumatized by the last 7 years.
We have bought a very pretty, slick pig in a poke here and the republicans seem to fine with it.
Even Hitler could sell himself to a nation that was desperate.
I hope these idealistic young voters have done some really fine research and not just taken the press's word for what we have just bought.
I haven't heard anything from this candidate about specifics or real deatiled plans,
just...Hop
remember Eugene McCarthy
I advise for everyone to watch more C-span during this election, and not only one segment but diversified presentations on all candidated, and viewers that call in. It's very interesting and you learn a lot about the candidates.
I could live with President Edwards, I would rejoice in President Obama, but please, please, please save me from Hillary Clinton. Enough of spinning, triangulation and the poisonous politics that Bill and his wife have brought to our great republic.
While I am rooting for Edwards, and am happy for Obama and congratulate him and his team, it would be a mistake to underestimate Hillary and her ability to rebound.
It was a bad night to come in third, but Bush, Sr. came in third in 1988 and went onto win. If she is to win, she cannot be the candidate of the past. She needs to take on the mantle of change herself.
This race will certainly continue on to Feb. 5 and SuperDuper Tuesday.
The big winner is the Democratic Party itself. Those turnout numbers of Democrats over Republicans are VERY impressive.
This is a change election. The Republicans also rejected their establishment candidate. They voted for authenticity.
I am always happy when people vote their hearts and minds instead of such things as "tactics" and "electability".
While Obama deserves congratulations, this race is far from over. The nominee thankfully will not ultimately be chosen by one state alone, nor should it.
Arianna, it was nice to see ordinary Americans choosing the candidates they thought would best serve them.
Having said that, however, we must realize that the final candidates chosen will be those that are hand-picked (and groomed) by the real powers, those that represent the CFR and Tri-Lateral people, those who wish to control both money and people, without thought of American values. Bet on it.
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