Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Woken From My Nap by Iowa

It's 2012.  That means it's Election Season, a whole month earlier than last time because everybody is jealous of Iowa and New Hampshire having dibs.  So where does that leave us?

The Republicans finally started picking people for real in yesterday's Iowa caucus.  The candidates that have emerged all have momentum, and they couldn't be more different.  Mitt Romney is John McCain, just Republican enough to be a credible candidate and earn the "so-called-electable" title.  Rick Santorum blasted into the caucuses, sucking all the air out of the candidacies of Rick Perry (who went home to sulk) and Michelle Bachmann (who quit -- and she should have known in advance that the Republicans would only vote for a woman if there was no other evangelical choice).  It's left Newt Gingrich, the epitome of Beltway establishment, alive but damaged.

Then there's Ron Paul.  Oh my.  What do we do about Paul?  Initially written off as a stunt candidacy, his very real 21 percent has left both the Republican party and the media flummoxed.  Pasting him for his '80s newsletters, which we already knew about from '08) hasn't gain traction, so I'm starting to see negative codewords pop up in the media's reluctant coverage:  Extremist.  Isolationist.  Dangerous.  Beginning the drumbeat of doubt, the media are a bit upset that their favorite, Romney, hasn't had the free waltz into the nomination they were hoping.

On the other end of the candidate race, Gary Johnson finally got fed up with being ignored and jilted by both the media and his own party and has heard the siren song of a campaign as a Libertarian.  That's Big-L Libertarian, as in the Libertarian Party.  I don't know....if Johnson thinks he'll get more attention as a Libertarian, he's sadly deluded.  Remember the last Libertarian candidate?  I bet you don't.  The LP's fate when into more-bizarro-land by throwing Bob Barr (yeah, THAT Bob Barr, the Neo-Con from Georgia) at the wall to see if he would stick.  Okay, so you might have heard of him.  What about 2004?  His name was Michael Badnarik.  Before that?  Financial newsletter publisher Harry Browne, twice.  2000 and 1996 sucked up whatever wealth Browne had accumulated.  Before that?  Eeps, I almost forgot Alaska legislator Andre Marrou in 1992.  I dare you to pronounce it right on the first try.  Before that?

Ron Paul.  Funny how everything old is new again.

2012 promises to be a barn-burner of a race.  I just hope whoever wins doesn't make my life worse.

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