I don’t know – the turnout in Iowa was roughly 240,000 Democrats to 115,000 Republicans. I don’t think the blue team has to work too hard to get into the Whitehouse this year. And Obama has the ability to shame people for not working together towards a common cause. He can effectively embarrass you in front of your own constituency, without slinging an ounce of mud.
And as it turns out, Obama was the president of the Harvard Law Review, then got his juris doctorate, magna cum laude. Then he worked as an associate at a Chicago law firm for three years, and he also taught constitutional law at the U of Chicago for eleven years, until he was elected to the Illinois Senate. However, he wasn’t a trial lawyer, as far as I know.
I think even Republicans are ready for a change. Yeah, not the Rove/Cheney cabal, but I’m betting you’ll find a lot of Republicans in Congress who would be more willing than you’d expect to do some compromising to get some things done if the environment in Washington, among both parties, was back to let’s get some things done and make the country happy with us again.
Those same pundits were predicting that Hillary would have an advantage in South Carolina because of its ethnic makeup and higher support amongst blacks due to Clinton era reforms not so long ago.
Meanwhile, in a fit of political optimism which I assume will subside back into bitterness and loathing soon enough, I made an online contribution to the Obama campaign today. He should be able to buy a fancy coffee drink and a muffin with it.
Plus universal health care, elimination of the tax breaks for companies sending work off-shore, a relatively quick disengagement from Iraq, a tax simplification program, amendments to NAFTA to correct some issues in it, extensions of the Trade Adjustment Assistance program to help those who are losing jobs, an energy plan that gives auto manufacturers incentives to make sure that the more fuel efficient cars are made in the U.S., a fairly comprehensive renewable energy plan, modification of the Universal Service Plan to provide universal broad band coverage, a program to make it more attractive to doctors to move to rural areas (where there is a crisis of a lack of easy doctor access,) pressure to enact easier Union organization (I disagree with his approach here,) indexing minimum wage to inflation rather than having to pass minimum wage increase bills whenever it is politically correct for Congress to bring it up, introduction of the HOME act to make it easier for potential borrowers to compare and see the true costs of mortgage finance offers, a fairly comprehensive approach to stop credit card companies from being predatory wolves and taking advantage of people (for example, the practice of increasing someone’s rate to something like 24% for being late on a payment would only allow them to apply that rate to future purchases under the premise that you’ve already agreed to a rate on the current obligation, and also approaches to prevent card companies from charging such outrageous rates in the first place,) reforms in the bankruptcy laws that includes provisions such as providing relief for families that would have to file for bankruptcy due to medical bills (i.e., the family that goes bankrupt because someone gets cancer or is in a bad car crash, etc. no longer has to go broke,) expansion of the Family and Medical Leave Act, specific improvements to the Child and Dependent Care tax credits - and that is just a shortened list, just a few I picked out, of his proposed programs and platforms in the area of the Economy. He has similar detailed proposals and plans in the areas of Civil Rights, Education, Energy and Environment, Technology, Senior Citizens, Poverty, Rural America, Immigration, Iraq, Service programs, Security, and about a half dozen other areas.
So yeah, he inspires people. Along with a very detailed, comprehensive platform on a wide variety of issues. As opposed to candidates who have no capability to lead and inspire people and much less detailed and comprehensive specifics platforms.
When we lived in Vermont, another member of this list was fond of pointing out that “Our vote really doesn’t count”. It made 2000 all the more depressing
Probably because they are running (badly) from a position of weakness. When your frontrunner’s trump card is Chuck Norris, the party’s in trouble. That’s not to count them out altogether, but the Democratic race (as you can see from the love letters here on qt3) is, for the moment at least, a much more dynamic and interesting animal.
