Iowa Thunderbolt

Republicans finally saying we need a new way? ..YUP.....!!!

Barack Obama plain shellacked Hillary ..yah mean "kicked her ass"...a sultry 3rd place finish equals absolutely "no cigar"..seems Bill will now have to buy his own !!!

I actually laughed and got excited about the coming election..maybe I can vote after all ..!!

Froggy

Hey BF, you're right about the Republicans needing a new way, but I'm not sure Huckabee is the right way. Conservatism just hasn't seemed to work lately - we need to be more flexible with all our major policy decisions.

I'm happy about Obama winning as well. I'm not against a woman as president but I am against politics as usual which I think Hillary is representing. The democrats need a new way too!

KesBowl ..

I concur on both very good points you make.

For me in particular ..I just want to "get excited" about the elections coming up. I want to hear about new "life invigorating energy" to propel our great country back to pre-911 .. I don;t want to save the world or fight gobal disputes ..I want America to become "healthy and proud"..

The old political crew just don;t have the "creative juices" to make that happen ..! I keep my fingers crossed hoping somebody from either party breaks through the "old wall" and gets me excited aboput voting !

I am really irk'd at the Mich Dems for ignoring the rules they agreed to follow in the primaries..They have reduced that to an excersize of futility because both Obama and Edwards "are not on the ballot"..what's the point of participating when 2/3's of the real players are missing !!!

BadFrog

As I have said before: "The only requirement I NOW have (for voting) is that the candidate NOT represent the republican party. I don't care if they are black, female, Mormon, christian or even Muslim. I just FLAT do not trust the republican party anymore

(not that I trust any of them a whole lot). They are at the bottom of the barrel (for me).

As a native Iowan I am never surprised by the Caucus results. The state is split between progressives & The Hard Right. However over all Iowans are fair & do think before voting.

I grew up in the only town with a large percentage (about12%) of African/Americans so a bit more use to differences. I note that Obama got about 43% of the vote in that county so evidently he did well with the Black community as well as the more Liberal College (UNI) area of Cedar Falls.

I guess Bill Clinton's appeal to the black voters did not translate to Hillary even though he made several visits to Waterloo.

In Michigan, our primary is January 15 but the Democrats are boycotting it. Of the big 3, only Clinton is on the ballot. McCain seems to have a good shot at winning Michigan - both major Detroit newspapers endorsed him. The experts are saying that Michigan is do or die for Romney, especially if he fares poorly in New Hampshire. He is seen to have an advantage here because he's originally from Michigan and if he can't carry his "home state," then what can he carry?

New Hampshire is now upon us. The quote of the day came from Barack Obama while addressing a crowd there. It was recorded and shown on ABC World News Tonight:

"I am riding a wave. You people out there are the wave and I am riding you."

It is a funny quote but that is why I would never want to run for president. You are constantly forced to say things and no one in the world can talk as long as a presidential candidate and not eventually say something stupid. That includes the candidates themselves.

The point here is that the American people have to listen carefully to everyone and do their best to separate the real ideas from the blah-blah-blah. The sad thing is that I am not sure most of the population are up for that.