The Morning After

Romancing the Stone

In the movie, "Romancing the Stone," one bumbling would be thief castigates another for trying to steal a valuable object through sweet talk and deception rather than blatantly seizing it. Some might say that the two winners in the Iowa caucus romanced the stone from their opponents. Let's review what happened.

Several weeks ago Hillary Clinton was the heir apparent for the Democratic presidential nomination just as sure as the Bumbling Bush had been his party's favorite prior to the 2000 election. But that is where the similarities end. For month's even the tenor of Senator Hillary's speeches were flavored with "When I am elected..." It seemed she was ready, willing and able to accept the party's nomination. Some in her camp might have successfully predicted "Bye, bye Biden" and the end to the musical "Elect Sweeney Dodd," but aside from his wife, few would have recognized the political "Bam" in Obama. Senator Clinton had the pedigree (though Repubs would disagree), the big bucks, both in terms of money and the party stags who boosted her candidacy, and a hubby who is the apple of the eye of the Democratic constituency.

Obama had youth. Oh, and later he had the endorsement of Oprah. He was so young, inexperienced, and naive that he didn't know he couldn't garner more votes than the other candidates. His opponent was Casey at the Bat. And when the votes were tallied the mighty Casey had struck out. The verdict even favored Bygone John Edwards to pillory Hillary.

In the spirit of the just ended college football season, the opposing team had their own upset victory. The mayor who single handedly saved New York didn't bother to show up for the game and therefore forfeited with 3% of the tally. "Who the Heck is Ron Paul" more than tripled Rudy's votes and the actor, no the candidate, no, the actor, no the candidate tied the war hero with 13% of the total. The two top vote getters on the Republican side were "A Million Here a Million There and Eventually it will add up to Real Money" Romney who was forced to adMitt that he was skunked bu Mike Who-Kabee?

Romney, like Hill, had the money but lacked the honey to beat out the poorly funded campaign of two-buck Huck. Huck made a beeline for Burbank and the Leno show the night before the caucus. Given his campaign war chest he probably flew coach both ways and had to sidestep angry picketing writers. But what Jay's Mike realized better than any of his opponents is that more Iowans have color TV these days than unions. The move was brilliant. His "everyman" persona rang true to more Rebub voters than did the Mitt kit.

As high as the winners and as low as the losers are after the prom, one must remember that one caucus doth not a nomination make. You can bet that Hillary's team, bruised and battered, is back at the planning table, the Edwards camp is planning an appeal in Rhode Island, Mitt is regrouping with religious fervor, and Rudy is hoping for a quick New York crisis so his tail can wag the dog. One thing that was refreshing was the limited divisiveness by the candidates compared to recent elections. The next nominees, it appears, will become so not by bullying and mean spiritness, but by romancing the stone.

A little blogging music Maestro.... How about "Call it Democracy" by Bruce Cockburn.

Dr. Forgot