The Iowa Caucuses: Taking Stock of What Happened

Well the Iowa Caucuses are finally over after thousands of hours of coverage by T.V. journalists before and after the voting.  Now, those same journalists and political advisers are going to tell the people how important the Iowa vote was and what it means to all the candidates.

 

Lets try to put the Iowa vote in a proper frame work that people should understand.  The great majority of Iowa's registered voters who will vote in this year's November Presidential election did not cast a vote in the caucuses on January 3.  But, because journalists sell spin and promote certain candidates, they build the caucuses up as being decisive for a candidate to win his party's nomination.  Iowa's caucuses rules and methods are not on the same level when compared to the other presidential primaries where all registered voters get a chance to cast their votes.

 

Television's devotion of so much time to a flawed caucus is to fill up time and influence the people's vote.  Like politicians, they are the world's greatest salesmen.  They are able to influence people even though they offer nothing to promote or improve the quality of politics in America nor do they objectively evaluate candidates.

 

I thought it was strange that journalists interviewed Rudy Giuliani during the returns of the Iowa caucus.  Here is a presidential candidate who skipped Iowa, will not campaign in New Hampshire, and is entering only the larger primaries.  But journalists spent time interviewing him because he is one of their boys.  Yet they dismiss the candidates who did campaign and come in below third place.

 

The total vote at the Iowa caucuses equaled approximately 20% of the voters who are qualified to vote in the Presidential general election in November 2008.  In other words, 80% of the eligible voters did not show up to caucus.  That should be an eye opener for any one who thinks that this caucus was decisive.

 

Hopefully the people of New Hampshire, who will vote in their party's primary on January 8, will tune out the T.V. journalists and all of their hype and spin and vote for the candidate that they think can best serve as the next president.  Their independent thought means much more to this country and good politics then all the spin created by the news media. 

2008: Celebration or Return To The Status Quo?

Every year America celebrates the new year with hope, joy, and a desire that the new year will truly bring advancements for the common good and that the quality of life will be improved for all people everywhere.

 

This new year we are starting out with the continuation of War in Iraq and Afghanistan with our men and women in uniform still paying the ultimate price with their sacrifice.  There is unfortunately no end in sight.  Our President can't tell us how either war will turn out and there is a very strong possibility more U.S. troops will be sent to Afghanistan. 

 

Since this new year is also an election year for a new President, we are being told Congress will not get any thing meaningful accomplished.  After record deficit spending for the past 7 years, the budget will still be in deficit at the end of this year and no end is in sight.  The administration told the American people that Iraqi oil would pay for the war, but it never happened, and so far it has cost the American taxpayers a half trillion dollars and growing.

 

The increase in the price of oil has been at record levels for over a year and no down turn is in the offering, in fact hitting a record a few days ago of $100 barrel.  We have a president who has not lifted one finger to bring those prices down.  There is a mortgage crisis and people have no confidence in this president whatsoever.  The people have openly been lied to over and over concerning a wide range of issues by this president.

 

So what does the American people have to look forward to in this new year? There is always hope, and our people have plenty of that, but how is that converted to something positive for the people with so many negative issues that have failed to be acted on.  What can we the people do to really change the direction of our country in 2008?

 

All of us have to dig deep inside and resolve to break the status quo in some kind of way.  I think a good start would be to challenge our elected officials more to influence their decisions and to let them know that we are not going to continue to reelect them, just because they have been there a long time.  I urge you to resolve to make your own decisions and judgements and break the cycle of influence that news journalists try to bestow on the American public. 

 

If we are independent in our thoughts and decisions, we have the power to change things for the better.  Don't be afraid to think before you act or take the time to analyze the situation.  You will be pleasantly surprised at the power of independent thought.  Good luck in 2008, Happy New Year and hopefully all of us will become better at demanding positive accomplishments from our elected officials in order to move our country forward and improve the quality of life for all Americans.