Category: Barack Obama

A reader writes:

In case you were looking for the mood of any actual Iowans today…

I am a 31 year old single, professional female, and Iowa native living in Iowa City. I will be a first-time caucus goer tonight. I switched my affiliation from Republican to Democrat only a couple months ago. After many months of being drowned in candidates here in Iowa (I think we ceased having real commercials on TV about a week ago, its been nothing but back-to-back political ads for days), I fully expected to feel relief that this day was finally here. More because I knew tomorrow all the incessant phone calls would stop (Mitt Romney’s campaign called once while I was listening to Obama speak) and life could get back to normal.

I was really surprised to find that when I woke up this morning and saw "Caucus" written on my calendar for today, I was actually excited. Excited to get to participate tonight. Excited when I came to work and found a decorated "O" cookie on my desk from a co-worker. Very excited to be among the very first in the nation to cast a vote for Barack Obama. The only other time I’ve ever been excited or optimistic about a candidate was for John McCain back in 1996, during his plaid shirt days, but even then I wasn’t motivated enough to caucus.

She’s what Richelieu is talking about.

(Photo: a Friendly House gymnasium January 2, 2008 in Davenport, Iowa. Scott Olson/Getty.)

The media blow-out – globally – will be epic, Ben Smith predicts. The public agrees.

One reader offers this explanation for the rift:

I am convinced that the reason the lefty bloggers have turned on Obama is that he created, independently of them, his own grass roots and "net roots" network of small contributors and part-time activists.  Kos and his ilk started to believe that he could snap his fingers in favor of a particular candidate, and scads of small contributions would start flowing toward that person.  Obama reminds me of a DJ who was on a San Francisco powerhouse rock station, who would sign off his morning show with, "If you don’t like the news, go out and make some of your own."  Obama decided to go out and make his own grass roots network rather than pander to the Kossack wing of the Democratic party.  That is a direct threat to his power, and he wins, it will be another salient benefit of his candidacy.

From the "black bourgeois" blog, Jack and Jill:

I would like to take this opportunity to thank George W. Bush, for if he hadn’t of been such an utter failure on so many levels, then the country wouldn’t remotely be open to the ‘possibility’ of a Black man as President.

Richelieu:

Republican turnout calls are picking up Obama supporters on Republican caucus-goers lists. There is going to be a good government/reform vote for Obama crossing over from outside the usual Dem base; especially moderate GOP women.

One reader thinks so:

I think the rise of Barack Obama has led to the decline of some left-leaning blogs. Even if Sen. Obama does not get the Democratic nomination, he has altered how many people have come to view politics and partisanship in this country. His candidacy is a repudiation of those on the far-left (and the right) who merely play to the fringe instead of the whole country.

Being fairly young, the politics that I’ve witnessed with Clinton and now with Bush represent a strong disconnect from where government should be focused. This has been brought up before, but you can hear the differences in how the candidates in the Democratic race address audiences, the "me" of Hillary Clinton, the "them" of John Edwards, the "we" of Barack Obama. The left-leaning blogs failed to pivot from the "them" mentality of before the 2006 elections, into a new voice and role in the (albeit slim) majority. The Democrats have shown that even with some advantages legislatively, there has been little success at implementation.

I think there’s a certain hunger, especially with younger Americans, for some centrality in politics. I think Sen. Obama recognizes that he cannot change the country with 51% as President Bush has tried, and failed, to do.  Many still have the anger as to what has happened to this country under Bush, but most left-leaning bloggers do not realize that the same razor-thin majority that Bush wielded will have the same result with a Democratic President–inaction, inefficiency, and ineptitude. To wit: "If 50 percent of the turnout is evangelical Christians, it would be very difficult for us to finish first in that kind of situation," Doug Gross, [the chairman of Mitt Romney’s campaign in Iowa], said. "In that instance, I’d feel very good about a nice, strong second-place finish." Mitt Romney’s attempts to dial back expectations aren’t too convincing.

Ross ponders the veep-stakes. The only thing I’m convinced of: Obama and Clinton will not share a ticket. They have come to loathe each other.

Clinton’s is here.

Iowa Independent sees a wave building:

The national media and pollsters don’t live where I do (Carroll, Iowa). When the story is told on Thursday night, the narrative will be a remarkable one: Obama will cobble together western Iowa counties with ivory towered college towns and eastern cities within the shadow of his Illinois. What’s more, while he is running a tight race with U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton and former U.S. Sen. John Edwards with traditional voters, Obama will pull ahead with new people, not just the young, but the never-before caucus-goers. I see their faces in the crowds. They are the woman I went to high school with who stunned me by appearing, waving a Barack Obama sign, no less, at one of his events in Carroll. Surely, she must have an "American Idol" re-run to watch, I thought. No, she’s caucusing for Obama.

Here’s another reason Obama will do well in western Iowa (and win the whole thing): Democrats listen to their Republican friends and family. They know who has the best shot against the Republicans in a general election — an instinct a recent Zogby Poll bears out by showing Obama beating all GOP presidential candidates.