Let us hope it's a blip

[fpb]

Do I need to say that I regard last night's Iowa primary as an unmitigated disaster? On both sides, the worst candidate prevailed. What I have to say about Mike Huckabee I have already said; here I can add that a party who votes in the shallow and lazy Fred Thompson in third place is not worth electing. As for the Democrats, they have also voted for the shallowest and least competent candidate - a junior senator with no record and precious little by way of program. Whatever one may think of Edwards, he stands for certain definite things - the defence of the harassed middle class and the poor, in particular - and has taken clear and definite positions on a number of issues. And Hillary Clinton, however dislikeable she may be, has more experience than any other candidate. On both sides, people have voted for shallow personalities and poor records over competence and character. God help America if this is more than a blip.

Comments

[fpb.livejournal.com]

I am glad to hear this and I hope you are right. The one thing we do not want is a president who, by lacking strong or sensible positions to take, ends up becoming the tool of his party supporters by default. I think that was often the case with Bush II, and I suspect that might end up being the case with Huckabee, as some of the positions he has taken are so extreme as to be absurd - and if he ever comes to power, he will be unable to follow through on them, so what shall he do? Likely enough, what his advisers tell him.

[goreism.livejournal.com]

You know, the candidate with the most experience seemed to be Richardson, but certain people I know almost viscerally hated his guts. I never got a chance to find out why, though. Any idea? Maybe because he'd only appeal to Latino voters with the last name "Richardson" (to cop a line from a McSweeney's list).

[fpb.livejournal.com]

From what little I could see, he managed to say more bloopers than anyone else, and left the impression of a hypocrite. But I did not pay a lot of attention to him, and the facts may be quite different. Anyone got an opinion?