A look at the map of the USA will show you that Iowa is middle America – not the West, the East or the South, yet near enough to all of them to be pivotal. It is thinly populated and like its neighbors to the north and east, more Democrat than Republican. It should have been a good place for the Democrat front-runner to kick off the campaign. Instead it has delivered a shocking defeat to Mrs. Clinton and her sponsors in the Media Class. How did it happen this way? I think the answer is very simple and the result does not alter my prediction of her ultimate victory, though she and they have suffered a big setback.
It was unfortunate for Mrs. Clinton that this small State, with its odd primary system, should become the first step in the process, for it is one of the few States where the Media enjoys the least control over information about the candidates. This is because the candidates who go there and actively campaign have to face the voters time and time again. Ordinary people in Iowa (and there are many of them, unlike San Francisco, L.A., Manhattan or Detroit) get to see and hear and question the candidates who want their votes. In big, heavily populated States like California and Texas candidates are not expected, indeed cannot, get to meet many people face-to-face and have to rely on the Media to make contact with voters. Even geographically small heavily populated States like New Jersey rule out candidate-voter intimacy. The voter’s perception of the candidates is governed by the Media Class, which can clean up or sully the candidate’s image. Indeed, the Media can, in most such States virtually eliminate a candidate from the public’s consciousness. It can seize upon a candidate’s slightest misstep and magnify it a thousand times, turning it into the deadliest catastrophe. This is what the Media did to Republican George Allen in Virginia. He was looking a little like the next Ronald Reagan and heading for a victory in the 2006 elections, when he allegedly used a word that was allegedly derogatory of a minority. The Media in Virginia and everywhere beyond crucified him, and despite abject apologies (which are always used by the Media Class to further impale their victim) he was finished. Thus was the Republican front-runner for 2008 eliminated by an alert Media Class.
With hindsight, Mrs. Clinton should have avoided Iowa altogether, claiming that it was unimportant – and so it would have been without her presence. If this was too bold a move for her, she could have avoided a personal campaign, relying on a few remote staged appearances and a big TV ads blitz. Instead, her vanity and over-confidence led her into a trap. By campaigning around the State in person, mingling with voters in coffee bars and answering their questions, she allowed them to get to know her.
Clearly, the Democrat rank-and-file in Iowa did not like what they saw, or at least almost three quarters of them did not. In contrast to the likeable, extrovert Obama, she was seen as the calculating, scheming privileged insider that she is. Even the phony man-of-the-people, rich trial lawyer was preferable, as it turns out. There was nothing the Media Class could do once the polls showed her vulnerability and by the time she stopped answering questions at meetings, it was too late.
New Hampshire next week may not be a whole lot better for her, as it is another small, intimate setting and Obama looks set to continue on his roll unless the MSM can come up with a nasty story about him. Being Black makes it difficult for a Leftist Media Class to dramatically destroy him personally, though it is possible that a panicky MSM, in lockstep with the Clinton’s dirty tricks operatives will overplay their hand. They should be patient, keep Mrs. Clinton away from the people, play down the importance of New Hampshire and wait for the big States. There is plenty of time and opportunity to undermine his image and reputation and restore hers, once the MSM is in full control of the news and the information that the voters will receive.
Mr. Radical has often drawn my attention to the fact that the Media’s most honest reporting always comes immediately after a shocking event. Later reports always start the spin until eventually it has been twisted to fit the Media Class agenda. The first TV reports from Iowa carried some of the shock of the result for the Clintons and their sponsors, but soon the spin began. It quickly became clear that the Media Class tactic was to play up the Huckabee victory and the resulting Republican situation. In truth the Republican result was nowhere as historically important as the Democrat result. Here was a decisive victory by a Black candidate, the first ever, and over the most powerful and anointed woman ever to enter US politics. She had come THIRD! Obama’s votes had almost wholly come from White voters, surely dispelling the myth that America is racked with racism. The Democrat rank-and-file turned out in historic numbers in bad weather. Huckabee was more important than all this? I think not!
New Hampshire’s contest and result will now be very exciting, but in the end, not at all decisive. Of course, it is possible that Obama will beat the odds and Mrs. Clinton will prove to be unelectable no matter what the ruling Media Class does for her. If she keeps on losing, the Media Class might decide to drop her and anoint Obama or the rich trial lawyer. This would indeed be interesting, for the Clintons are a powerful mafia and surely have acquired a lot of dirt on a lot of people on both sides of the political divide. I predict that they would not quietly slink off into political oblivion.
As I write this piece, the Californian monsoon continues unabated outside the window. I heard earlier that up to 10 feet of snow will fall in the Sierras this weekend and that there will be record rainfall in southern California. I suppose it is all down to man-made global warming. If I was reporting heat and drought this weekend it would also be down to man-made global warming. Al Gore can never be wrong!