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ANALYSIS: Dissatisfied US voters embrace Obama, Huckabee

Jan 4, 2008, 22:18 GMT

Des Moines, Iowa - Riding high at the start of the US presidential race, African-American senator Barack Obama and socially conservative pastor Mike Huckabee provide evidence that many voters feel the country is on the wrong path. Change - some kind of change - was the winning theme in the first electoral test of 2008 in Iowa, handing Obama the resounding opening victory in his quest to win the Democratic Party's nomination and become the first non-white president. As candidates and staffers dashed eastward to the next battleground, Obama's momentum - and the sense that, yes, he is electable - ratcheted up pressure on Hillary Clinton to win Tuesday's New Hampshire primary as polls say she should. Clinton is banking on her ex-president husband, her experience as first lady, a bulging campaign war chest and female voters. But after eight years in the White House with Bill Clinton and another eight as a US senator from New York, she can't offer voters Obama's soaring message of change. Among Republicans, Huckabee's upstart campaign struck a chord with evangelical Christians and other voters inspired by his unpretentious style and firm stands against abortion and gay marriage. That formula won't work as well with the more centrist voters of New Hampshire, where 2000 presidential candidate and Vietnam war hero John McCain leads among Republicans. But a good showing would keep Huckabee credibly in the race for the long run of state-by-state presidential preference votes ahead of the November 4 election. Notably absent in Iowa was former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, who is gambling on big states voting in late January and early February - notably Florida, New York and California - to lift him to the Republican nomination. Then there's President George W Bush, sitting out the race because he can't run for a third term. As Bush enters his last year in the White House, even his own Republicans have plenty of reasons to talk about change. The Iraq war is less in the headlines these days, but still on voters' minds. Fiscal conservatives and the religious right often feel betrayed by Bush. In such a climate, running against Washington politics-as-usual yielded dividends for both Obama and Huckabee. Obama, 46, generated huge excitement with his youth, charisma and an inspiring vista of halting ideological warfare to prove 'that we are one nation, that we are one people.' His heritage - Kenyan father, white American mother - also implies a healing of the nation's lingering racial divide. In that sense, Obama's victory Thursday was even more remarkable because Iowa is far more white than the US as a whole. At one Democratic caucus in the state capital Des Moines, only two blacks were among the 122 supporters whose votes gave Obama the edge in that precinct. Huckabee, 52, engaged centre-right voters with strong moral convictions, one-liners and anecdotes about his modest origins, all delivered like the Southern Baptist preacher he once was. Heavily outspent by rival Mitt Romney and less well-known than Giuliani and McCain, the former Arkansas governor presented himself as a fresh force with a feel for ordinary Americans' problems. At one rural Iowa campaign stop, Huckabee said Americans help 'terrorists' by filling their petrol tanks with imported oil, pledged to cut down bureaucracy for small business and touted a plan for radical tax reform. Along with change, he offered certainties to his conservative supporters. 'When you start changing the definition of things like life and marriage, you're getting into trouble,' Huckabee declared. © 2008 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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RonJan 5th, 2008 - 01:06:12

Some choice the voters have. Vote for a blackberry or a huckleberry.

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GOPJan 5th, 2008 - 01:33:00

Vote for Hillary, because we already know how we are going to defeat her.

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NoharnessJan 6th, 2008 - 15:05:33

Every time I watch the news I worry that the Washington DC water supply has been heavily contaminated with mercury--or lead. Either way, our leaders have become as mad as hatters. Given what just happened in Iowa I'm starting to worry about the country at large, but maybe not. What choices did Iowans have?

On the Democrat side they had Hillary Clinton, which is really Bill Clinton running for a third term and, I'm sure he is hoping for a fourth term. I don't think anyone stops to consider this finds it very palatable. And they had John Edwards whose main claim to fame is that he is a nice guy (not) and a Democrat (is) and he's NOT a Clinton. Trouble is, he's a trial lawyer. So much for Edwards being anything like a nice guy. Then we had Barak Obama who is, to all outward appearances, a nice guy and is exceptionally well-spoken. The trouble is, he's as green as a gourd. Many of his policy statements make that overwhelmingly clear. Who ya gonna call?

On the Gooper side, we have a long list of --well-- hasbeens and nutcases. They were confronted with Ron Paul, a fellow Texan, who's belief in free markets is so profound that he believes free market economics is a panacea. Free markets are NOT a panacea. They never have been and never will be. Then we have Mike Huckabee who is, in my carefully considered opinion, the absolute worst of BOTH major parties. He is a leftist on economics and a rabid right handed wingnut on social issues, which suits the Bible Beaters right down to the ground.

In the middle we have John McCain who has been a kind of 'Clinton Rescue Service' whether he meant to be or not, and who zig-zags so violently that hardly any of us lifelong Goopers can figure him out. And then there is Mitt Romney, who every time I look at him and listen to him I am reminded of Richard Nixon. We are better off with a true liberal than we are a liberal who is masquerading as a staunch conservative. And then there is the ever volatile, sometimes--what's the word I'm looking for, effervescent?--Yeah, effervescent--Rudy Giuliani who's main claim to fame is how well he stepped up to the plate during the World Trade Center Atrocity. Oh, and there is the fact that he ran New York City for a number of years, but that has about as many drawbacks as it does advantages and then there is his womanizing and cross-dressing. Then we have Fred Thompson, the guy I started rooting for before he got into the race. He's letting his ass drag out his tracks.

Let's face it, the Iowans, particularly the Goopers in Iowa, were in a bind this time around. No wonder Huckabee won.

Who's running on the Libertarian ticket this time around? Where is Unka Ralph when you really need him? Oh, that's right! I nearly forgot about Michael Bloomberg! Is he actually going to run?

Yep! It's got to be mercury in the water. We've GOT to stop burning coal, folks. It's already killing us.

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NoharnessJan 6th, 2008 - 16:07:31

Not entirely tongue in cheek:

news.monstersandcritics.com/health/news/article_1384928.php/Feed_small_ kids_small_fish_say_Australian_experts

If you think mercury contamination will always be a problem with water and water alone, you are dreaming.

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We are screwedJan 6th, 2008 - 18:26:21

'Rudy Giuliani who's main claim to fame is how well he stepped up to the plate during the World Trade Center Atrocity. Oh, and there is the fact that he ran New York City for a number of years, but that has about as many drawbacks as it does advantages and then there is his womanizing and cross-dressing.'

To be fair, Rudy did an excellent job running NYC. The mess that Dinkins, his predecessor made was absolutely incredible and no one thought it could EVER be cleaned up. Rudy turned it around in short order.

'In the middle we have John McCain who has been a kind of 'Clinton Rescue Service' whether he meant to be or not, and who zig-zags so violently that hardly any of us lifelong Goopers can figure him out. '

John McCain doesn't zig zag, he is bull headed. A little judicious zigzagging would have served him well. What did him in with the GOP base was his support of the miserable immigration bill. Seeing Teddy Kennedy, the AntiChrist himself endorse it was enough to sour the average voter on that and McCain for supporting it.

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NoharnessJan 6th, 2008 - 18:40:18

I don't suppose I am being entirely far with Senator McCain. Zig-zagging and jinking around comes naturally to a Navy man and Fighter Jock, and for good reason, but man! He gives me the willies sometimes. I'm still rooting for Fred Thompson, but I ain't holdin' out a lotta hope.

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SP4: GOPJan 6th, 2008 - 21:14:10

Yeah, they have a plan:

Do nothing. Hillary will do it all for us!

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;-)Jan 7th, 2008 - 01:21:56

'Zig-zagging and jinking around comes naturally to a Navy man and Fighter Jock '

That was the whiskey... Trust me.

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NoharnessJan 7th, 2008 - 03:26:36

Yes, I can believe it was the whiskey, that makes perfect sense!:)

Here's another interesting development. The GOP has snubbed FOX!

www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080106/NEWS01/80106 0442/1043

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SP4: trueJan 7th, 2008 - 04:38:49

Rudi was a terrific Mayor for New York. He did New York a lot of good.

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