No Wimps...please!

The Iowa caucus is over and the winners are Barack Obama, the freshmen Senator from Illinois and Michael Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas. We could debate the qualifications of each man, but the reality is that neither one has enough credentials to give a high school debate team a good workout.

I know that the purveyors of news in the United States like to break down the American elections to the level of Seabiscuit against War Admiral. It would seem that the last two national elections for the President of the United States has proven the error of that kind of coverage. Living in Stockholm, Sweden, I've been spared the countdown to election coverage, but it is incredulous that America is forced to choose from these pretenders for its next president.

Obama has been preaching his mantra of bringing the country together. He said in his victory speech, "We're choosing unity over division and sending a powerful message that change is coming to America." However, no one has ever asked the follow up question, how is he planning to do it? How does a man who has never done anything for the State of Illinois but be elected propose to pull the United States out of its morass of difficult problems and the loss of its prestige overseas?

On the Republican side, the bible thumping former preacher turned politician has used the well-oiled machine of the Christian fundamentalists to win in Iowa. Like Obama, Huckabee does well telling his story in the cozy confines of the living rooms, VFW halls and church basements of Iowa. He is personable and he mirrors the hopes of God fearing folk. "Values voters spoke loudly tonight in Iowa," said Greg Mueller, a GOP strategist. "Huckabee also demonstrated an authenticity; he ran as a genuine candidate. Now, he's got to use that bully pulpit to broaden his populist appeal in New Hampshire." Huckabee's thinking seems to be that if the voter just believes strong enough and we can keep the sinners and heathens in check, the good ‘ole USA can return to the glory days of William Jennings Bryant. Or, at least, back to the days before the farm wasn’t being turned into a Wal-Mart strip mall because of all those foreign immigrants. The former governor's lack of any sophistication on the way the world works, either in politics or natural science is a warning. He is less capable of performing the duties of the President then George Bush. And this country cannot afford to have that happen. A Huckabee administration in the White House would be for the country like Katrina was for the Mississippi Delta. The United States has a lot of damage to repair on the world stage and saying, "There is a higher father that I appeal to" on U.S. foreign policy has not worked too well in the immediate past.

To me the lesson of Iowa is very simple. Obama has galvanized the young voter and the progressive grass root Democrats. The vote was not so much for Obama as a vote against the status quo. Like Howard Beal in the movie “Network”, the massive Democratic turnout told the Party’s leadership that they are mad as hell and they don’t want to take it anymore. They want the Party to do something different and they want it done immediately. The only entity that has a lower approval rating then the President is the Congress.

The congregations of the hinterlands are single minded, motivated and they can mobilize for their candidates and causes like the Christian soldiers in the songs. The outpouring of the fundamentalists for Huckabee in Iowa shows that they are ready for the fight in 2008. The only way that the Democrats can overcome the stranglehold that the Christian nationalists have on the elections is to mobilize the progressive side of the Democratic Party.

The good news from Iowa is that Barack Obama won. There is the smidgen of hope that the Democratic Party might, after all it's misjudgement and capitulation in recent years, will have the good sense NOT to nominate another cupcake "moderate" who will try to placate the voters by saying “We’re just like the other guys, only nicer.”