Congratulations Barack Obama!

What a great win in Iowa! If he can keep up the momentum, Hillary may well find herself scrambling for some new talking points. But how does she make herself acceptable without stealing Obama's lines?

The breakdown in stats tells us that Obama got the youth vote and the independent vote along with a solid third of Democrats. He also won the women's vote. Edwards was counting on the unions and they let him down. Edwards had nothing to say to the other candidates in his post caucus speech -- not very classy.

Hillary is currently leading in the national polls but for how long? It will be very interesting to see how the campaigns redirect their energies after tonight. Will America jump on the Obama Express ride toward Change? Will Hillary go negative or go gracefully? Or will she find some way to put a halt to Obama's charisma and political charm?

Biden, Dodd and Gravel are out. I took Mike's banner down earlier today before the caucuses, sensing perhaps that his participation in the race was ending. I enjoyed his comments along the way and I do think that he and Dennis Kucinich served a very worthwhile purpose in the year long race to this the first 2008 presidential caucus. I got the photo of Barack from his web site and also downloaded a banner which I might be putting up here very soon.

Finally, props to all the local Obama supporters, especially to the gang at The Chief Source and to Terra (not terror) who have been actively promoting his candidacy. I think one of the greatest selling points in Barack's favor is that he is the youth candidate and that so many people regardless of age appreciate that he is neither a Bush or a Clinton and he never voted to authorize the war in Iraq.

One should never totally trust a politician because they can never represent you in all the ways you'd like. But when it comes time to make a choice, you have to look for the least objectionable one and maybe if you are lucky, one who will take positive actions that benefit us more than they hurt us. I posted last night that I would be happy with any of the Democrats and that is a good sign. I think Obama's victory tonight is a victory for the voters, not the political machines.

So go Obama. Best wishes for New Hampshire!

Nobody for president

The primary season ever so slowly approaches. Yesterday, I took Dennis Kucinich's logo (did anybody notice?) off my blog because I thought I had read that he was saying he'd consider sharing a ticket with Ron Paul. Then I tried to find the reference and couldn't.

Maybe I dreamed it. Or maybe I'm tired of trying to defend him when I know he's not going to make any headway. Ditto for Mike Gravel, although I am going to keep his banner up because he is the only candidate that I have made financial contributions toward. At this point, I don't even know if he's going to appear on the ballot here in Ohio, or whether my vote in the Ohio primary will have any significance whatsoever.

It was easier back in my no voting days. Nobody for President, because after all, nobody represents me better than anybody else. As each day passes on this endless slog toward actual primary voting, my antipathy toward all the candidates grows stronger. I don't trust any of them because they all are taking huge hunks of money from all kinds of special interest groups. They all court and promise and cuddle up so much that it doesn't seem possible that any one of them will be able to "lead" without being beholden to a whole lot of people with more money than I can ever dream of making in my lifetime.

Once the voting and adding up of delegates is all over, I wouldn't mind seeing a Clinton/Obama ticket. That was my day-after-the-Kerry-loss reaction and I created bumper stickers to put on my vehicle with those names emblazoned -- just to annoy all the jubilant Repubs driving cars with Bush/Cheney stickers.

Hillary is not a leftist, this is true. However, since we've swung so far right I predict the voters will want to go back through the center before they are moved to the left. And maybe with maturity, Obama will himself feel emboldened to take a more progressive turn. Well that's my current electoral fantasy.

Who won the debate?

As I was listening to the post-debate babble from various spinsters, my mom called and asked me who I thought won the debate. Good question with more than one possible answer.

Looking at it in terms of who won over the audience sweltering in the stadium, Kucinich was the one who kept hitting it out of the park. Certainly he gave us the most progressive responses, answering the questions directly and to the point. He also scored great style points in his delivery and emphasis, gaining many cheers for his principled positions on labor issues. Gotta love a candidate who is a member of IATSE! My mother agreed that he did well and noted that his debating skills have improved dramatically over the course of this long primary campaign.

And then there were Barack and Hillary, both with impressive debate skills on display last night. I love listening to Obama talk. His voice is is probably the best of them all in terms of pitch, resonance, and articulation. He has a freshness about him that is highly attractive, although sometimes that freshness can veer toward naivete, as some other candidates have been pointing out.

Hillary is, to be honest, sensational. There's no getting around it, she has been consistently impressive from the beginning. Although her voice is not what one would call beautiful, it is highly effective. She knows how to stump and she knows how to think on her feet. She also is presenting the image of a president that many Americans are longing for. We are looking for the anti-Bush, the president who is effective in working with all branches of government. We want a president who will extricate us from Iraq while at the same time is reaching out to collaborative political solutions for problems in the middle east.

The more I watch Hillary, the less I think about her husband. I think Hillary will be her own woman when it comes to running the show. She may not have Bill's schmoozing talents, but she sure has the intelligence and the self-discipline.

Who lost last night? Mike Gravel lost for not showing up. Evidently his people did not fill out a questionnaire and return it to the AFLCIO, and so lost his place on the stage. Joe Biden, very foolishly, brushed over a question from a miner's widow, yet another example of his recurring "foot in mouth" disease. Too bad, as I rather enjoy listening to Biden. I know he's very establishment, but he is personable, which is something Chris Dodd needs to work on. Dodd seems to be a very nice hard working democratic senator who doesn't have that something extra that lifts him above the pack -- until he went one on one with Bill O'Reilly over the Daily Kos website smears. That won't be enough to save his campaign, but I hope he gets a nice job in the upcoming Democratic white house.

John Edwards just doesn't do it for me. He appeared desperate last night, trying ever so hard to wave the banner of labor by boasting of his 200 walks on the picket line. The very announcement of that count of picket line appearances came across as calculating rather than someone who has an actual stake in the matter. It is hard to take his concerns for the working class seriously. He's rich, he's a lawyer, and I personally feel he should be at home taking care of his wife and family. I know, Elizabeth says she wants to be out on the campaign trail and isn't letting the big C change her life. However, it appears like the family is being driven by one member's obsession to become president -- at the expense of what may be their last few years with Elizabeth. Finally, he really needs to do something about the nasal quality of his speaking voice. It is not pleasant to hear.

Bill Richardson has expressed his support of arts education in all the schools and a nationwide starting teaching salary of 40K, so you know I support that. I am strongly leaning toward a Clinton/Obama ticket but if that doesn't work out, I'd be happy to see Richardson running as Hil's VP.

Meanwhile, I'm still displaying the banners of Gravel and Kucinich, because they have been pushing the debates in directions that are closest to my own positions. I do believe they have had an effect on the mainstream candidates, who hear the crowd responses and read the polls having to do with Iraq and know they must not let the public down.

Added later: I'm digging all the comments people are leaving -- love to hear what everybody is thinking at this point in the race. I'm a debate watching junkie! And my own response tends to be from the acting teacher's perspective. Then I reflect awhile and watch the next show, looking for signs of growth, and always looking for truthful performances. My acting teachers taught me to ask two questions of a performance:

Did you understand it?
Did you believe it?

I think we would all do well to keep those questions in mind as we watch these candidates.

Meanwhile, please check out tigercourse's diary at Daily Kos. It is a biography of Hillary's career up to the point she met Bill. There's no denying how hard she has worked to get where she is.

Blogging

Every now and then, I take a look at the Village Green's visitor statistics. This week, I was amazed to find a huge spike in hits in the middle of the past week. Sitemeter allows you to check out referring URLs as well as many other fun statistics, so I clicked and learned that a web site dedicated to a certain Republican candidate for president had sent over a hundred visitors here in one day -- in response to this little item.

I'm not going to mention this candidates name because I'm really not interested in attracting a bunch of his supporters. It is interesting that of all the public figures I have mentioned here, this is the first time I've had such a spike. So if anybody is looking to increase traffic to your blog, just put this guy's name in your heading and watch 'em all roll in!