Sunday, February 10, 2008
Things are Getting More and More Interesting...
Yesterday's Demoratic Presidential primaries and caucuses focused on several smaller states including Nebraska, Louisiana, and Washington State. The Republicans also had a three state focus, but instead of Nebraska they had the Kansas Caucus.
I was out last night celebrating my friend Kelly's 24th birthday so I couldn't track in real-time how the races were going. On the Democratic side I had heard all week that the pundits expected Barack Obama to take all three states, but after New Hampshire --- who can believe those guys!?! Yet although I was disconnected from those pundits on CNN, NBC, and MSNBC last night, I didn't need traditional media to keep me informed because I received an email on my BlackBerry from Barack Obama's campaign in the late evening informing me of the victories. I had a few margaritas at that point and didn't feel like reading the whole message but was glad to get the notice.
I visited CNN.com this morning to learn more about the three races. WOW! I figured that Obama was going to be strong in these states but for him to win by a margin of more than 2:1 in two of the three races, I was amazed. Now that's momentum moving into the Potomac Primaries this week. I'm still cautiously optimistic about the democratic race not having a clear nominee going into the convention but with the money Obama continues to raise and his ability to win over all these small states; he should be in a much better position than Hillary "the big-state" Clinton.
On the Republican side, after Romney's dropping out of the race earlier in the week, Huckabee got a boost and took two of the three states (also by a large margin). For an outsider candidate, the Incredible Huck keeps on showing promise as being a viable candidate for POTUS or VP.
After the race is over, I'd be really curious to learn how much "The Colbert Bump" helped Huckabee. For a fake pundit, Colbert has been a Maven and a Connector. His plugging of Huckabee and running joke about being his VP has given Huck a regular forum to the credible youth vote. The day that Rommey dropped out, Huckabee made an appearance on "The Colbert Report" and played air hockey with the host where Texas was the puck. Huckabee discussed how he feels he can win Texas and his personality shined through the screen. Like his appearance on Leno playing the guitar with Kevin Eubanks and the Tonight Show band, his charisma and vitality is clear and as a strategy helps him with the Republican voters who like McCain but are worried about his age and health. Huckabee lost 40 lbs and talks about it and the health issues of average Americans. He's relatively young (I hate saying youth is equal to inexperience because that's age-ism) but he is less experienced than McCain, but maybe that's a good thing when the buzz word for this race is "change."
I certainly don't agree with many/most of Huckabee's policy positions, but I like his consumption tax plan. It's weird though, for a die-hard conservative that's social positions are sooooo unbelievably on the other side of scale than me, I can't stop liking him because of his charisma. As a fairly educated voter with the understanding of his policy, if he can win me over with his personality then he can win over a lot of the Midwest and South (as shown this weekend).
...bring on the Potomac Primary!
I was out last night celebrating my friend Kelly's 24th birthday so I couldn't track in real-time how the races were going. On the Democratic side I had heard all week that the pundits expected Barack Obama to take all three states, but after New Hampshire --- who can believe those guys!?! Yet although I was disconnected from those pundits on CNN, NBC, and MSNBC last night, I didn't need traditional media to keep me informed because I received an email on my BlackBerry from Barack Obama's campaign in the late evening informing me of the victories. I had a few margaritas at that point and didn't feel like reading the whole message but was glad to get the notice.
I visited CNN.com this morning to learn more about the three races. WOW! I figured that Obama was going to be strong in these states but for him to win by a margin of more than 2:1 in two of the three races, I was amazed. Now that's momentum moving into the Potomac Primaries this week. I'm still cautiously optimistic about the democratic race not having a clear nominee going into the convention but with the money Obama continues to raise and his ability to win over all these small states; he should be in a much better position than Hillary "the big-state" Clinton.
On the Republican side, after Romney's dropping out of the race earlier in the week, Huckabee got a boost and took two of the three states (also by a large margin). For an outsider candidate, the Incredible Huck keeps on showing promise as being a viable candidate for POTUS or VP.
After the race is over, I'd be really curious to learn how much "The Colbert Bump" helped Huckabee. For a fake pundit, Colbert has been a Maven and a Connector. His plugging of Huckabee and running joke about being his VP has given Huck a regular forum to the credible youth vote. The day that Rommey dropped out, Huckabee made an appearance on "The Colbert Report" and played air hockey with the host where Texas was the puck. Huckabee discussed how he feels he can win Texas and his personality shined through the screen. Like his appearance on Leno playing the guitar with Kevin Eubanks and the Tonight Show band, his charisma and vitality is clear and as a strategy helps him with the Republican voters who like McCain but are worried about his age and health. Huckabee lost 40 lbs and talks about it and the health issues of average Americans. He's relatively young (I hate saying youth is equal to inexperience because that's age-ism) but he is less experienced than McCain, but maybe that's a good thing when the buzz word for this race is "change."
I certainly don't agree with many/most of Huckabee's policy positions, but I like his consumption tax plan. It's weird though, for a die-hard conservative that's social positions are sooooo unbelievably on the other side of scale than me, I can't stop liking him because of his charisma. As a fairly educated voter with the understanding of his policy, if he can win me over with his personality then he can win over a lot of the Midwest and South (as shown this weekend).
...bring on the Potomac Primary!
Labels: Barack Obama, hillary clinton, John McCain, Mike Huckabee
// posted by Jason Langsner @ 10:05 AM 
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