Looks like Hillary Clinton won by a razor-thin margin in Iowa - which I'm glad to see, since I like her position on the NRA - receiving an "F" from the gun lobby - better than Bernie's D- from the same organization, and I also think Hillary's extensive foreign policy experience is a necessity in the next President, in this especially dangerous day and age.
But Bernie can hold his head up high. He started in Iowa with next to nothing in voter support, and ignited a revolution that brought him all the way to the edge of winning. I don't support his socialism - I think there's an enormous value in capitalism and its spur to human invention - but there's more than enough room in the Democratic party for his kind of progressivism, and our country benefits from his voice.
And I'm also glad that Trump came in second in the Republican caucuses, and almost came in third. I agree with nothing Cruz says, but at least he offers real political content, rather than the insults and empty hyperbole of Donald Trump. As I pointed out in McLuhan in an Age of Social Media, Trump is the ultimate "cool" candidate (in McLuhan's terminology, meaning that his communication has ultra-low content), trafficking in tweets and in speeches which are almost literally compilations and repetitions of his 140-character digital missives and misses. It's good to see voters reject that in favor of something more substantial - however much I may find that substance dangerous and unacceptable. It's good to see Trump's glistening egg-shell of invincibility, his cult of being a winner, beginning to crack. I suspect Iowa will be the beginning of the end for him and his ego.
The 2016 Presidential election moves to New Hampshire next week. Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are currently way ahead in that state. But if anything is clear from tonight in Iowa, and previous years in New Hampshire, nothing is certain in politics.
But Bernie can hold his head up high. He started in Iowa with next to nothing in voter support, and ignited a revolution that brought him all the way to the edge of winning. I don't support his socialism - I think there's an enormous value in capitalism and its spur to human invention - but there's more than enough room in the Democratic party for his kind of progressivism, and our country benefits from his voice.
And I'm also glad that Trump came in second in the Republican caucuses, and almost came in third. I agree with nothing Cruz says, but at least he offers real political content, rather than the insults and empty hyperbole of Donald Trump. As I pointed out in McLuhan in an Age of Social Media, Trump is the ultimate "cool" candidate (in McLuhan's terminology, meaning that his communication has ultra-low content), trafficking in tweets and in speeches which are almost literally compilations and repetitions of his 140-character digital missives and misses. It's good to see voters reject that in favor of something more substantial - however much I may find that substance dangerous and unacceptable. It's good to see Trump's glistening egg-shell of invincibility, his cult of being a winner, beginning to crack. I suspect Iowa will be the beginning of the end for him and his ego.
The 2016 Presidential election moves to New Hampshire next week. Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are currently way ahead in that state. But if anything is clear from tonight in Iowa, and previous years in New Hampshire, nothing is certain in politics.
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