None of the Above
After the longest shopping season in history, Americans are not ready to buy. The oscillating poll numbers seem to reflect not changing enthusiasms but unease over their choices in both parties.
As Clinton and Giuliani slide, Obama and Huckabee gain traction, Edwards and McCain come back from oblivion, and Mitt Romney keeps barely running in place, voters are vacillating in the face of campaigns that stress opponents’ weaknesses and gaffes rather than their own visions for the future.
It’s noteworthy that the front runners are being overtaken by doubts about their character and temperament and that Obama and Huckabee have both benefited by being newer faces in their fields.
As residents of Iowa and New Hampshire get ready to make their choices, the most excitement is being generated by “none of the above.”
Cross-posted from my blog.
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4 Responses to “None of the Above”
I predict a strong showing by John Edwards in the Iowa caucuses as voters supporting the second tier of candidates shift their backing to a potential winner.
Stephen Crockett and Al Lawrence of Democratic Talk Radio make an excellent for rank-and-file Democrats to embrace Edwards populist campaign. I don’t know if John Edwards is another FDR but he is definitely most in line with the traditions of the party.
http://www.democratictalkradio.com/07_edwards_fdr.html
My radical friend in DC likes Obama and believes 2008 is the year we are “due” for a female or black nominee on the Dem side, but she likes Edwards’s program. Edwards is a viable VP choice for the Dems if they don’t give that role to Biden or to Richardson instead. The GOP field is weak but of course nobody is going to say “none of the above” (and refrain from voting) if that means Clinton might be elected President.
Outside of far-left delusion-hood on-line, in the real world here in Iowa, Huckabee continues to do quite well on the GOP side, while the youth interest remains strong for Obama (Dec 24, campaign office was fully open and staffed by 3+ people, one of whom had come from England to join the Obama campaign, plenty of literature available), while Clinton and Edwards both continue to have support.
I could support Obama/Biden with Richardson as Sec State or Obama/Richardson with Biden as Sec State. If all else fails, I will vote for Hillary, however, as none of the GOPers are moderate enough for me.
My radical friend finds Hillary Clinton too conservative at this time, so you have company.
It reminds me of the book I got that describes so much of what has been sought by non-liberals since the 1980s (including things that in no way are extremist, such as going to the “flat,” single-rate, income tax) as “radical right.”
Many old-line liberals are similar to those in the UAW and in the old US automobile industry in Detroit, still believing normality is what was in the 1950s and 1960s (Democratic and liberal hegemony, the Great Society being simply one more step beyond the New Deal, with more leftward to follow — guaranteed minimum income, etc.), who were dumbfounded and became the true reactionaries with the election of Reagan and who see anything right of Brookings as “conservative” and often “far right” (though the true far right has nearly no presence and power whatsoever).
It’s not 1972 and a Goldwater high tide any longer.