Reflections on Iowa
January 4th, 2008Iowa is not a very conservative state. It is the heart of farm subsidy territory, and many families make a lot of money on the backs of federal taxpayers. Perhaps that’s why the Iowa caucus winner hardly ever gets elected (Jimmy Carter was the only recent exception).
The top vote getter at the Iowa GOP caucus was Mike Huckabee. Mitt Romney came in second.
Fred Thompson came in third - a fortunate event given the “drive-by” media coverage he was hit with the night before Iowa’s voting (details here). Even today, I am reading much more about the fourth place Republican than Thompson.
Thompson is now on to New Hampshire for two debates - one that will air on ABC Saturday afternoon at 4pm (Nevada time) then a Fox News debate Sunday afternoon at 5pm (Nevada time) before heading on to South Carolina.
January 4th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
The ONLY thing I enjoyed about the Iowa caucus was seeing Hillary handed her head! Add Obama’s votes to those of Edward’s, the count is 70 to 30! What a rout! My final comments are…Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha
January 4th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
Huckabee calls his plan to tax me 29% on everything I spend “the Fair Tax”, but for retirees like me it is worse than the death tax. The death tax does hit until you die. The Fair Tax would cost me while I am still alive everytime I spend some of the savings that I accumulated for my retirement years, and it would hit my heirs each time they spend their inheritence.
January 5th, 2008 at 6:40 am
You can’t be serious, Bob, Thompson is a walking corpse (fiq not lit). He was third in Iowa over McCain by the digital count of seventeen LV 21 dealers. He should go in with McCain and be a cheerleader not a candidate. I feel sorry for the guy as the whole of the GOP movers/shakers urged him to get in, “the great conservative hope”, and then ‘poof’, no support.
January 5th, 2008 at 6:51 am
After reading Vern’s post on “Helping FT”, I did a quick search on Iowa federal money. Like you, I would have agreed that get a lot of federal money, but lo and behold, in 2005 Iowans got back .41 cents on every dollar they sent to Washington DC. Their ranking is 43rd amoung the states while Nevada is ranked 37th with .72 cents on the dollar coming home. Looks like Iowans are givers. Maybe Archer Daniels and Conagra get their federal subsidy checks sent to their Alexandria, VA address?
fedspending2005
January 5th, 2008 at 11:50 am
I too am annoyed with the lack of attention that Fred’s been getting. Even from Fox. I guess that finishing third on the Democrat side means more than doing the same on the Republican side. NBC’s Weekend Today show said nothing about Fred this morning but did mention McCain and Giuliani. Go figure. Maybe Rush has it right. The mainstream press is terrified of a Thompson Presidency!
January 7th, 2008 at 4:43 am
Agreed, were it not for Ron Paul, Fred would be my next choice. Romney and Huckabee are nightmares and I would actually have to vote Obama if my choice is between him and Huckabee.
Also… agreed that its great to see Hillary getting her due. She was “misled” on the war. She was “misled” on Patriot, Patriot II, Miliary Reauthorization, etc…. and apparently “misled” into believing she could win (LOL). I don’t want a president so easily misled.