Saturday, January 5, 2008

It’s Gonna, It Shoulda, Woulda, Ahh How That Happen?

Initially I was going to do a break down on my opinions of the political candidates running for president, but I took a step back and decided that I didn’t want to get caught up in the same Voodoo prediction practiced by political pundits, CNN and MSNBC, Fox, the BBC, PBS, National Radio, and the Washingtonian Analysts. I love watching these guys try and debate the merits of their wisdom and out predicting the others as to who will do what, when, why and how? Often the pundits get it wrong and yet no one calls them on it. Not the public, the media or even the people dropping the paychecks for bad predictions. One of the reasons why Bloggers are getting the top-notch attention is that many (at least while the phenomena is new and fresh) are closer to the truth and reality of what is going on in the world than the “experts”. And they do it faster, better and in a language that the average person can understand. Its best to say that the Bloggers are better at the system that describes the apparent disorder, the confusion underlying all of the politics and bring order to it; The Chaos Theory.

As for the recent Presidential debates, I wanted to address the reality of what I was seeing and hearing. In previous blog entries I had addressed my take on the debates and would return to give my final breakdowns but the closer we all got to the first caucus, and the fever for predictions increased I held back my need to jump into that deleterious sport of errors. If I didn’t hear anything worthwhile before, I heard even less, just white noise or as I refer to as “static”. I decided to just stop searching for the same old jockeying news for the Best Mr. President Award ceremonies by those playing up to the public. I find that when you are at your most restful, you are able to hear more, see and feel the things you need and not want. The silence in the presence of your soul, you can hear more than what is heard. The old saying, “You only have two ears and one mouth so you can listen twice as much as you speak”. This is a way of seeing straight through to the truth without the interference of words. Only thoughts. For me, this is the way I can hear what is political/civil and what is religious/manipulative.

Now most would think (maybe attack and beat me down) the way I connect manipulation with religion offensive but I find it more offensive to mix religion with politics when we have a constitution definition to separate Church and State. This was done primarily to avoid what we currently have today; catering campaigns to not upset Evangelicals, tailoring one’s campaign message to court the religious, to promote one faith as a character builder or someone else’s flaw before you can even talk about holding a political office which is a PUBLIC office. Keyword: PUBLIC OFFICE.

So now the Iowa caucus is over and all the predictions leading up to it were wrong. The Polls were wrong. The Analyst are now introducing new methodologies and factors that “they” forgot to include stating that they didn’t think it merited mentioning. No one actually talked to Iowans or looked at the houses and storefront properties with campaign signs. No one looked into the college campuses or even sat in a barbershop or two. The thing is, but if you listened, you’d know this, you can’t predict the future. We knew for years of political bombardments of Polls that they are never correct, regardless of the assumed degree of marginal error. And yet the media still post them in our faces to plant doubt or inspiration in our minds prior to our actions.

So for months Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney were the people to beat. Over and over again we were beat over the head with this as if the National election was to be tomorrow. The press and media had disregarded the whole political process by looping their actions and words into our lives daily. No one likes to have someone give the ending of a story and those that like to blab the ending before you get there, we don’t like you either. Yet in their bid to get the story first, the media will all but create out comes just to say and if and when the results are in, that they got it right or partially right first. That isn’t news nor is it true analytical projections. Its voodoo news and we are all diminished if we fall for it.

Barak Hussein Obama winning the Iowa caucus isn’t a surprised. We had a dose of Oprah just last month in South Carolina. Not saying that Oprah alone made this victor happen BUT it helped. BIG TIME. It also showed how powerful the NOT HILLARY vote is in the Midwest. My experience with the Not Hillary vote is that this block of voters will vote for anyone non-Hillary affiliated just “because”. This group encompasses Republicans, Democrats, jaded women and the “very” religious. Those “very religious” groups for some reason see Hillary as the anti-Christ. I think it has something to do with her views on the premise of separating Church and State in government. Often the reasons are as trifling and trivial as not liking the color pink. There is no real practical reason but to be in the hating club of the Clintons or even in the hating of President Bill Clinton through Senator Hillary Clinton. Funny as it seems, the big picture is that these people reject those whom are successful and have a true commitment to SERVICE. It’s a real mania because you have people today who still hate President John F. Kennedy. Go Figure.

I like how one “political analyst” covering the Iowa caucus put it, “Obama’s victory in Iowa was much due in part to many of the undecided Independents that traditionally vote Republican and young women. His message of hope and that rock start appeal seems to still have momentum here in Iowa”. I won’t debate that but still I will ask , where is the American Third Party if Independences have this much influence and political clout to vote over 30% of the overall numbers both Democrat and Republican, why can’t that same party get off the ground and represent a significant presence all over America? New York Billionaire Mayor, Michael Bloomberg excluded.

I like the fact that American’s are starting to get certain truths now. Truths like, “what the Hell were Bill Richardson, Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, Mike Gravel, Rudy Giuliani, Duncan Hunter, and Tom Tancredo doing even stroking their egos running for President?" Especially Rudy Giuliani. I mean come on, these guys talked a good game but guess what, its all a game and people let them play in varsity politics when they should have been cut from the first day of try-outs. If one thing I can stay came out of this caucus is that they eliminated the drain and drag on the campaign early.

Now that the winners of Iowa are in New Hampshire, I think the numbers will significantly change. This is an area where you can’t Jesus people into voting. You need to have a hardcore legitimate platform. People in the New England states have a higher base of college educated voters, read more, research and ask more pertinent questions and they are more analytical towards ideas and facts, so celebrities and good looks play very little into peoples decisions. On the other hand, the numbers of young people, single voters, and working Women are higher which is a great appeal to Barak Obama and John Edwards. New Englanders know what and whom they want and once they do, that decision is locked. It will be interesting how much of that Southern drawl will play up North when preaching to the voting pool. Oh, it was good in Harlem before a Black crowds on stage at the World Famous Apollo (the same crowd that swayed and swooned when Bill Clinton moved into town). Sounding off like a Baptist minister plays well in Harlem but in Carnase, Brooklyn? I don’t think so.

It is well known (at least if you really followed the campaigns of the candidates) that a major part of the get out the vote strategy was to get those first time youth voters, the ones excited and not tainted by past elections or knowledge of politics, history and economics, those young people who are excited to be apart of something to tell their Grand-children (the family that most aren’t even trying to have or think about at the moment). I use to be one of them around the age of 16. I got smart real quick when I noticed how politics have a way of contaminating the intensions of the most worthy.

The other group politicked aggressively were the Evangelicals, that branch of Christians that assumes control of Washington DC. Courting Christians, the mixing of religion and politics guarantees voting points for the candidates in Iowa. If you don’t talk religion, you get ass’ed out. Romney, Clinton, Giuliani, McCain, Dood, Biden etc all got booted to the back of the line for the more spiritually acceptable Barak Obama and Mike Huckabee. I guess those Christmas commercials paid off.

Bottom line, Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton have the same political experience. They are the same face of a double-side coin. In a toss up, heads I win, heads you win. Her is why I say this. Hillary was not a politician while serving as First Lady. She made no decisions; she sat at no major committee meetings, she polarized no major votes in the Supreme Court. She did not have a voice in Congress nor when traveling around the world with the President; her husband President Clinton, she had no real involvement in international meetings and involvements. Her true experience is only as a second term Senator of New York State. So when people preach that ‘she’ has been in the White House with blah blah blah, I immediately correct them and say “As a First Lady?” Then I ask, “Do you even know what the responsibilities of a First Lady consist of? Often people have no clue. And that is the real issue with the whole Hillary has experience argument, or I hate Hillary because, or does she really have experience or is she working post-facto for President Bill Clinton as an opportunity to extend his Presidency through his wife, aka The First Lady, aka NY Senator, aka the potential President of the United States? There is just too much hoopla over nothing. She is a person running for the highest PUBLIC OFFICE in America.

Interestingly enough, people are cheering the winners in Iowa when the reality is; they have only won the most delegates in the first caucus, SO FAR. When you ask the average voter what that means, they are clueless. People ignorant of how the caucus’ works is scarier than 100 Bin Ladin’s.

In short, the caucus is primarily the process for testing and selecting the electability of a candidate by the people, not the actual National vote. The candidates with the highest percentage (13% - 15%) will be able to move forward as a process of elimination. And this is what happened when the dead weight political players walked away with their 2% and 0% points. In the end the candidate with the most delegates are collected and counted, the nomination is extended and he or she wins, in most cases.

Each caucus state has its own rules and demographics so it is important to know which state, the how and when they occur. Not many media sources are even explaining how the process works (typical of media) but I, from my past associations in politics and my formal education, understand the process. I suggest a direct source online for many who just want the Cliftnotes version check out how Iowa did their voting. Iowa with the large number of first time voters, young voters, Independents, and those voting with religion convictions than civil and or political reasoning; Iowa stands as that state of the Non-Traditional American. New Hampshire is the land most tied to the global economy. With the whole of the Northeastern from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania focused on this caucus, you hold the promise of the most densely populated region of the country witnessing how much the southern states will play into the final decisions. There is an old saying, “Where the South goes, so does the Presidency”. In my youth and arrogance I took offence to that statement yet in the past eight presidents, the statement has truth to it. If the millions of dollars given to the front runners, more so the Hedge Fund endorsements given to Barak Obama pays off, he will be the Democratic Candidate for President and all others will have to concede since the South will most likely do the same with his “strong” connection to Church and Christ.

So what won in Iowa? It basically was down to the one who spoke “Holier than thou” the loudest. Preachers who spoke high on the Pulpit of Godliness for President and not the politician spoke clearly or realistically about real issues that effected Americans. The manipulation of the heart and not the logic was the rule of politics and not the definition of a candidacy. In order to be president, you needed to sound like the wrath of God or the fear of Hopelessness; the sermon of the mega-angelic spiritual leader of a mega Church to move the ballot box towards anything that reminds you of political compromise and or confronting difference meant for of lack faith that “everything is gonna be alright”. Hope over Fear rather than Knowledge and Know How of a broken system, a Preacher’s Southern or Midwestern Twang rather than use a language worthy of an Ivy League Honors Graduate in speaking to people. Replacing Public Groups and Corporate Lobby Funding with Wall Street Brokers and Hedge Funds. In essence, you can’t sound too Intelligent in Iowa. Candidates in the past have paid dearly for being knowledgeable. When I am listening twice as much it all amounts to the same thing, “we are all still f*#@’ed.

Maybe I am asking for too much from the candidates but to be honest, none of them are worthy of my vote because I have not heard of any real direction. I have only heard how each will un-do damages. That is obvious because any candidate Democrat or Republic can not and will not function in a “business as usual” environment. We still need to move in a specific direction to heal People, to wake people from the American Dream into its reality and to acknowledge American wrongs with restitutions and reparations. If you watch the small nuances in all the candidates’ fixes for the economy, bottom line is that we will all pay an even higher cost to pay for the national debt with no break to come up for air for another 8 – 10 years at most. Although the first and foremost way to repair the economy is to end the occupation in Iraq, this will not solve our national standings and not with HOPING that an untested DREAMER or a REFERBISHED PRESIDENT or RETAIRED PREACHER candidate will expedite it.

2 comments:

One Man’s Opinion said...

WHEW, you said a mouthful, bro. I just wanted to thank you for coming by my blog and leaving a comment. By the way, I don't believe for a second that by winning Iowa that it means that Obama can take this bad boy home. Hell, (Bill Clinton lost in Iowa and still won) I was just giving the brother his props.

the poet Shazza said...

I hear you, I just got back from North and South Carolina and made my observations on the up coming caucus down there and I am working on my blog posting on what I think will shock alot of people on both sides; Democrat and Republican.