- For the Democrats, Obama came in first with 39%, Edwards
second with 30% and Clinton third with 29%--a major embarrassment. For
the Republicans, Gov. Huckabee received 34%, and Gov. Romney was second
with 25%. Thompson and McCain were in a tie for distant third at 13% and
Ron Paul finally burst out of the single digits with 10% --not what his
ardent supporters hoped for but certainly a respectable showing considering
the media blackout against him and his anti-establishment cause. The big
losers were Hillary Clinton and Rudolph Giuliani. Although both were promoted
all year long by the mainstream press as front runners, they were clearly
not popular in Iowa. It was also clear that the Des Moines Register, which
tried to sway the race in favor of McCain and Clinton, is out of touch
with it's own constituency.
-
- As I have pointed out in recent briefs, we are front
and center watching a major case of media manipulation. Huckabee's strong
showing in Iowa was almost solely due to his ministerial attractiveness
to rural christian conservatives in Iowa, and even that would not have
gained any notice without a major media campaign to promote him out of
nowhere, as they made a major issue out of Romney's Mormon faith--which
predictable galvanized some evangelical Christians against Romney and for
Huckabee.
-
- However, Huckabee's God and Big Government campaign has
little pull in other larger states where the number of secular voters is
much stronger than in Iowa. He will get a boost in New Hampshire from the
media label as a "winner," but it is doubtful he will break the
20% support level. Before Iowa, he was at 10%. It is interesting to note
the grouping of Iowa counties that voted for Romney were concentrated around
the cities where he visited personally --indicating that he was successful
in converting a majority in urban areas which had a chance to meet him.
Huckabee's support was almost exclusively found in the small rural counties
which rely on the news media and what fellow church-goers are saying to
form political opinions. That will not translate to a winning percentage
in other states with larger urban populations.
-
- McCain wouldn't even be in this race if it were not for
the massive media support he receive just recently --with six major newspapers
endorsing him in an attempt to boost him over Romney (when it became apparent
that Giuliani might not be able to sustain his front-runner status). This
strategy of boosting McCain to cut off Romney is probably not going to
work either. McCain's poor showing in Iowa, despite the Register's endorsement,
does not bode well. If McCain doesn't beat Romney in New Hampshire (currently
in a dead heat), the Powers That Be will be looking for another strategy.
They've still got spoiler Michael Bloomberg in the wings. Using a major
liberal newspaper in NH to editorialize against Romney ("Anyone but
Romney" without endorsing anyone else) suspiciously smacks of media
manipulation on a grand scale. But New Hampshire voters can be pretty independent
when they want, so the results next week should be interesting.
-
- Ron Paul continues to build support in the "Live
or Die Free" state, so it will be interesting to see how much higher
than his current 7% polling numbers he is able to reach. I fear that the
false media coverage promoting Huckabee as an anti-establishment conservative
(which is false) may keep last minute voters from switching to Paul. It
won't help that the Fox media moguls are intent upon keeping Ron Paul out
of the New Hampshire Republican debates--even though Paul polls higher
in NH than Fred Thompson, who is invited. ABC News is hinting that they
may use the same double digit national polling criteria in their debate
selection process as well. So, it is important that Ron Paul breach the
10% mark in New Hampshire. The establishment really doesn't want the electorate
to have an anti-interventionist, anti-big government, anti-globalist choice
in this election.
-
- World Affairs Brief Commentary and Insights on a
Troubled World
-
- Copyright Joel Skousen. Partial quotations with attribution
permitted.
-
- Cite source as Joel Skousen's World Affairs Brief
- http://www.worldaffairsbrief.com
|
