It was a measure of how much "in the tank" commentators on the recent elections were that they didn't really understand the fact that almost twice the number of voters turned out in Iowa as had four years before and the percentage for New Hampshire was about 120% for about half a million voters. They seemed to think that these phenomena have solely to do the work of the candidates in getting out the vote. Not true. The main reason that people went to the polls was to reclaim their country.
After a year on the stump, most of the candidates (even Mitt Romney) have figured out that what people want is change. Change from what? Well, change from incompetence for one thing. This is something that people in both parties can agree about. What ever you think of the current administration's policies, few people can defend their ability to actually do the job. And this is why Bush's approval rating took the big header right after the debacle of Katrina that showed their incompetence in technocolor.
It also looks like people of both the red and blue persuasions are sick and tired of people lying to them. On the Republican side, both Huckabee and McCain seem to be people who tell it as they see it. On the Democratic side, Hillary won New Hampshire because on the day before the primary she had a lapse and, for one, didn't look like some sort of robot. Assured that there really was a Hillary there, women all over New Hampshire went out and voted for her.
All this is good. There are signs that Americans are actually starting to think about taking their country back. Unfortunately, this fact is being missed by the talking heads, whose assumption is that the body politic is some inert mass that only moves when poked and proded by television ads. This year, maybe the electorate has a mind of it's own. That would be nice.
Comments