If you were having trouble understanding what the Iowa caucuses are, the stunning lack of results will only increase your confusion. This writer is too lazy to find out how the caucuses work, and now I really don’t want to know.
But the Democrat candidates vying for the nomination to run for president care very much and had a lot riding on the results out of Iowa. They have been campaigning in Iowa, it seems like for months, spending millions and millions to win the caucuses.
Candidates are issuing their own results based on their own internal data, to bolster their campaigns. Mayor Pete claimed an “undeniable reality” that he is headed to New Hampshire victorious.
There is speculation that the results are not being reported because Joe Biden performed poorly and Bernie Sanders got the most delegates. That is bad news for the Democrat party.
Now on the day after the President’s State of the Union speech, 71% of precincts are reporting that Pete Buttigieg is at the top with Bernie in second! The only surprise here is the choice of Buttigieg in first. No one doubted that Bernie would best Biden in the Iowa contest. We are still waiting for the final results.
The problem of Bernie
There has been fear in the Democrat party that Bernie Sanders would come out on top of the Iowa caucuses, with many in the mainstream media trying to torpedo his campaign. Remember the last Democrat debate, where Elizabeth Warren tried to take Bernie out as a sexist?
The Democrats fear Bernie because they believe if he gets the nomination, he could not beat Trump in the 2020 general election. But really, who, in the Democratic field could? Klobuchar? Warren? Buttigieg? Biden?
In a moment of honesty, MSNBC host Chris Matthews said he is not happy with the Democrat field. Apparently, he doesn’t believe any of them, including Bernie, can beat Trump, but he believes that Bernie will win Iowa and New Hampshire, which is a problem for the Democrats because Sanders won’t be able to beat Trump.
Watch:
Chaos equals opportunity
Whether it was intentional, as some cynics believe, or unintentional, the chaos in Iowa could be the perfect opportunity to jettison the state’s status as trendsetter. Matthews has been very vocal about the candidates, but he also has been lobbying to move the first voting on the Democrat candidates away from Iowa to a warmer, more progressive and diverse state, California. He thinks the Democrats are wasting their time in a little state like Iowa, and that the mess in Iowa is a good reason to ditch Iowa.
Former candidate Julian Castro called for the first Democrat primary to be moved to a state that better reflects the diversity of the Democrat party, (Iowa, like the Democrats running for the nomination, is too white for his taste.)
36 hours after the close of the caucuses, Democrats are calling for a change of venue.
Senator Dick Durbin also called for the end of the first in the nation status of the Iowa caucuses.
Whenever Democrats can’t function in a system or play by the rules, their response isn’t to evaluate incompetence but rather to blow up the system and change the rules in their favor. Electoral college and Iowa caucuses are good examples. https://t.co/xqLGNabDbk
— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) February 4, 2020
Democrats are saying Iowa can’t count and Iowa should lose its “first in the nation” status.
Iowans can’t be very happy to wake to a less than complimentary national status now. Democrat Iowans should reconsider their party affiliation. Perhaps they should switch to a party that respects them as Americans.
Update:
Over the weekend the DNC chairman Tom Perez did not rule out the possibility that Iowa would lose its first-in-the-nation status in the 2024 election cycle.
.@jaketapper: “Is Iowa about to lose their first-in-the-nation caucus status?”
DNC Chair Tom Perez: “Well, that’s the conversation that will absolutely happen after this election cycle” https://t.co/KHdSVpS1Eh #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/xgaGtZlce7
— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) February 9, 2020
Republicans on the chaos
Republicans are taking the opportunity to say that the Democrats want to run the entire US economy but they can’t seem to count in Iowa.
Tucker Carlson provided his incisive commentary on the mess in the Democrat party.
Watch:
