Commentary by H.G. Listiak

Tuesday 1/20/2004

Welcome to my world, where the floodgates to the Democratic Presidential primaries opened yesterday in America's heartland with the Iowa caucuses. The big winner was Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, a Kennedy confidant who married into a fortune after serving with honors in Viet Nam, only to throw medals away and lead the anti-war protests of the 70s. Kerry, the first of the candidates to use the f word in public, after a rocky start, rode his self-tarnished warrior image to the win, in the closing days before the caucus, bashing the other candidates and tempering his assaults on President Bush after the capture of Saddam Hussein. North Carolina Senator John Edwards, who made millions as a trial lawyer in corporate lawsuits, finished second. The youngest and best looking of the candidates, the Iowa women helped him almost double third place finisher Howard Dean's support. Dean, the early front runner, was third, paying the price for his angry attitude and unearned arrogance despite the best campaign organization of all of the hopefuls, with longtime politician Dick Gephart finishing fourth and dropping out of the race. Now you don't have to win in Iowa to get the nomination, but it helps, as the dropouts throw their support to the front runners. With New Hampshire next, Kerry and Edwards will count on momentum as Wesley Clark and Joe Lieberman enter the fray. Howard Dean will have to drop the anger and metrosexual arrogance and take a more good old boy approach or he'll be on his way out. The Clintons will get him. I think the Iowa caucusiers more or less ignored the issues and went for electability, who they thought had the best chance at beating the sitting President, George W. Bush. That chance, realistically, is about the same chance a snowball has in hell, as I see it ... I'm H.G. Listiak.