Citizen Brand

The nerve of those voters

All of us here at Citizen Brand - that would be me I guess - have to be willing to admit when we may have gotten ahead of ourselves.  But wait, I don't think we did.  Barack Obama still looks like the real thing from this vantage point.  So what exactly happened in New Hampshire the other night?

What happened was nothing more than what had been predicted to happen for a few weeks - Hillary Clinton would win New Hampshire and so likely would John McCain.  And that is exactly what happened when the voters spoke.  It is what happened between Iowa and New Hampshire among the media; the pollsters; the pundits; and the consultants that needs to be questioned. 

Think about it.  Two of the least ethnically diverse and not exactly wildly liberal states in the nation have said an African American or a woman should be President of the United States.  Forget the horse race the media foists on us every four years and focus on what has happened in the first two official contests of the 2008 Presidential election.  On the other side of the aisle, Republican voters have given the nod to a true evangelical and the straight talking, shoot from the hip, Vietnam POW.  Obama, Clinton, Huckabee and McCain are not the kind of candidates we are used to seeing in the race for the White House.

Lost in the shuffle right now are the two guys who we have been conditioned to seeing in the race - John Edwards and Mitt Romney.  Two white guys with good hair and good talking points.  Either one of these guys might make a good president.  But after seven years of the gang that can't shoot straight with us, the USA is ready for a big change.  And the differences on display for us with the Obama, Clinton, Huckabee and McCain variety hour have a little something for everyone.

Thus we have seen a different winner in every contest thus far.  (Wyoming GOP went for Romney by the way.)  Which brings us back to those pesky voters.  In 2008, I believe the more the media and the pollsters try to tell us what they think is going to happen, the less likely it is to happen.  If New Hampshire taught us anything, it may have taught us to wait for the votes to be counted and then see who the winners will be.

Voters are on to the exit pollsters.  After waiting 45 minutes to cast a secret ballot, the last thing any right thinking person should do is tell a complete stranger how they voted and why.  Let 2008 be the death of the exit polls.  Good riddance.

On to Nevada, South Carolina and 20 or so other states by February 5.  This is fun.  And it is important.

Change trumps "experience"

Iowa has spoken.

19 years of Bush, Clinton and Bush have made Americans weary.  More importantly, it has made Americans ready for an honest change.  Iowans took a long and serious look at the dozen or so candidates over the past year and delivered a message to the rest of us tonight.  We need something much different than what we have had for the past two decades.  Iowa delivered a clear message that Democratic Senator Barack Obama of Illinois is the person who can deliver the change we need.

Iowa Republicans delivered a message of their own.  Upstart Mike Huckabee, former Governor of Arkansas, won their straw vote turning back a $9 million dollar ad campaign by Mitt Romney, another former Governor, and put a split into the Republicans that they will need more than a few primaries to sort out.  Even Huckabee's Iowa victory says something about the mood for something different than the status quo of the Bush-Clinton stranglehold on the White House since 1988.

Iowa is only the beginning.  But if we listen closely to the message from the heartland tonight, there is a vision of an America that the days of division and fear need to end.  It is a vision where citizens say to their leaders that you solve the long standing problems we have or we as citizens will start to find people who will.  It is a nation of people who now decide where they will get their information and not wait for someone to spoon feed them only the news someone else thinks is important. 

Now, the question is, will we do more than listen?  Will we bring this desire for change to reality?  I think we will and I think Americans are ready.  If you missed Senator Obama's victory speech in Iowa, take time to listen and judge for yourself whether he is exactly what America needs at this point in our history.

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Iowa Kicks Us Off

That quiet we hear right now is truly the calm before the storm.  As I write this, the good people of Iowa are a few short hours away from beginning to shape the presidential election of 2008.  This is the first election since 1952 - Eisenhower vs. Stevenson - where no incumbent president or vice president is going to be on the ballot.  Since 1980, either a Bush or a Clinton have been in one of the top two spots - obviously that could continue this year.  And the diversity of candidates and ideas appears to be as broad as it has ever been in a presidential race.  This is an important election.

Change seems to be in the air.  Iowa will help to either validate that or quash it depending on the outcomes.  There is a long way to go after Iowa, but the quirky caucus system used by that state has served as a good indicator of who the nominees of both parties will be come November.  And as the final push begins to get people out to the caucus sites, the nation's attention turns to the heartland of the nation to see what the Iowans have to tell us.

Record numbers are predicted which is a great indicator of the interest we all have in this important election.  Regardless of your political affiliation, a big majority of this country is ready for new leadership that is more hopeful, more positive and ready to solve real problems.

So let's see what Iowa has to say this time.  Should be an interesting evening.