(no subject)

As you know by now, if you follow US politics at all, the first-in-the-nation caucuses were held last night in Iowa. The results on the Democratic side had Barack Obama winning, and John Edwards narrowly edging out Hillary Clinton for second place.

The good news is that Obama's campaign drew out young voters in droves, and most of them voted for him. (Both caucuses shattered turnout records, with the Republicans breaking 100,000 voters for the first time ever, and the Dems bringing out over 200,000, nearly double the old record.) If it turns out that he wins the nomination, that bodes well for the Democrats.

On the other hand, I still strongly hope that Obama doesn't get to the general election as the nominee. His record of not showing up for key votes is inconsistent with a strong President (how can anyone know what you stand for when you don't stand for anything?), and he still espouses rhetoric that suggests a desire for bipartisanship.

Well, in my heart, so do I. But given the record of the Republicans over the last 30 years, and especially in the last seven (fifteen), with their utter refusal to compromise one iota, it's apparent that the Democrats are going to do the heavy lifting of restoring the rule of law and the Constitution, and reining in the corporatism that's grown wild in that time.

ozarque points us to this spectacular (though long) post by lambert at Corrente on the problems of conciliation, and why Obama's direction is a serious issue for progressives and those who expect change from the next Administration.

Vice versa, Ezra Klein sums up, in one paragraph, why I hope that Edwards can see this thing through till the end:

Barack Obama won tonight, but, in a sense, John Edwards' campaign also triumphed. The progressivism of the race, the focus on ideas, the courage of the Democrats -- all were products of his early example. He began the campaign by talking about poverty, announced his candidacy in the mud of New Orleans, set the agenda with the first universal health care bill, and closed Iowa speaking of the uninsured. This is Barack Obama's victory, and it's richly deserved. But Edwards, running as a full-throated populist, set the agenda and finished second, ahead of the Clinton juggernaut. He said his role was to speak for the voiceless. He now barrels towards New Hampshire with ever more volume. And while his shot at the nomination is long at best, his candidacy, even if it fails, will have been far more successful than most.

On the Republican side, Mike Huckabee won Iowa handily. This is already leading to the Rs becoming Kilkenny cats; Huckabee, though the embodiment of the religious right that the Rs have enshrined as their public ideal for the past many years, scares the pants off the corporate wing of the party. The big media pundits have, predictably, begun to nibble and niggle at Huckabee, apparently in hopes of restoring some polish to the candidacies of their preferred guys (almost anyone else, except Ron Paul). It's going to be fun watching them self-destruct; hopefully, by the time the general election rolls around, the Dems will be able to put and keep pressure on whichever flawed candidate the Rs put forward.

Thank the gods the voting's finally started, though.