As the field narrows towards the final two...

...You know the rest, don't you? The two candidates start to try and distinguish between each other, fail to do so, and then the pot shots and dirty politics start to fly fast and furiously. Apparently the latter is gong to take precedence in the normal order of presidential politics as today we learned that a female lobbyist is accusing John McCain to "getting too close," so to speak. Really? Wow! Didn't see this coming from a campaign that has included tricky Bill, but the fact of the matter is that the so called allegations are at this time, just that, and quite frankly silly. Even still, the primaries and caucuses aren't even over yet and still the behind the scenes PACs are already digging stories on candidates. I'm sorry, but this one has Moveon.org all over it. And if they don't like it, they can sue me for accusing them. See how it works. Silly stuff.

Are predictions of a landslide in November a bit pre-mature?

The title is in regard to the upcoming presidential general election, which many believe is already over... Wait a minute! How can an election be over when one of the parties doesn't have a candidate? Curious. The court of public opinion is voicing strong opposition to any Republican taking office, or are they. Yes, we've heard about the liberal media for years, but perhaps this time around it is more than just a biased opinion or favoritism in capturing sound bytes. In Maine's caucuses yesterday, the Democrats had their largest turn out ever. In 2004 they also had their largest turnout for caucuses, but there's a huge difference. In 2004, 14,000 party-goes attended the caucuses. This year the number was over 45,000 and it was snowing. Granted, Kerry vs. Edwards didn't quite have the luster that Obama Clinton has, but this is interesting. As for counting out McCain and friends for November; I'm not so sure I'd take that course it I were a dem, but the numbers aren't looking good for the GOP in general.

Super Tuesday... Part 2

Nope, this is not going to be about the Super Bowl. Let's get that straight right now. Yikes, I was listening to some local sports radio on the slow and snowy ride to work this morning and it was fairly sad listening to grown men practically cry over this game. YES, I was upset, but life goes on... Sorry - I digress, sort of...

As for the topic, it looks as though the political landscape is not going to change as much as many had thought with today's Super Tuesday primaries. As of about 9:30 EST, Clinton and Obama had about split the primaries and caucuses already called and with the others, they are so close that they may end up splitting delegates. Most had thought that one or the other could really gain some ground today, apparently not.
On the Republican side, things were far different as McCain put a lot of distance between he and Romney and Mike Huckabee won no fewer than 3 primaries. I would assume that Huckabee - although not a serious contender - will stay in the race while I would expect Romney to make an announcement sometime tomorrow about the future of his candidacy.

Game over after Florida, but for how many?

While John McCain picked up a much needed and closely fought victory in the FLoriday primary, reports are in that former GOP frontrunner Rudy Giuliani has opted out of the race and will back McCain. While Mitt Romney came a close 2nd, the Florida primary showed that McCain could get out the voters on a much smaller budget. Now that he has another candidates endorsement and potentially his voters in such states as New York, the race for a GOP candidate could be all but over, even before Super Tuesday.

While GOP plays nice, the DNC primary heats up even more!

So here we are at the end of January and two things are clear with the presidential primaries, the republicans by-in-large like each other and the democrats are out for blood. Oh, and we have a Senator from MA who apparently feels he can be influential in the choice of the democratic candidate. I didn't know Ted Kennedy was still relevant, but his state keeps electing him and he has been a long-time friend of the Clintons, thus his support Barrack Obama is interesting. At first glance, it appears like Hillary is right; she is up against the established good old boy network, but before we conclude this, we need to look at her only real challenger because the aforementioned "network" has never elected or thought about electing a black president. So maybe there is a lot more to this. I think there is and I think it revolves around a third part, if you will. Nope, I'm not referring to Ralph Nader and his pesky Greens (When they want him on their ticket), but rather, I'm referring to a notion that many voters are fearful that a vote for Hillary will be a vote for Bill and Hillary. We know Bill has an agenda and his wife would be all too happy to accommodate an agenda if he can help get her into the White House. Bill's an influential guy and I think that voters are a little weary of having an husband and wife essentially run the country together. Just my opinion on that, but I would be glad to hear others. I'll certainly share more later.

Does this mean I am counting out the eventual GOP candidate? Nope. Not at all, but it's a much less interesting primary with a lot less to talk about. It should be easier for the GOP to form a combined ticket when all is said and done due to the lack on in-party fighting. I have lots of opinions on the GOP side and whether they can overcome the affects of G.W., but I am going to touch more on that at a later date.

Huckabee and Obama winners, but will Iowa be the answer?

Hmmm. Sorry if I again sound a little cynical, but quite frankly, I've already heard too much about the primaries/caucuses and the first one just happened. The mere fact that New Hampshire had to move up their primary to remain first in the nation is just proof that politics is still far-more about perception that actuality.
For example, let's look at tonight's winner in the Iowa caucuses. I've heard some reporters saying that Barrack Obama's and Mike Huckabee's wins were upsets... Really? Perhaps these journalists haven't spent much time out in Iowa, I know I haven't, but I'm well aware of the political landscape there and I know how important religion is to the voters there. So sure, there was going to be a huge advantage for Mike Huckabee. Yes, Romney was an early leader, but he swayed lately, to take jabs at John McCain, which may have made sense starting tomorrow, but I think it cost him some votes in Iowa. More importantly, his attacks on Huckabee cost him all of Iowa. On the democratic side, the winner is no surprise. Obama speaks to the Midwestern voters more than Hillary Clinton could ever, but the true surprise is that as of this hour, Clinton is actually in third behind the ever-charismatic, but rarely substantive John Edwards.
Regardless of any the results from tonight, I don't think that Iowa will do much of anything to shape voters minds prior to other caucuses and primaries. The leader on the GOP side, Rudy Giuliani, didn't even campaign in Iowa and on the democratic side, are there people who really don't have a Clinton/Obama preference? Perhaps, but I doubt it. What this could do is really fire up the Clinton political engine. A third place finish would not sit well with the former first family and you can bet that the attack ads would start flying.
I'll continue to watch, read, and follow the election season because I find it interesting, but let's not get too carried away with tonight's results to think that anything very definitive, aside from Chris Dodd (D-CT) dropping out this evening, will happen before Super Tuesday when many of the delegates for the respective conventions will be decided.