IOWA...
There has been much ado about little, lately. Every four years this forgotten state pops up because it is the first electoral event in a seemingly endless saga wherein candidates are obliged to kiss babies, look at corn and taste uninviting food, even by American standards.
The caucuses over, Iowa will return to its native irrelevance.
The procedures might look obsolete. The Evangelicals (who seem to favor "nerdy" environments) may appear deranged in Western Europeans eyes, but in the end democracy is the winner. One can rightly respect both the hauteur of New York or California and the "pedestrian" in Iowa. The primaries in this "fly-over" state are almost a relief after an endless warm-up where intellectual input has become a species in danger of extinction. Generalizations are generally "slippery", but I can't fail to notice that while the United States often excels in creative intelligence, it frequently considers philosophical projection to be a form of snobism.
The candidates tried to undo one another by touting their religious faith in various forms of exaggeration, verging on the insane. This often opportunistic fervor will ebb away, once they reach more composite lands.
IOWA...THE CANDIDATES.
The Trump phenomenon is interesting but equally frightening. It is an indication of the current alienation of the voters, regarding everything Washington. One can, rightly, be critical of President Obama but insult and a serial travesty of facts are no substitutes for policy. Trump's Il Duce-like behavior should not conceal a shrewd strategy of slow asphyxiation of the "other'. He appeals to the most primary instincts of the voter who fails to find an anchor in today's American discourse. Ted Cruz is intelligent but too cold a medium. He inherits the pastor delirium from his father and sometimes seems unable to translate his analytical skills into approachable terms. Marco Rubio is very good indeed but runs too eager and looks too young almost for making room and time and "gravitas". Governor Christie is highly skilled but not fit to occupy the White House until an annex is built to hold his frame. Jeb Bush has the appeal of a TV screen turned blank, but who knows, he may not be beyond repair. The others? They rank intelligent (Carly Fiorina, John Kasich), out of place (Carson) or lost in the "gravy" (Huckabee, Santorum). All share a lack of strategic vision and most are content, in some form or other, of abysmal intellectual bigotry.
The Democrats are two. Mrs. Clinton is the anointed one, by default, on condition that her chances are not overtaken by the many question marks she carries in her luggage. Bernie Sanders is UK Labor's Corbyn twin with a difference: he is likable! Mrs. Clinton has been around (for better and for worse). Sanders, not (it shows).
IOWA...THE RESULTS
First and foremost the best thing about Iowa is that it is over. The caucus state can return, for four years, to comatose stupor. Regarding the results: Trump lost face, coming in second; Cruz won, leaving the Republican elites with a hangover; Rubio came in third and might well hope to finish first in the end. On the Democratic side, Clinton and Sanders finished neck to neck, which is humiliating for the former Secretary of State. Bernie Sanders talks like a recycled Volkswagen addict from the Sixties, out of Marcuse or R.D. Laing. His chances will diminish with time. The biggest loser is certainly Trump (who hates losing). It will be hard for him to regain the former momentum. Cruz must feel some Schadenfreude, after having been labelled as unlikable by the Republican establishment. Clinton got stuck between a cranky old socialist and her "Loch Ness" never-ending e-mail story. Bush almost vanished in irrelevance for now.
Given the accumulation of negatives in the spectrum of candidates on both sides, the persona of President Obama looks almost preferable to all of the above. Unfortunately, this doesn't apply to his policies, but at least his policies exist, for better or for worse, while the current candidates sound devoid of vision. True, Iowa is a bad setting to propose some daring balance of power projection. Dr. Kissinger argued that "America, sometimes to its peril, refuses to learn its lessons." Iowa proves him right, again.
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