2008 Who Will She Vote For?
posted by on January 3 at 16:40 PM
Another report from former Stranger news intern, Sarah Mirk.
It’s two hours until the caucus and, like many Iowans, I’m still a flip-flopper.
I just got done talking to the only Republican I know here—a former chairman of the county’s Republican party who was shot through the face in the Vietnam War and now goes only by the name The Colonel. He laughed at the complexity of the Democrats’ caucus, which involves physically herding voters into candidates’ corners and a system of delegates that requires hours of vote counting and calculation. The Republicans just give speeches on behalf of the candidates, mark a secret ballot and drop it in a box. “We’ll be done in 45 minutes!” the Colonel laughed.
With Democrats, it’s a completely public vote where I’ll have to actually stand with all the people choosing my same candidate. Over the last four months: I’ve attended an event for every candidate; eaten cookies with Clinton’s name on them; gotten drunk with Edwards campaign workers; shaken Obama’s hand, and I still don’t know who to vote for. Whoever I choose tonight, I’ll have to stare down two-thirds of a room full of friends and classmates and tell them with my choice that they’re wrong.
Sarah’s pal Alec, president of the College and Young Democrats of Iowa.
Asking around campus, a lot of the smartest people I know are going to caucus for Obama, which gets me thinking I probably should, too.
Obama supporter freezes to death.
While I sit down with my friends (two enthusiastic Obama supporters and one reluctant Edwards voter) to order sandwiches, an old man—a trustee of the college who has a concert hall named after him—comes up just to tell us he’s a personal friend of the Obamas and they are magnificent people.
But colleges are Obama’s stronghold. Maybe the John Deere crowd that turned out for an Edwards’s event I attended at an Eagles Lodge a few weeks ago really have more perspective than my twenty-year-old friends and I who live within the college bubble. Yeah, Obama is fiery and exciting and young, but I really liked Edwards too, when I interviewed him a couple weeks ago for my college paper. One on one, Edwards was down to earth, relaxed in a way Obama’s not, and funny.
And Hillary! Whether or not I personally like Hillary is irrelevant. So many other Americans will always hate her that I decided months ago I didn’t want to vote for a highly divisive president. But over lunch with my friends, I asked why so many Americans hate her. The anti-Hillary crowd seethes with a virulence usually reserved for terrorists and illegal immigrants, so I can’t help but think some subconscious sexism might be at the root of Hillary-hating, too. Maybe she does repulse people more strongly than other candidates because of ingrained misogyny. So I’m not supporting Hillary because she’s divisive and she’s divisive in part because she’s a woman?
I actually got excited about Hillary for about 30 seconds … in September. She spoke at a big Democratic rally and told an anecdote about shaking hands with an old lady born before women had the right to vote. Hillary promised her that before she died, she’d see a woman president. That gave me goose bumps. Maybe I should forget that Hillary has the face-to-face charisma of a well-maintained ficus; overlook that she definitely ran the sketchiest campaign of any Democrat in Iowa; and forget that she voted for war and caucus above all else for a strong and intelligent woman.
Bareback Obama is a giant QUEEFING DOUCHE BAG!
OMG!!!! OMG!!!!
It's a Louis Sullivan bank, behind the freezing Obama girl!!!
SWOOOOOOOOOOON!!!
Charles -- now THERE'S a building, mate!
you're probably too young to remember the 90s with any clarity, but if you could you would know that engrained misogyny has nothing to do with it.
Bareback? What's derogatory about that?
@4
Were you expecting a junior KKK wannabe to come up with something intelligent?
If you can't decide on the merits of their positions, you should vote for Edwards purely on electibility. Edwards doesn't have the race or sex disadvantages of Obama and Clinton. He captures populist economics better than Obama and Clinton, whose nuanced pro-trade stances appeal only to people much better educated and wealthier than the median voter. And he's a southerner, which is always a plus. (Granted, he does have the one big negative of being a trial lawyer.)
For brandon @3:
sure it does, it was engrained misogyny when the right wing trogs vilified her then, & only more of same now; just with the added years of limbaugh and the like filling the echo chamber of what republicans call a brain with their typical woman hating vitriol.
"engrained"??? ingrained looks better, though either works. i guess.
By the way, my comment shouldn't be construed to indicate that Edwards appeals to me. I can't stand the man. I am a coastal elitist who's naturally suspicious of southern populists. I am a wealthy and well-educated supporter of free trade. But I harbor no illusions that the typical voter bears much resemblance to me.
My girlfriend (if you can believe it) and I got drunk with Kitty Dukakis in an Iowa City bar back in the 80's. It was the one across the street from the deadwood. I can't remember the name. Some Irish place.
Just so you know...
Voting for Clinton because she's a woman is just the flip side of not voting for her because she's a woman. Neither makes any sense.
Edwards being a southerner won't help. The last time he ran he couldn't even carry North Carolina, his home state. He can't win.
Obama is the only choice to bring socialy liberal Republicans to the Democratic party and get rid of the right wing nut cases that are currently running the country
Bareback Osama is a giant QUEEFING DOUCHE BAG!
Why hate Hillary? It's the war stupid! She is part of the right wing that needs to be excised from government. As for the rest of them...I'm disappointed that none had the cojones or fallopians to support gay marriage. But, they're politicians, right? Lowest common denominator rules.
Obama scares the hell out of me in that he is way, way too much of an idealist.
I just don't think he can handle international politics and a couple of his domestic policies frighten me. Especially the one about killing the space program to solve our education problems (money allocated to Nasa isn't even 1% of the U.S. budget).
Slim chance but I hope Edwards wins.
@7 - i disagree. the vilification was / is not just of her, but her husband as well. they apparently and unfortunately come as a matched set.
they may have been the subject of a witch hunt or 2, but they still went on television and lied. repeatedly. that should count for something.
and yes, ingrained seems more appropriate.
It just occurred to me as I'm watching this that I miss the Live Slogging.
@10
Catalina, that was the Dublin Underground,
it's still a great place. If you are talking about the place, you had to walk down a long staircase to get to. I spent a lot time there last year, unless you are talking about Mickey's, which is on street level, and not nearly as cool.
Mike: If presidential elections were decided by direct vote, I think your calculus would be correct. There are a lot of economic-conservative, social-liberal swing voters, like me, to whom Obama would appeal. But most of us are in wealthy, urban, coastal states that are going Democratic anyway, and whether they go Democratic with 60% of 65% of the vote won't matter. The election will be decided in swing states like Ohio, where swing voters are more likely to be the kind of social-conservative, economic-progressive voters who are looking for the government to guarantee that their children and their children's children can continue to turn wrenches on assembly lines on a union pay-scale. Edwards has way more appeal to those voters than Obama.
@2 - LOL that's exactly what I thought when I saw that picture - just what I need on any given day, a little more Lou Sullivan, less politics.
#15:
I think it was much worse for her, all kinds of bitter adjectives were thrown her way, while it seemed many men and the media gave bill a little nudge-wink you go big guy, concerning his ummm proclivities.
She was often fodder for their derision, not because she was a democrat, but because it was(and is) easier for them to label her a shrew bitch ballbusting closet lesbo socialist.
I'm not really a big fan of Clinton(either one), but thats the thing about misogyny it exists both hidden in everyday life or more overtly, but people accept it as status-quo. And other people use it to drive wedges and division into the populus.
its odd that right wingers hate on her so much...on policy issues in the dem field, she's most like them.
@19 -- I don't care if you are a guy or a girl, I want to marry you.
@2, yeah! She's in Grinnell, right? I remember the building from my first architectural history class, 15 years ago. I don't think the slide my professor used included the tavern next door.
yup, she's in grinnell--my hometown! i also went to grinnell college briefly. it's a weird little place--half redneck & half diverse, erudite, liberal college twinks.
ps: it's not a tavern next door. it used to be cunningham drug. now it's a store, i think.
previous IC resident, I hate to tell you, but it was Mickeys. It's all coming back to me now. I don't think that other bar was there yet (keep in mind that Prohibition had barely been repealed when I was there)
Personally, I was a Joe's Place kind of girl. Or the 620.
Catalina,
If I remember correctly, in the 80's, the Dublin was Fries restaurant. Mickey's isn't that bad, it just caters mostly to the college kids more than the Dublin. I like Joe's. The 620 is gone, but there is a new place in it's place, in the alley behind the Q and the Yacht Club, it's pretty fun. The Foxhead was the best bar though.
@18
If that were true, wouldn't Edwards have won Iowa tonight? Sure, it was a the Democratic Caucus, not a general election, but Obama won by a significant margin in one of the whitest, churchiest states in the country.
I too was very skeptical of Obama's electability. However, tonight's results are changing my mind.
@27
Granted, this is a piece of evidence against my view.
quote: "And Hillary! Whether or not I personally like Hillary is irrelevant. So many other Americans will always hate her that I decided months ago I didn’t want to vote for a highly divisive president. But over lunch with my friends, I asked why so many Americans hate her. The anti-Hillary crowd seethes with a virulence usually reserved for terrorists and illegal immigrants, so I can’t help but think some subconscious sexism might be at the root of Hillary-hating, too. Maybe she does repulse people more strongly than other candidates because of ingrained misogyny. So I’m not supporting Hillary because she’s divisive and she’s divisive in part because she’s a woman?"
Umm Reality Check sweetheart. SHE DOES repulse people all over the country, and it has NOTHING to do with misogyny. It is the PERSON that repulses us, NOT her gender.
Reality Check
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