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Dash of Pepper

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Everybody, take a deep breath!
By SHEILAH PEPPER
The Gazette Staff
Everyone! Calm down. Sit down and take a deep breathe. The primaries are weird. They have ALWAYS been weird. So, everybody, Republican and Democrat alike, just relax and let them play out like background noise.
At the outset, I'm a poor prognosticator. I had hoped Huckabee wouldn't win Iowa but he did go down in New Hampshire ending up in third place. But he was (is?) the flavor of the day with the mainstream media.
They love him (outside of the sometimes funny one-liners) for ONE reason: they think he can be easily beaten in a general election. They'd be real happy to pile on the Christians. I'd say Christian Conservatives, but Huckabee does not strike me as being a conservative, given his sad Arkansas record. He's more of a populist. In fact, his support of a nation-wide no smoking ban seems to indicate he is no enemy of Big Government. The mainstream press knows he is not a big "C" conservative. If he was, they would never support him. A thought - the media needs to be careful what they wish for. If Huckabee won the GOP nomination and Obama won the Democrat nomination, who'd win that election?
Along comes Senator McCain - the new flavor of the day following his New Hampshire win. Again, his record does not speak to any strongly conservative leanings - but his past as a prisoner of war and his support for the action in Iraq has carried him to a place his meager campaign funds could not carry him.
Both these so-called Republicans are openly courting the Democrat primary voters as well as the independents, who are largely ex-Democrats or foot soldiers in the army of the disgruntled. These people cross-vote in some of the primaries and everything gets totally distorted - aided and abetted by the mainstream media.
The campaign won't really start until Super Tuesday when big states vote and door-to-door "retail" politicking stops and the ability to purchase advertising exposure begins.
On the Democrat side, the Hillary/Obama dialog has heated up but she has deep pockets. And although she has worked hard, I think her people also likely believe that the rubber won't meet the road until Super Tuesday. She has the national name/face recognition. The time between now and then will probably see both candidates doing a delicate dance around the race issue which will become a non-issue when they are forced to get down to the nitty-gritty of the real campaign and real issues. That won't until the summer, at the earliest. The public won't begin to focus until then.
Each of the little primaries is different - none reflect the broad national electorate.
So, breathe deeply, and relax. Personally, I go to the Food Network and look for new recipes. The real flavor of the day in the primaries is confusion.
I prefer chocolate.
Copyright©2008SheilahPepper
Last Updated on Friday, 12 June 2009 15:29  

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