Interesting night. Trump lost, which I expected. He reacted pretty much like I expected, too. I think he’s probably jumped the shark at this point, but we will see.
Bernie put in a much stronger showing than I anticipated. I was not paying close attention, but from what I recall, polls had him down a significant margin going into Iowa. Clearly that was not the case. This is a good thing, I think. Bernie would not be the worst thing that could happen during this election cycle, I’m pretty definite that the worst would be Trump. Unlike his competition, though, Bernie is long on ideas but short on details. His ideas could be very disruptive to certain aspects of the American economy, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Single payer health care and free college could have tremendous benefits, but those are very entrenched entities that enjoy a lot of Federal money. And the university system especially, won’t like the idea that they can no longer hold their students hostage to unforgivable debt for a significant portion of their lives. As I said, disruptive, but somebody has to pay the bill and taxing the wealthy should never be the only answer. Give me concrete details.
I don’t think Hilary anticipated feeling the Bern quite like she did. I do not like Hilary, but I do not think she is incompetent. She’s intelligent, fiercely competitive and politically dangerous. On the world stage I believe she would more than capable, but she would not be liked like her husband was. Bill was a shark wearing a smile and a clown nose, Hillary doesn’t bother with the nose. That lack of affable charm may hurt her chances more than I anticipated. At this point I still think she will take the nomination.
Rand Paul has dropped out. I didn’t think he would do as poorly as he did, to be honest. I was pretty hard on him. As somebody who tried to position himself as a reformer, an alternative to a GOP that had lost their way, I found him too much the politician. I do not believe that you can preach reform while operating on politics as usual. Perhaps if he had gone Bernie’s route and tried to be more disruptive in his campaign he might have found a purchase, possibly even upsetting Trump. Now we will not have the chance to find out. I could see him being tapped for a possible Vice Presidency, though. Him or Paul Ryan…
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