Saintless

I’ve been watching McCain through the primaries, and more than once, I felt him to be the most sane of the Republican candidates. Although he supports the war, and I don’t, I felt like he had the most sane view on it from the Republican party. Well, ok – Ron Paul does, but you just can’t count him as a sane, rational being if you look at more than his war policy.

Anyway, John McCain has dropped from my esteem down to the likes of Rudy “9/11″ Giuliani and Mike “Phone Call from God” Huckabee.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0K0TzCn3Qw&rel=1]

What’s with Giuliani there? “I was for it before you were against it?”

Damn, that ending actually makes Ron Paul look sane. It’s a sad day for the GOP.

As I mentioned last night, I really saw a difference in the speeches between the candidates.

Over at Third Avenue, he says of Obama and Huckabee:

And listening to Barack Obama’s speech later in the evening, I was struck by how similar the two were.

Both talked about working with the other side, about the little guy, about DC powerbrokers, and the establishment, and how “they” were wrong and underestimated them. Both spoke in positive hopeful, and unifying terms. Obama talked about health care, education, and the war. Both spoke like ministers. Huckabee is actually an ordained Baptist minister, Obama just sounds like one. It was very effective.

Having spent the first 8 years of my life as a Southern Baptist, I don’t think Huckabee sounds anything like a Southern Baptist minister. I’m not just saying that because he didn’t promise hellfire and damnation if he isn’t the next POTUS, but I didn’t think he was very impassioned.

I know I’m biased here, but when Huckabee mentioned God in his speech, I had flashbacks to his “Phone Call to God”, which, as I’ve said before, offends my faith greatly. When Obama spoke of God and faith, it was soothing, and didn’t feel like he was wearing his faith on his sleeve, but rather that it was a natural statement from him.

I was struck by the difference in tone between the Democrats. Hillary and Edwards gave speeches about themselves, while Obama gave a speech about “us”. On top of which, Edwards made me feel like I needed anti-depressants when he spoke of the problems in America. Which was a nice setup for Obama speaking of the same problems, but in a tone of fixing them. Edwards wound up getting to the point of fixing the problems, but he was pulling the fear mongering trick to make us afraid, while Obama gave us hope.

Hillary nauseated me when she began her speech and seemed to be pretending that she’d won Iowa. I left the room, so I really don’t know what she had to say.

I watched Edwards’ speech first, then Hillary (which as I said – didn’t watch), then Huckabee, then Obama. I didn’t see any of the others.

One other thing that I found interesting was that Oprah didn’t appear onstage with Obama. I think that was a smart choice. While he did use her star power to reach more voters, he’s not running a campaign around it. I think I paid more attention to Chuck Norris behind Huckabee than I did to Huckabee himself. (Side note: is Norris going to the same plastic surgeon as Hillary? That frozen smile on his face was kind of horrifying)

Here are the speeches, all in one place, for your viewing pleasure (or displeasure, as the case may be).

John Edwards speaks in Des Moines after the Iowa caucuses. Change won, the status quo lost, and the fight is on to see if we’re going to have the kind of change we need to save the middle class.

Note: That text was what the Edwards campaign had describing the video. Does it seem odd to anyone else that Edwards says Change won, when Change in Obama’s platform and Obama won? Of course, most of us at Obama HQ were cheering Edwards during last night’s speech, but the statement above could almost be read as endorsing Obama. Not that everything he said last night could be taken that way.

Alternatively, you can read the transcript for Hillary’s speech, which I found while looking for the video.

I also found Obama’s transcript on his blog.

Obama’s campaign included the Salt Lake Tribune in their blog showing the front pages of papers this morning across the nation. Which is rather interesting, because the Trib didn’t send a photographer down (that I know of) like the Deseret News did. The Trib covers Obama on a national level quite regularly, but at times like this you’d think they’d want the local story, too. I haven’t seen the front page of the Deseret News, but they did feature a shot of Obama’s Utah HQ party in their online article.

Oddly enough, Mike Huckabee had lots of video on his blog, but I couldn’t seem to find the Iowa Caucus speech, so I had to go directly to YouTube, where his campaign hadn’t posted the video, but had “favorited” someone else’s posting of it.

It’s interesting to me that Mitt Romney’s campaign apparently asked Fox 13 not to show video of the Romney Utah HQ reaction to his “Silver Medal”.

Fred Thompson doesn’t have his own web site? In looking him up, all I could find was the “Friends of Fred” site. Odd.

John McCain’s web site seems to be stuck in April ’07, so I had to head back to YouTube again for this one. (No wonder he isn’t winning)

I stuck around the YouTube site to look for Ron Paul’s video. I had a difficult time finding one because, even though I sorted by time added, there were a ton of videos added in even the last few hours both for and against Paul. But, going back through the videos in the last 24 hours, I wasn’t able to find anything except the MSNBC post-caucus interview. So, I decided to go over to his web site for it. It wasn’t there, either. So, here’s MSNBC’s coverage.

I’m still a bit surprised the Giuliani didn’t bother to show up in Iowa. I’m more surprised that he didn’t bother addressing supporters after Iowa’s results came in. The only video even closely related was of his Town Hall speech in New Hampshire, which is what he was doing during the Iowa Caucus.

Sadly, here is Chris Dodd’s withdrawal speech after the caucus. I got the following email from Dodd just before 9:30 last night:

Dear Misty,

I count the past year of campaigning for the presidency as one of the most rewarding in a career of public service.

Unfortunately, I am withdrawing from that campaign tonight.

But there is no reason to hang our heads this evening — only the opportunity to look towards a continuation of the work we started last January: ending the Iraq War, restoring the Constitution, and putting a Democrat in the White House.

I know a lot of you came to this email list through a shared desire to return our nation to one that respects the rule of law, and I want to make one thing clear to all of you:

The fight to restore the Constitution and stop retroactive immunity does not end with my Presidential campaign. FISA will come back in a few weeks and my pledge to filibuster ANY bill that includes retroactive immunity remains operative.

You’ve been an invaluable ally in the battle, and I’ll need you to stick by my side despite tonight’s caucus results.

So, one more time, thank you for all of your efforts throughout the course of this entire Presidential campaign.

We made a real difference in shaping the debate, and we’ll continue to do so
in the coming days, weeks and years.

I’ll never forget you, and what we’ve fought for, together, over the past year.

Chris Dodd

That was a good man that just dropped out of the race. I have faith that he’ll continue doing fine things for our nation, though.

Here’s Biden’s post-caucus speech. He loves you. He really does. And Dodd. And Obama. Sadly, this was also a withdrawal speech.

For some reason, Mike Gravel is still in the race, and pretty pissed that it was reported otherwise. From how his web site frames the situation, I think that’s what he would want me to post, instead of his apology for not showing up in Iowa on Caucus Day. I’m pretty sure there wasn’t a post-caucus speech by him.

Huckabee’s Christmas greeting really made me mad. It’s expected that politicians will put out political ads at Christmas time. I didn’t like Huckabee putting the subtle cross in the background of his video, and I really didn’t like him denying it was there. Adding that to all of the ruined Christmas songs around, I haven’t been too happy.

I’m one of those rare people who likes the season of Advent, loves to decorate and gives gifts because they make people smile and feel appreciated, instead of just because it’s expected, and who thinks a lot about why I celebrate Christmas.

So, of course I’m an Obama fan, but if I’m going to have to watch a political Christmas ad, this is the kind I want to watch:

Of course, I haven’t watched all of the politician’s Christmas ads, but it would be really nice if there were more like this. He speaks to Christians and non-Christians (all Americans…how novel!), and has a positive message that ties into both the holiday season and his campaign, without being obnoxious.

Apparently, taking phone calls while speaking at events are a norm for the GOP, and not just Rudy.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yj_okz7ZwI&rel=1&border=0]

As a Christian, I take offense at this. I believe Mike Huckabee is making a mockery of my faith, and my belief in prayer. This video took place at the Republican Governors Association Dinner in 2004. ThinkProgress has the transcript. Talk about mixing politics and religion!

It turns my stomach to think that people believe men like this should run our great country.

Apparently, an extraneous “not” allows toddlers to tie the “knot” in Arkansas.

An error in a new law that allows Arkansans of any age — even toddlers — to marry with parental consent must be fixed by lawmakers, not an independent commission authorized to correct typos, a judge ruled Wednesday.

The law, which took effect July 31, was intended to establish 18 as the minimum age to marry, while also allowing pregnant minors to marry with parental consent.

An extraneous “not” in the bill, however, allows anyone who is not pregnant to marry at any age if the parents allow it.

Governor Huckabee decided that there was no imminent crisis, and that the Code Revision Commission could fix it, but apparently a judge ruled that lawmakers had to do it. So, in the meantime, it appears that the FLDS could probably get away with marrying off their children. Go, Huckabee!