It Ain’t Over ‘Til the Spinning Is Over

There are election results, and then there is the post-voting spin contest. Especially in the case of Iowa, the latter is arguably more critical.

Marco Rubio finished a “strong” third, only one percentage point behind second-place The Donald. Already the Establishment types are pinning their hopes on Marco as the guy who will restore sanity to the election and become a reasonably presentable GOP nominee. The Chicago Tribune wants to believe that Trump wasn’t even a factor last night, even though he did beat Rubio. Behind the scenes, Toast! will be pressured to drop out and endorse Rubio. He’d probably rather eat live frogs.

What to make of the Clinton-Sanders virtual tie? Some spinners are smugly saying that Sanders had to win big to remain viable, so Clinton is the big winner, even though (as of this morning) the race is still too close to call as far as news media are concerned.

But other reports say the Clinton campaign is “unnerved.” Andrea Mitchell reported the Clinton folks were in meltdown.

Mr. Sanders showed strength in unexpected ways that could signal trouble for Mrs. Clinton, performing surprisingly well in rural counties and small caucus precincts, and even making some gains among Hispanic Democrats, his advisers said on Tuesday morning.

Mr. Sanders won several counties that Mrs. Clinton carried in 2008 in conservative-leaning southwestern Iowa and in the northern part of the state, including Cerro Gordo County, where Mr. Sanders drew three times as many people as Mr. Clinton as the two men held dueling rallies last Wednesday night.

Many of Mrs. Clinton’s friends and former advisers from Arkansas and the White House planned to meet her in New Hampshire to provide moral support and energy to her campaign team. Her backers said the results in Iowa should not be given too much weight.

Her backers said the results in Iowa should not be given too much weight. Spoken like a campaign that just had a wakeup call. My sense of things is that Sanders may be winning the post-election spin contest. However, it remains to be seen if he can win any primaries other than New Hampshire.

This breakdown shows that Sanders had the overwhelming support of younger participants, while older voters went for Clinton. It also shows that people still consider Clinton to be the one who is safely electable. That’s a bubble Sanders needs to burst if he’s going to win after New Hampshire.

11 thoughts on “It Ain’t Over ‘Til the Spinning Is Over

  1. Rubio.
    I’m not sure which is emptier, the stool Clint Eastwood lectured, or any suit Marco has on.
    Still, in the GOP, if the board is white, every interest’s marker writing can be fit on it.
    See Reagan Ronald, and George, W. Bush.
    Having said that, if a Republican will win – FSM FORBID! – I’d rather have this manchild than that Facist, Trump, or that demagogic Theocratic Fascist, Teddy Cruz-ader.

    As for the Dem’s, I liked O’Malley, so I’m sorry to see him go, but he had no chance this election.

    The fact that Sanders got some rural areas intrigues me.
    His message really is universal, in a lot of ways, so I shouldn’t be surprised. But that “S”-word still carries more freight than a Chinese port.
    Hillary sucks at campaigning, until her back is to the wall. It’s not yet there at the wall, but having Bernie come so close, may send more than just shivers down that campaign’s back, since in ’08, she also lost IW to an opponent whose first name began with a “B.”

    Oh well, onwards eastward, and then down South!

  2. While Mr. Cruz, a pastor’s son, counted on Christian conservatives, Mr. Rubio aggressively tried to woo that constituency, too. He ran an ad in which he spoke of “the free gift of Salvation offered to us by Jesus Christ.” And in the final debate before the caucuses, held Thursday in Des Moines, he notably referred to “Jesus Christ, who came down to earth and died for our sins.”

    This is what it’s come down to…The lowest denominator acceptable to still be considered pandering as opposed to a beso negro.

  3. Tom,
    Oh, I think they have some concept.

    I just don’t think they care.
    At least, not yet.

    They’re hoping to still squeeze out enough ancient Honky and Honkette “Christian” rubes and bigots to come out and vote – just enough in 2016 to win the Presidency and keep the Congress.
    And then, they can work to change a whole bunch of rules regarding voting and elections, with a SCOTUS that will rubber-stamp anything which favors a white majority and corporate interests.

    For instance, they can continue to press (as they have been in some states) to change the Electoral College to one where the votes per state come from Congressional districts, with either each district as its own EC “vote,” or, less likely, the winning party taking all of the votes, thus making the fact that they have a House majority work for them.
    In other words, the EC will mirror the House’s make-up.

    Vote suppression will also escalate, helping insure a future where the demographic changes in the US, are, if not nullified, at least decelerated, as regards to elections.

    I’m sure they have a plethora of other evil ideas which will destroy representative democracy as we’ve known it, since the late 18th Century.

    Basically, blow the dust off of your old copy of The Articles of Confederation, combine it with the CSA’s “Constitution,” and you can see what their version of America will look like.
    There’ll be religious tests to hold office.
    And we’ll be a Theocratic Fascist Plutocracy – see mid-20th Century South and Central American regimes.
    Those were the testing grounds.
    And they want America, to be “Ground Zero” for future experimentation.

    I’d love to have someone argue this with me and tell me I’m wrong, because this scares the living shit out of me!

    And I hope I’m wrong. But, it’s not hard to see that future of their dreams – and our worst nightmares – if you look at the GOP’s recent history, and its present proposals and actions.
    Oy……

  4. If they have to tout their Christianity then maybe they aren’t all that Christian after all. My experience is that if someone feels compelled to boldly broadcast what their unsolicited Christian values are rather than let people observe and discover for themselves the qualities of spirit and values within that person, then maybe they’re not to confident or secure in who they really are.
    If your fruits don’t line up with your profession it’s fairly accurate indication of either guile or severe delusion.

  5. I saw a graph showing a timeline progression of Sanders trek to overcome a 50+ point lead in polling against Hillary Clinton. That’s quite a feat considering Sanders wound up with less than a 1% spread between them. Not that that tells a sure picture of what’s to come, but it has to be very concerning for Hillary’s campaign..
    I mentioned in a previous post that I was registered Independent and wasn’t eligible to vote in the Florida primary..It’s a closed primary state. However I’m still able to switch to a Democrat party affiliation within the required time frame to vote in the primary. I’m considering doing just that for several reasons. To take a more active role in the participation of our democracy, to give Sanders every advantage he’s entitled to, and to sweat Hillary.. A good hard fought run won’t hurt her…And I’ve never been keen on the idea that Hillary is the heir apparent who should just pick-up the nomination without having to work really hard for it.
    No matter who gets the nomination, that’s the one we’re going to run with.

  6. My favorite quote on spin, from long before the term ‘spin’ was spun..

    “A man hears
    what he wants to hear
    and disregards the rest…”
    S & G – The Boxer

  7. Doug… One of my favorite S&G lyrics is.. “like a dog I was befriended”. Reader’s Digest should have picked that one up in their toward more picturesque speech section.
    ___________________________________________________________________

    I think I’m starting to feel the Bern…I’m having a reoccurring thought that’s telling me that making a fear based political decision is not the wisest political decision I can make. I’m aware that all of my disgust and disdain for the Repugs is undergirded with a fear that’s been clouding my vision. My desire to stop the scourge of the Repug Hydra is so great that I would consider it a victory to settle for the status quo.
    I’m now beginning to think why settle for a completely defensive political position of just holding the line when there is an opportunity to advance a progressive agenda and make meaningful changes.
    I listened to Sanders today and he reiterated something that Obama had said when he first ran for the Presidency.. Obama said: “You are the ones you have been waiting for”. Sanders said essentially the same thing in different words. Both Obama and Sanders are telling us that the power of democracy and determination lies within our grasp if we have the courage to seize it.

  8. “Reader’s Digest should have picked that one up in their toward more picturesque speech section.”

    I haven’t seen that magazine in years, my favorite Reader’s Digest related quip was:

    That joke is so old, I read it in “Humor in Cuneiform.”

    It was Reader’s Digest that publish Von Hayek’s “The Road to Serfdom,” otherwise it might have gone directly into the dustbin, and saved us all some grief.

    I am not very smart about handling right wing talking points. Over the past few years, they seem to be fervently pumping life into the bete noir of “political correctness.” Of course, they never seem to imagine that the resulting “straight talk” will be turned on anything that they value. Some stripes of Christianity seem to have ceased being a religion and have been secularized into a political party. I wonder how they would react if you were to point that out. I think I can make a pretty good guess. You can talk to some “Christians” for a long time, and they never mention Jesus once. They seem to focus on Old Testament gore and Revelations. “The Sermon on the Mount” is something that happened for other people, and most of them are communists!

    We have a strong Calvinist strain in our history and that combines with “Just World Theory.” Normally this allows people who are comfortable, prosperous and healthy to enjoy their good luck without asking themselves difficult questions, or wasting their energy on empathy. Their “beautiful minds” can remain unencumbered.

    But, when a system starts the trip, stumble and fall that we find so often in history, the fault has to lie somewhere. It can’t be with the system. Capitalism is great, it just needs to be set free and market forces will set everything right, pronto! The spanner in the works are all those damn parasites! So the energy generated by the descent of a system is focused on the people whom it failed soonest. The people who have been shut out of the benefits of the system are shut out because of internal flaws, not a fault in the system. It’s pretty simple, really.

    The of course, the residue of Calvinism flows into the fertile mud of simple minded narcissism, and Ayn Rand crawls out onto the dry land.

  9. …”Both Obama and Sanders are telling us that the power of democracy and determination lies within our grasp if we have the courage to seize it”.
    I think it’s called revolution and I have been hearing that word a lot lately.

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