Regardless
of your party affiliation, it is always entertaining to watch the first votes
cast of the year. Of course, having both tickets up for grabs makes for a much
more interesting few weeks. As the results are tabulated in Iowa and then New
Hampshire the following week, you can see the energy shift from one candidate
to another. Sometimes the results are expected as they essentially meet the
predicted percentages that the polling reflected days or weeks prior. However,
sometimes there are little twists that basically throw the nomination back up
in the air.
This
year, Iowa gave us the first culling of the heard on both sides with O’Malley,
Huckabee, Santorum, and, unfortunately, Rand Paul, suspending their campaigns
following disappointing support. At the same time, there were a few candidates
that got a surprising level of support in the first round with the socialist
Sanders nearly edging out Clinton, Cruz winning by a surprising margin over
Trump, and Rubio nearly taking second place from the lewd Billionaire. However,
when all the votes were tallied and the concessions faded into the campaign
records, Rubio seemed to be the most presidential both in the support that he
received and the gracious yet substantive speech that he made.
The Iowa
Caucus made for some intriguing foreshadowing for what was to transpire in New
Hampshire Primary where the outsider candidates, Trump and Sanders, claimed
victory. Not surprisingly, following a poor debate performance over the
weekend, Rubio fell a couple of spots. However, in the end, the primary did
just what it was designed to do… it narrowed the field as both Christie and
Fiorina suspended their campaigns following single digit turnouts.
If
you want to know what role these initial dry runs have on the process, this is
exactly it. We can’t head into November with a dozen candidates on the ballot.
In a matter of two weeks a half dozen campaigns came to an abrupt halt.
However, it seems as though the vote is still quite divided, more so than it
has been in some time, and this whole process could drag on into the summer
when Pennsylvania has a darn good chance of determining who will represent
their party in the Presidential election. This is clearly case on the
Republican side but is also a possibility on the Democrat side as the FBI may
finally catch up to Clinton and the vacuum could draw a few more late entries
into the fray… makes you wonder why Clinton’s campaign slogan isn’t “Catch me
if you can!”
Anyway,
it should continue to be an interesting race throughout the year especially if
Trump keeps putting his foot in his mouth and Cruz keeps hiring actresses that
will put anything in their mouths. Maybe we get lucky and both happen opening the
door for Rubio. Of course, this is only half of the ticket and I am curious to
see the candidates that have been bandied about as running mates. Could Rand
Paul still be in the mix? I guess we will have to wait and see.
