Sanders’ Surge

With Iowa only  about a week away, Sanders is surging, Clinton is  flailing and I couldn’t be happier.

I’ve  often  said that this is a replay of 2008, but I’m starting to suspect that Clinton’s  campaign will unravel even quicker this time.  She had a crowd of 1,000 gathered to hear her in Iowa City, so a college crowd, and she spoke for about 5 minutes and  split.  She wrote a letter saying how Sanders has ‘not thought through’ a lot of foreign policy situations, and got 10 ‘defense experts’ to sign it, but it didn’t take long for people to figure  out that half those ‘defense  experts’ were actually defense contractors.

I watched Sanders’ America ad, and I’ve got mixed emotions on that.  For one thing, it really is a vacuous piece of nothing.  It looks like it was put out by the Iowa Tourism Board.  It’s nice, lots of pictures of cows  and  smiling people; nothing anybody can attack.

It’s an ad.  Anybody that wants to learn about his positions,  his voting record, or his life story can  find out on the internet easily enough.

It will probably be a real effective ad, and for that, I like it.  Also, I get the feeling  that Bernie’s strategy at this point is just to assume the win, which can be a really great strategy.

There was another thing  I saw  today that  encouraged me greatly.  Not a TV ad, an internet thing instructing people on how to caucus in Iowa.  I loved it because that’s exactly what they need to be doing  now.  Letting everybody know when and where the caucuses will be, and how easy it is to participate  in them.

One thing that strikes me is how much the Iowa caucuses have evolved since I went to one, in 1972.  It was a cold night, with  plenty of snow on the ground.  There was me, T.K. and Gwen (they were a young, hip couple, he was an activist preacher) there for McGovern, my brother who was too young to vote but just wanted to watch, and the elderly couple who were hosting the event.  They were uncommitted.  I suspect they were for Muskie, and just trying to be nice and non-confrontational.

They’re apparently a lot bigger lately.