Ioweirdness

O.K., the Iowa precinct caucuses were a huge fuck up. There are a couple of silver linings, but I’ll get to those at the end.
The problem, so they say, was an app that didn’t work properly. Now, I admit I don’t know anything about the design and development of apps. Not a computer person. But an app that just registers the number of votes in each precinct when a precinct chairman keys them in strikes me as a pretty simple thing. It’s basically a spreadsheet.
But the Iowa Democratic Party paid a company named Shadow (first suggestion – don’t do business with anybody called ‘Shadow.’ They are actually TRYING to convey an image of shadiness, darkness, secrecy, etc.. Things done in the shadows are not good things) $63,000 for the app, so they wouldn’t have to use the old, primitive (but entirely functional) method of counting the votes on paper and then phoning them in. Oh, and did I mention that Shadow is managed by a bunch of people from Hillary’s 2016 campaign? Probably worth mentioning. Then, Pete Buttigieg also chipped in $42,500. I can’t imagine why a candidate would do that, but I suppose he had reasons.
Then, with less than 1% of the precincts reporting, Pete gives a speech claiming victory. While he was doing that, a lot of precincts were trying to enter their numbers and having no luck, because nobody had thought to actually test the app or anything like that, and when they just tried to phone the numbers in, they wound up on hold for hours.
So, things were looking bad. But, Bernie had had observers in every single precinct. People were recording votes and taking pictures. So, the results were delayed, and aren’t even all in and official yet, but it’s clear that Bernie Sanders has won Iowa. That’s part of the silver lining.
People are angry at the party and many are calling for Tom Perez’ (DNC chairman) resignation. I doubt that will happen, although it should. Also, Pete has been exposed as kind of a cheating low life. I don’t know that he actually did anything illegal and in today’s morally compromised politics, he might not be forced from the race. But, he just might. At any rate, he is going to be known as Pete the Cheat from this point forward. It was bad. The other part of the silver lining has nothing to do with the app, and was not too surprising. Biden got crushed. Didn’t break 15%. And he probably won’t in New Hampshire, either. He’s toast.
So, essentially the race is now between Sanders and Warren, and Warren tends to lose voters as fast as she gains them. Bernie’s going to win this thing.