What a glorious night
Yes. Yes, it was.
Cable TeeVee: I found myself feverishly switching between the channels to see which anchor/election specialist/panel could find the most creative ways to fill air time with no news.
Let's go to Cindy at XXX HQ. Cindy what do you know? We're sure you're talking to your "on the ground" sources.
Ralph what do you make of this all? Well, obviously something is going on, we just don't know what?
Panel comments: "This sucks." "Just another nail in the IOWA first in the nation election fiasco". "You do know there is not diversity in this state". "Do you think this helps Trump? The Repubs posted their numbers hours ago" "Russia".
Anchor: It's after 11 on the east coast. Don't they know people are going to go to bed, and the News Papers won't have any results or stories to publish?
I just want to remind you watching that at this time 4 years ago, we had 93% of the numbers in. Something is going to happen any minute now. Don't touch that dial.
Candidates say f*ck it: Amy takes the stage first. She gets 15 minutes of uncontested airtime to blather. Biden goes, he's a mess and near incoherent. Warren can't wait for Biden to be done and goes on. Cable shows her mouthing words in a split screen. When they finally cut to her, she is giving us a history lecture on significant past events in America. All: thanks for all the fish Iowa, I have to be in New Hampshire for an 8 AM event - see y'a.
This is now unbearable. I shut the TV off.
It is now Tuesday AM. Still no results and Iowa Dem Party says they are "verifying" the caucus results - all 3 counts - by hand and think they'll be done today....
Why this is glorious.
I didn't think the Demorats could beat not publishing the Des Moines final poll a few days ago, but I was wrong.
Seeing all the Cable folks -including CNN and MSNBC - gasping for air and complaining about the Iowa Caucuses and its first in the nation status, the Iowa Democratic party and the DNC was event TV.
Hearing from the candidates only reinforced my less than enthusiastic opinion of them. Did Bernie even speak? That at least would've been interesting seeing how the Establishment is out to get him again.
I haven't looked at Marcos' site. I don't think I have to. I can hear the hysteria and caterwauling and gnashing of teeth from here.
I checked out of closely following this "process" months ago and have been better off for it. But if they continue f*cking up like this I might be drawn back in. Everyone loves to watch a slow motion train wreck. Yes?
Comments
I smell a Rat
#MayorCheat #CIAPete #BernieWon #MayoCheat are trending on twitter
Scabbers / Wormtail / Pete (Pettigrew) for President 2020 !! n/t
Touche
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
I keep singing this song.
Maybe I spell it "Bern," but the idea is the same.
“When there's no fight over programme, the election becomes a casting exercise. Trump's win is the unstoppable consequence of this situation.” - Jean-Luc Melanchon
I have to admit
I've been casually interested, at best, in the primaries because I feel the outcome has been decided and they're just fighting over the details. But, wow, they've pulled me back in.
It's as if everyone who felt they could be a gatekeeper decided they were going to do what they could to get the desired outcome. However, none of them talked to each other and assumed it was up to them to do the deed. So instead of one thing starting a chain reaction (they hoped), all the traps are going off exposing the whole plan! What a glorious mess!
Bust or Bernie 2020!
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
Is this why the stock market is exploding upwards this morning?
Because Bernie got cheated?
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Yes and no.
Yes, the stock market is exploding because Bernie got cheated. No, it's not Bernie, it's because Trump's re-election is now a slam dunk.
Marcos site is proactively labeling
Amybody pointing out this is blatant election manipulation as "conspiracy theorists".
Let's remember: IOWA isn't about delegates. It hasn't got many. It is about news coverage and building momentum for the winner.
They did this to silence Bernie and try to keep a lid on him.
Todays news wont be about Bernie. It will be Impeachment and pandemic with lip service to Dem incompetence.
I'm most disturbed
about turnout. Rising reports that Iowa turnout was only 172000, below 2016, rather than the 300000 number that had been floating around. Sanders can eke out a win with low turnout, but he needs big turnout to overcome Establishment shenanigans. We didn't see it last night, according to Rising. Do we really know the turnout number but none of the other numbers? Maybe.
"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone
There were a lot of last minute changes
to caucus sites. That may have affected turnout.
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
Additionally
the whole thing was structured in a way that virtually guaranteed lowered turnout.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
Curious
I wonder if the tele-caucus thing the DNC had lined up happened or not?
I like that idea of teleconferance
if it is reliable. Caucuses leave so many people out and this would be a way for more people to partake in the delight of them. Parents that have small kids and limited income don't usually attend nor do a lot of disabled people.
But making it work is key and who has faith that it will after the Iowa debacle?
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
I like the idea too
Maximum inclusion is a critical aspect of a functioning democracy. I can get behind just about any proposal to make it easier for people to vote, make election days paid holidays, along with paving an easier pathway to all kinds of more inclusive civic engagement.
If we had anything like a functioning press left, then even with the miscreants running the Dem party we could expect to get good reports on turnout numbers along with some clarity on whether or not the tele-caucus was in play, how many showed up in person, how many might have voted via tele-caucus, etc. Instead it's probably just going to be an entire day full of bullshit, gossip, and fingerpointing.
Saagar: The media completely failed
the coverage leading up to the Iowa caucuses was the lowest in a decade because the impeachment farce coverage sucked all the oxygen out of the room. Gee... it's almost like that was the reason Nancy held on to the crime of the century papers for a month. Which also kept Bernie in congress instead of out on the campaign trail like Joe and Mayo Cheat.
He also says that instead of today's newspapers having the results and dissections of the results we will have the SOTU address tonight and then tomorrow the papers will be covering that and the responses. And whola the Iowa results will become something that just gee folks don't matter.
In affect #Berniewasrobbed will become the new hashtag. (okay I made that up, but it's true aint it?
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
Same song
Different year.
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
If this royal screwup
is what it takes to get rid of Iowa as first state to vote in the primaries with its outdated and stupid caucus system, I'll consider last night a success.
40 yrs of experience in the media spotlight running a caucus, and the Iowa Dem Party acts like a bunch of nervous rookies. That's assuming this was in fact an organic screwup.
Months and months of campaigning and millions of dollars spent on an insignificant Ivory Soap state where a whopping 170k voters bother to show up to caucus. That's 15% of the eligible voters there. With regular ballot voting in NH, they get 60% turnout.
The DNC needs to respond by eliminating all caucus states from the delegate count. Then move to a rotating regional primary system, which I've advocated for years, held within a tight 2-3 month time frame, to clean up this wildly expensive and lengthy mess of a primary system which vastly overvalues small, rural states. Small and rural already gets overrepresented in the rest of our political system.
We also have caucuses here in Washington
and they have been working just fine longer than anyone now in elected office has been alive.
It has its faults because it takes direct physical participation in the process which is something that some people, for varying reasons can't attend.
Last night the caucuses worked well, it was the mismanagement and/or willful actions of the Democratic Party at fault here.
I've read that in IA
a lot, even most, of the precinct captains tasked with reporting vote totals to party headquarters decided at the outset to phone in results, and not use the new app. Being older folks, many of them, they wanted to avoid the headaches that come with figuring out this new technology. Problem was that the party hadn't counted on so many captains reporting by phone, the traditional way, and so didn't plan for enough people to handle the calls from 1700 precinct locations.
Re Washington, apparently their caucus system for selecting delegates to the national convention is no longer being used. They are going to a regular primary voting system for voters to choose the party nominee, and earlier, in March, so their state becomes more relevant in the process. Good moves.
For what it's worth
over at Naked Capitalism, I've been reading comments from people who caucused last night and knew what they should expect. None of them that I've read said there were any problems with the caucuses themselves, and these are people who know what to look for and are looking. Everything I'm reading jives with your assessment, that the problem is farther up the line, either accidentally or accidentally on purpose.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
But he learned something last time
The last time out they had similar inconsistencies. When Washington caucus rolled around Bernies campaign had a system in place. I was an observer at my precinct. I got the names of the counters watched them count. (We elected one from each camp to count they counted 1/2 or so each then traded and recounted) It was put on a talley sheet which I photographed along with names and description of the count then text messages it to a special number. Apparently no one but the Bernie campaign knew this last night.
A Special Kind of Stupid
I'm not directing the below tweeted observation at wok's points above.
While I expected all kinds of hijinks last night, I really didn't anticipate this big of a puckluster.
Has anyone heard what the DNC plans to do about counting in Nevada? Still planning to use that app?
NV will not be using this broken app
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2020/feb/04/democratic-race-iow...
So there's that.
"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone