kanesrealm

You know how when you're at the supermarket you see that mass produced coffee cake, it looks good so against your better judgment you buy it. Afterwards you feel vaguely unsatisfied, even a bit queasy. Kind of like the Iowa Caucuses. Thankfully it's behind us now but I wonder how many Iowans have buyer's remorse this morning? The good news is I pretty much nailed it on the outcome, so good for me. This is clear evidence of my political brilliance. Of course I could have been wrong but it wouldn't have been a reflection on my analysis but rather the fault of bad data. The surprise of the night is Marco Rubio coming in at a strong number three, close to Donald Trump's number two. Those high numbers will get Rubio second and third looks in New Hampshire. Hillary Clinton was declared the apparent winner at 4:00A.M. At the time I'm writing the word "apparent" hangs in the air. It's the closest Democratic race in the history of the Iowa Caucuses which...

It's finally here, the greatest spectacle in American politics begins tomorrow. The Iowa Caucuses will officially start the real battle for the Presidency. For the first time the voters true voices will be heard. Who will the victors be? On November 30, 2015 I posted my predictions. So you don't have to search for them, for the Republicans it was 1. Cruz 2. Carson and 3. Trump. At the time I felt pretty confident about that lineup but things change quickly in politics and Carson has fallen dramatically, so much so he may not even be in the top three. Ted Cruz has the best ground organization in Iowa of all the Republicans. At the start of his campaign he brought in 500 volunteers from Texas. He leased dorms at an abandoned college to house them. I still believe he has the strength to finish strong but he may very well be at number two with Donald Trump taking the prize. I'm not convinced that Rubio is the rising candidate that so many pundits talk about. For the Democrats...

It has been very easy to cover the Republican Presidential race this election cycle because the field is so large and so colorful in their rhetoric that they are collectively the gift that keeps giving. Now the Democratic race is truly interesting and heating up. Hillary Clinton has a big problem and his name is Bernie Sanders. Sorry Governor O'Malley but you are now irrelevant. A year ago Clinton was probably happy that so many potential Democratic Candidates were withholding their decision to run in anticipation of her believed inevitable announcement. Now I would bet she wishes a dozen had run and that the DNC had scheduled more debates. She's probably even sorry Joe Biden didn't run. The inevitable candidate is once again in danger of being Obamaed. Bernie Sanders is a serious candidate with the necessary grassroots movement to take the nomination away from Hillary Clinton. She didn't believe it at the beginning of last summer but she and her advisors believe it ...

Democratic Presidential hopefuls Jim Webb and Lincoln Chaffee have now both dropped out of the race. Chaffee says he'll work to help elect a Democratic President. Webb on the other hand is having none of that. Not only is he not offering support for the Democrats, at least right now, but he is clearly stating that he may run as an independent. Webb will soon discover that the enthusiasm for him to run as an independent won't even register as high as his staggering 1% in the Democratic polls. More importantly he'll discover that getting on the ballot in all fifty states and deploying the ground operations necessary will cost even more as an independent. It's difficult to see how Webb could pull this off or why he would want to try. Martin O'Malley might get a boost from these departures and rise to 3, maybe even 4% in the polls. If the money lasts he might make it to February but short of the withdrawal of both Sanders and Clinton from the race, he will not be the...

It's a lovely fall day here in Hindtit. I'm sitting in my favorite lawn chair staring at the fields across the road. The crops are all gone now, the ground stripped, a reminder of the winter desolation yet to come. Winters in Hindtit can be brutal, similar to our current Presidential race. With great anticipation I patiently awaited the first Democratic Party debate. Before continuing let me say that having more than six isn't necessary. There's a lot of disagreement amongst Democrats over this issue but in this modern era of social media and mass communication such venues as these joint news confererences posing as debates are not required. Some candidates want more, it is after all a cheap way to get your message out, if the moderator let's you. Now to the meat. The CNN Democratic debate was actually quite good. Anderson Cooper was forceful and sharp, hitting each candidate equally hard. The ongoing debate about the debate is who won. Well here's who lost. ...

At this time we will leave our regularly scheduled program, The Trumpenator© to bring you a brief look at the Democratic Party's race for the Presidency. History is inevitable, individuals are not. Hillary Clinton is poised to be a history maker but even inevitability needs a nudge. Clinton needs to step up her game after labor day. She needs to do more media and lay out a strong vision for the future. As of this posting she is being defined by others as unethical, manipulative and untrustworthy. There are politicians and media figures regurgitating untruths and distortions concerning her use of a private e-mail server. You can't disprove a negative but in politics lies become truth very quickly because the information morphs to become what the voter is already inclined to believe. While the Republicans have a huge field, for obvious reasons, the Democratic contenders are few. Democrats aren't known for being disciplined and following the unwritten rule of it's your t...

With the thousand or so Presidential candidates in the Republican Party it's easy to forget there's also a Democratic Party fight underway, or at least a skirmish. The national media has always ignored Senator Bernie Sanders. They just didn't want to be bothered with the self identified independent socialist, who caucuses with the Democrats in the Senate. To a large degree they're still trying to ignore him because he doesn't fit the narrative they've already written. But now they can't ignore him any longer. With thousands of people lining up to attend his rallies he has become the hottest thing on the campaign trail. Walk with me now deep into the weeds, so deep even Tolkien himself would be impressed. If every American who was qualified to vote,  registered and then actually voted and if they voted what was in their best overall interest, not the least of which is economics, health and education, then Bernie Sanders would be the next President of the Un...

Media reports and punditorials (not a real word but it should be) are trying hard to spin the narrative that we have a brewing battle between rival political dynasties. In one corner the Bushes and in the other the Clintons. Our crack editorial team or is it cracked, has consulted with the prestigious word consultants Funk and Wagnell. According to them the analogy is slightly off. In our beloved country we do have some families that seem to have members that are always running for something. They prefer to think of themselves as civic minded individuals following proud family traditions. Speaking of dynasties wouldn't it be exciting if there had been a Presidential battle royal between Blake Carrington and Alexis Carrington-Colby, oh, even better, J.R. Ewing versus Angela Channing. Are these T.V. references too old? Angela Channing was played by Jane Wyman, who was Ronald Reagan's first wife, so by the  transformative laws of celebrity this could have all happened. Now bac...