I knew we might lose to Bucky Badger but am a little surprised that we made them look as if they ought to be in the SEC. Did we ever have a blitz called when they didn't have a screen pass called? If Trump were a Minnesotan he'd demand an inquiry into the obvious cheating.
Having transitioned smoothly into politics, I'll mention that on the news this morning I saw a live clip of Biden's wife speaking with a group of voters in what looked like a church basement, or maybe an elementary school classroom, in Emmetsburg, Iowa. Emmetsburg is in northwestern Iowa roughly equidistant between Des Moines and Sioux Falls, South Dakota. It's population is under 4,000. There was no audio in the clip I saw, just a live video feed, and every person you could see was not only white skinned but white haired. "Dr Jill Biden," as the anchor called her, had walked right up to a man who had obviously just asked her a question. She was looking him full in the face, talking calmly and motioning with her hands as he looked up at her from beneath the bill of a cap that may have been an advertisement for the seed corn company that gave it to him.
I know that a lot of Democrats think it's ridiculous that Iowa and New Hampshire have so much to say about who becomes the party's presidential nominee, but I am a sucker for these Norman Rockwell images coming out of Iowa every four years. I think I'm okay with the guy in the cap getting to vote before me or anyone in California, Texas, or Florida. For one thing, he's paying attention. Also, his peers are mostly Trump voters, but evidently he isn't, so he thinks for himself. Though it's risky to make generalizing guesses, it seems likely that he has some generally conservative views but dislikes Trump and his US representative, the execrable Steve King. He wouldn't vote for either one. If he's considering Biden, it could be that he prefers the more moderate Dems, or maybe he thinks Biden might be the most likely to win the general election. The cynical view is that, being an old white guy, he feels comfortable with other old white guys. This is the reason lots of people think he shouldn't get the first say—but, in that case, it seems worth noting that he might be landing in the same place that, according to polls, most African Americans are landing, or leaning, or something: Biden, tentatively.
Being myself undecided and somewhat practical-minded, it occurs to me to check up on Cap Man's past job performance. Is he in the habit of preferring show horses to work horses, tilting the Democratic race in a direction I can't condone? Here is how Iowa Democrats have voted in their caucuses in the recent past, when there was an actual contest as opposed to a Democratic incumbent running for reelection, as there was in 2012 and 1996:
2016: an essential tie between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. (Clinton "won" by less than a half of one percent; not sure who got more delegates).
2008: Barack Obama beat Clinton by eight points and John Edwards by nine.
2004: John Kerry finished ahead of (in order) Edwards, Howard Dean, and Dick Gephardt.
2000: Al Gore beat Bill Bradley.
1992: Native son Tom Harkin won overwhelmingly. The non-Iowans, including eventual nominee Bill Clinton, were bunched in the single-digits.
1988: Dick Gephardt came in first, ahead of Paul Simon and Michael Dukakis.
1984: Walter Mondale finished far ahead of Gary Hart.
I would have chosen Bradley over Gore—better jump shot—but, all in all, Iowa's Democrats are doing fine by me.
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