Obama projected to win in Iowa

Interesting.  The young voters came out and selected Obama as the projected Democrat winner in Iowa.  Huckabee has won the GOP race over Romney.  Can a charismatic newcomer beat a baptist preacher?  Stay tuned!

http://www.cnn.com/

Seems like the projection was correct.

Upon reading a little about Huckabee, I think that he will push the divisive nature of American politics further.  A quote from him (on CNN):

From the wikipedia biography article: 

Biblical inerrancy can be explained by ( from wikipedia too):

[quote]
Those who believe in inerrancy hold that the **scientific, geographic, and historic details **and of the scriptural texts in their original manuscripts are completely true and without error.[/quote]

So the leading GOP presidential candidate at this point believes that the Earth is less than      10 000  years old, that Eve came from Adam’s rib ( I had a fundamentalist Christian tell me once that men had one less rib than women) and that some people lived to be over 600 years old! 

That might just be the straw that breaks the camel’s back of the millions of  fairly silent people in the states who don’t think religion should invade politics.  This could lead to major civil trouble between them and the millions of Christians fundamentalists.

For what it’s worth, I’ve been following American politics fairly closely for the last year or so.

Everyone expected Huckabee to take Iowa, but that’s it. This guy even makes Giuliani look good.

Huckabee is a really likable guy; he’s folksy, charming, down to earth, the Christian crowd really likes him.  Hell, he makes me want to vote for him (I’m very much left-of-center politically).  One thing going for the Democrats is Huckabee’s lack of knowledge about foreign policy issues.  He has made a few notable gaffes.  Here’s one I quoted from CNN.

PELLA, Iowa (CNN) – A senior aide to Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee admitted Friday that the former Arkansas governor had “no foreign policy credentials” after his comments reacting to the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto raised questions.

Mike Huckabee campaigns in Pella, Iowa, on Friday.

During an event Friday in Pella, Iowa, Huckabee said the crisis sparked by Bhutto’s death should lead to a crackdown on illegal immigrants from Pakistan.

The Huckabee official told CNN that when he said that, Huckabee was trying to turn attention away from scrutiny of his foreign policy knowledge.

Huckabee’s foreign policy credentials have been under a microscope since the candidate admitted that he was unaware of an intelligence report that Iran had suspended its nuclear weapons program earlier this month.

**“In light of what happened in Pakistan yesterday, it’s interesting that there are more Pakistanis who have illegally crossed the border than of any other nationality except for those immediately south of our border,” Huckabee said Friday. **

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/28/huckabee.foreign.policy/index.html?section=cnn_latest

How is this different than some of the Reform Party candidates from our last election?

The cool thing about those who believe the Bible is the literal word of God is that you can make their heads explode by pointing out where the Bible contradicts itself.  Surely God didn’t make mistakes…

infidels.org/library/modern/ … tions.html

I think you’re seriously misreading which part of the population is the more motivated majority in the US.  The millions of fairly silent people will come out and vote when their preachers tell them to.  A majority of Americans believe the Bible is the literal truth (even to the point that they believe Jesus spoke English).  It’s good political sense to play to the majority.

The US isn’t Canada, and you can’t really judge it’s political fortunes with a Canadian eye.

If Obama (or one of the other Democrats) eventually wins the election, it won’t be because of a backlash against religion.

Meanwhile, here’s something cool to listen to –  Skeptic’s Guide from July 2007:

theskepticsguide.org/skeptic … sp?pid=105

Jimmy Carter on the Skeptic’s Guide podcast.  There’s a great example of a Christian who doesn’t put his head in the sand and pretend that science doesn’t exist.

thinkprogress.org/2008/01/01/huc … tney-iran/

alternet.org/story/70229/?page=entire

Also, I’m not really that into anybody that uses “islamofascism” regularly.

Wow, I really like the following quote from from your link on Huckabee; he’s quite the nut-job.  The problem with a lot of voters in America is that they won’t take the time to really look at Huckabee’s platform.  He’s a “nice guy”, they’ll say.

[quote]"If the federal government is truly serious about doing something with the AIDS virus, we need to take steps that would isolate the carriers of this plague.

It is difficult to understand the public policy towards AIDS. It is the first time in the history of civilization in which the carriers of a genuine plague have not been isolated from the general population, and in which this deadly disease for which there is no cure is being treated as a civil rights issue instead of the true health crisis it represents." [/quote]

Did I suggest that? 

Good phishing! But just for the fun of it, 1 out 3 isn’t a majority! ( Or if it is, don’t tell the Parti Quebecois!-)

Also, an estimated 15% US citizens are considered atheists, agnostics or with no religions.  that means about 45 millions of them.  In my opinion, I find them to be quite silent when it comes to politics and religion.  What I’m saying is that a guy like Huckabee might just be the wake up call they need.

No, the US isn’t Canada, and here’s a poll to show it: http://www.gallup.com/poll/14512/US-vs-Canada-Different-Reads-Good-Book.aspx
However, if you could take the southern baptists out of these results, I think you would find the results to be much more similar.

Depends which poll you use.  Here’s one that says a majority of Americans think that the bible (or parts of it) is literal.  A Gallup poll puts the number of believers in heaven at 75%

secularhumanism.org/library/ … _19_3.html

All he has to do is mention gay marriage, and that’s all the motivation his Christian voters will need to come out and vote.

I think the religious people in the US are more motivated to vote than the non-religious.  It’s easy to fight an election on gay marriage, on good and evil.  It’s hard to fight an election on important issues, since they require open debate and rational thinking.  If you’re inclined to take the bible literally, you’re less likely to engage in any debate and rational thinking.

I don’t think Huckabee will win, but it won’t be because of religion. 

I think Huckabee will lose just 'cause Hoshq thinks he will win.  And with Hoshq’s record of predictions (100% failure rate), I’m pretty confident Huckabee will not be president :wink:

Let us hope that Hoshq’s failure rate continues; I think another four years of Republican rule would be terrible for the US.  The GOP has mis-managed the American economy to the point of no return.  How in the hell can they continue to spend 2+ billion per week on the war in Iraq?  That is insane.

say it with  me President Huckabee :laughing:

fucking guy would start a nuke war just to  fullfill Armageddon

Mike Huckabee was preaching in San Antonio at  televangelist John Hagee’s Cultish Church. Hagee regaularly preaches that the rapture is coming soon. Is Huckabee paving the way for rapture? While the concept of rapture is scientifically ridiculous, Mike Huckabee is stone cold stupid when valuing science.

Did you know Bush killed California’s Carbon plan just like he killed their Zero emission vehicle law at the start of his term?
Another Republican would put the US 12 years behind the rest of the world on ecology. That’s real years. They’re 200 years behind in political years.

The electoral college that they use in the US is very peculiar indeed.  Weird stuff. :stuck_out_tongue:

Thier whole system is weird. They founded the country with the purpose to overthrow a tyrant and establish a republic rather than a King.
Then they give the President the power of a king.
Fucked.
I prefer our system. A Monarch that can’t do shit, and the ability to elect a minority gov’t that can’t so shit. Even a PM can’t go all out dictator, or his own caucus will toss him out. We have more ‘real’ checks and balances than their built in ‘checks and balances’…

Agreed.  I also prefer our system.  The American system of state by state caucuses to choose the national leader of a party for an election is bizarre in the extreme (what a waste of time and money).  At least with our system you have a boring leadership convention that is mercifully short.  I also find it laughable how the US finds it so difficult to have a secure election without rampant fraud.

Let’s not overlook their voter registration either. You register as the member of a Party, Democrat, Republican, Independent. Then it’s public knowledge for a supposed secret ballot.
I wonder if anyone ever registered as a Socialist and kept their job, or got hired by the gov’t? :frowning:

[quote=“herbie_popnecker”]
Thier whole system is weird. They founded the country with the purpose to overthrow a tyrant and establish a republic rather than a King.
Then they give the President the power of a king.[/quote]

No. The last two terms have seen the president assuming the power of a king, and congress doing almost nothing to stop it. The constitution as it was written has great balance, but it’s been burnt, blurred, and shit on by Bush. I know it’s easy to blame the entire American political system for the manipulations of a few reckless leaders, but I don’t think that’s accurate or useful.

The caucus process is weird but the Iowa Democrats’s process sounds fun:

They should have the candidates’ spouses make apple pie and then have a contest for the best one.  You can’t have a first lady/husband that can’t make good apple pie!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iowa_caucus#Democratic_Party_process

I know you were one of those constitutionalist Ron Paul zealots!