Thoughts From the Iowa Straw Poll

I took my family to the Iowa Straw Poll on Saturday. I've been able to attend every one since 1995 when Bub Dull and Phil Gramm "tied" (what a scam).

The following are a list a random thoughts about what I saw and experienced.

First, it was a gorgeous day. In 2007 it was hot and muggy, almost unbearable. Yesterday on the other hand was close to perfect. Temps in the low 80's, high intermittent clouds, and a gentle breeze from the NW at 5 to 9 mph. People were comfortable, even while standing in line, fairly agreeable and generally in a good mood. The weather alone was probably a huge factor in the turnout.

Second, the voting its self was, while poorly organized, very straight forward and did't allow anyone to suggest that the numbers were not very accurate. They tried to run too many people at a time through a small hall way to mark their ballots, which lead to some very long lines. Someplace where more people could get through the voting process at a time would have been very helpful. The accuracy however was excellent. The new Republican Secretary of State in Iowa is pushing for voter ID at the polls. In conjunction with that, reminding all Iowa voters that the Democrats are resisting Voter ID at the polls, all those who voted in the Straw Poll were required to show proof of Iowa residence with an Iowa drivers license. After they had marked their ballots and the ballots were placed in the ballot counter, everyone was required to mark their thumb with blue ink. I personally had gotten two tickets to vote, from an advocacy group which was present, and a candidate. After I voted once, I was not allowed in the door with the blue mark on my thumb.

Speaking of advocacy groups. It was interesting mix of wacko atheists, limpwristed gun groups like the NRA, big money grubbers like the wind energy advocates, and the big oil front groups. There were also some serious advocates like Gun Owners of Iowa, pushing Constitutional Carry. And a new group I helped with a petition drive, Iowa Pro-life Action, which is dedicated to ending the "pro-life" exception scam. We are advocating a personhood Amendment to the Iowa Constitution. We are tired of Repuke politicians giving the life issue, lip service during their campaigns, then voting for legislation which allows abortion till 20 weeks, or funds Medicare provided abortions. "A pro-life, but you can go ahead and kill the baby approach."


Got a ticket from the Strong America Now group, which is pushing Lean Six Sigma. They spent a great deal of time and money pushing their idea for reducing the budget, by reducing fraud and waste in the Federal Budget. So I let them spend their $30 bucks for my ticket. They were giving away t-shirts, hats and candy. Between the freebies there and at other tents, I shouldn't need any t-shirts for another year.

On the candidates. Had a short, rather contentious visit, with Rick Santourum in the parking lot on the way into the event. True story. He asked for my vote, I told him only when he got down on his knees and apologized for supporting Arlyn Spinchter. He refused, and tried to defend his actions by claiming that Spinchter allowed Bush to put two "conservative" justices on the SCOTUS. I countered with, "Do you really believe that Toomey would have lost?" To which he suggested only Spinchter could have gotten Roberts and Alito confirmed. I told him that I didn't consider Bush a conservative, and I do not think helping a flaming liberal, baby killer lover, to be reelected to to the US Senate was a benefit to the cause of "life" which he claims to support. I walked away irritated, and he was visibly aggravated. He asked, I gave him my opinion. And I'm quite sure he did not appreciate it.

Saw a bunch of my Ron Paul supporting friends. I was there in 2007 when all of us supporting Ron Paul fit in a tent that would hold a couple of hundred people. He got 1305 votes that year, out of 14,302 votes cast. This year there were Paulistia's everywhere. After being there about an hour, it was clear that either Paul or Bachmunn would win the vote. Both of them overwhelmed the rest of the candidates there with their supporters. Visually, it was a toss up who had the most supporters.

Two comments directed to the Ron Paul group. First, I admire their enthusiasm. They were having fun, they were aggressively supporting their guy. And they clearly put up more signs, banners, and Ron Paul paraphernalia than any other candidate did. But, sometimes they were their own worse enemy. See a wacky looking pot head, a poorly dressed/unkempt neer-do-well, or a radical atheist-leftist (who wants to end first amendment rights for Intelligent Design scientists and Christians) (more on that later) and they were wearing Ron Paul shirts. Your pothead, anti-god, leftist radical friends are not helping your cause. I talked to several people who might have supported Dr. Paul, who instead supported Bachmann, and did so because of the kind of people who identified themselves a Ron Paul supporters. A lot of people believe the old saying, "You can tell a lot about a man's character by the company he keeps." And frankly some of Dr. Paul's supporters were a scary looking bunch.

Bachmann and Pawnlenty and Santourum supporters were very similar. Families or older couples. Normal white bread, conservative American's/Iowan's who want another normal white bread president, who looks and acts like they do. The difference between the Bachmann and T-Paw supporters were that many of the T-Paw people were the establishment Repuke crowd. The ones you see at the Repuke fund raisers. The ones with ties to the Bumstead administration. The ones who currently serve as State officials or Legislators and don't want to rock the boat. The Bachmann and Santourum voters were split between those who claim to be very conservative, yet can not jump on the libertarian wagon. The Bachmann people were people I know who are very conservative, who do not like the current mess in Washington and want to stop the federal leviathan from getting bigger, as opposed to the Santourum crowd who think we will have to work within the system (think Spinchter) to achieve their conservative goals.

Two obvious facts to this observer. Bachmann and Paul were the only two who vociferously argued against raising the debt limit. And they lapped the rest of the field. Clearly, whether you are a Bachmann or a Paul supporter, you believe that we must stop getting more credit cards to pay off the staggering debt problem. T-Paw wavered on the subject, and Santourum claimed in the Thursday debate that talk of not raising the debt ceiling was dangerous. Second, and you libertarians take note. Life is still a huge issue. Bachmann is wholeheartedly pro personhood. Very outspoken about her views on life and marriage. Paul spent much of his speech on Saturday defending his pro-life position. Santourum is clearly pro-life and the rest of the field gave it lip service. You can not win in Iowa and be pro-baby killer.

Because of this Ron Paul is going to continue to have trouble reaching a broader audience. The radical libertarians among his supporters could care less if the innocent life in the womb is sucked into a tube, flushed down the stool or cut into chunks and sold as Soylent Green. Liberty means that "Every man can do what is right in his own eyes." And if a few million babies get killed in the preservation of liberty, who cares, liberty is the thing. That's why you see radical atheist professors like Dr. Hector Avalos and his wife supporting Dr. Paul. Avalos is the one who got Dr. Guillermo Gonzales fired at Iowa State University because of his ID theories. See "Expelled" for details. Yet, a large number of the Paul supporters were Godly Christians, Reformed/Calvanists who believe in total depravity, and that the Laws of Nature and Nature's God are supreme over even the Constitution. At the point that Dr. Paul's policies allow some states to choose to support abortion on demand, he will have a total revolt on his hands from within his own base. Many of these supporters tolerate the anarchist, pot-head, anti-god crowd only to reach the goal of defunding, destroying or downsizing the federal leviathan. If the Libertarians attempt to push their pro-baby killing libertine ideas, there will be a total war between the two groups.

Bachmann on the other hand is going to face firestorm/total destruction from the establishment ruling class within the Repuke party. They do not want her views on abortion, sodomy marriage and debt limits to be allowed on the stage. They will do everything in their power to destroy her. I predict that the first line of attack, within the next 48 hours will be directed at her husband and his counseling ministry, which attempt to get sodomites to turn from their wicked lifestyle and live as God intended. They will find someone or several someones who have been through his program, to claim that he used state money to indoctrinate them. I would not even be surprised to see him accused of engaging in acts of sodomy or molestation. She is hated by the Repuke establishment, and by every godless liberal pro-abort, pro-sodomy advocate out there, and she must be silenced if they have their way.

The Iowa Straw Poll was great. Had a blast, and I voted for................... Well, I wrote in a name and my guy got less that Thaddeus McCotter's 35.