The Race To The Starting
Line in Iowa
By
Leonard Zwelling
Given the pace of the changes in the standings among the
various pretenders to the Game of Thrones, Oval Office version 2.0, whenever I
write this will probably mean that it is out of date before I finish the first
paragraph. So I will stick the stake in the ground and say that I am writing at
11:30 AM, Thursday, January 28 and by evening’s end I may well have to delete
all of this.
The Donald has moved the preliminaries of his event this evening
for Wounded Warriors that no organization for Wounded Warriors knows anything
about, to an hour earlier than planned. This means its beginning will be one
hour ahead of the onset of the Fox debate, about 20 minutes away by dog sled.
Could that mean that the Golden Maned One will appear as if from a puff of
smoke at the Fox debate so as to startle Megyn Kelly into asking him “fair”
questions? Doubt it. (He didn’t. It was 7 No Trump.) I think he will take the
stage at his own event about the same time the Fox debate begins and will probably
command at least split screen coverage by the media that has made his
candidacy (I got that right). Without the media’s free advertisement, Donald would be the also-ran
loser he ought to be. Of course, with Mr. Trump’s flare for the dramatic, he
may well burst into the back of the Fox debate hall at about the 8:45 mark and
pass out his signature red hats and ties to the gathered throng having been
followed by a remote cam from his event to the debate a la David Letterman. (Fortunately,
this did not happen). Who knows? Who cares?
The rest of the Republican field cannot seem to get any
traction yet no matter what The Donald does, the media will cover it. He’s
right. He could walk down 5th Avenue in Manhattan and shoot someone
and not lose a vote. And I will bet that CNN will be there to cover it live.
(As it turned out, the other GOP pretenders to the throne did have a meaningful
and revealing debate. Without the bully in the room, Bush came out of his
shell, Cruz proved to be a crab and Christie is still the big dog, with Marco
being the yap dog.)
I am very sorry for the rest of the GOP field. They can get
nowhere near the attention that Donald does. The fact that they have little new
to say may explain why. Donald is rude, but he’s different, unpredictable and
entertaining. These are certainly attributes I look for in a President, don’t
you? Not!
On
the Democratic side, I think it likely that Sanders and Clinton will agree to
at least 3 more debates and perhaps one won’t be followed by a public service
ad for the ASPCA at 3 AM as the first few debates were. Who in his right mind
would stay in Saturday night to watch the Democrats debate? OK, I did, but what
normal person would?
Bernie
got off a good one last night when he noted his opponent’s presence taking Wall
Street money in Philly while he was in Mason City, Iowa with Susan Sarandon. (No
amount of money would get me from Ms. Sarandon’s side even in frigid Iowa. Especially
in frigid Iowa.)
You
see, Bernie can post up a Facebook plea and generate $1 million any day he
wants. The kids send him their lunch money! Mrs. Clinton cannot do the same.
She still needs to raise money the old fashioned way, from crooks, and the Bern
has learned Obama’s tricks even if not garnering his endorsement.
So,
my predictions for Monday evening are:
GOP:
Trump-33%
Cruz-23%
Rubio-17%
Who
cares?-The rest
Dems: Clinton-55%
Sanders-45%
O’
Malley-Give it a rest
Let’s
see how I do. If I do OK, I will try the Oscars next because the politics of
the Oscars is almost as ludicrous as the glamor of Presidential politics.
My
favorite definition of Washington, DC: Hollywood on the Potomac with less good
looking people. Bernie is no Dustin Hoffman, but Hillary is no Angelina Jolie.
Christie may well be John Goodman, however.
