The Iowa caucuses turned out to be a bit of a mess. This one was caused by the malfunctioning of a new app that was introduced to record and count the precinct results as they were turned in. The decision to create and use the app was the result of a mystifying desire to have the results of elections released as soon as possible though there is absolutely no urgency whatsoever. As a result, the whole process was a massive anti-climax. One benefit is that it reduces the importance of the Iowa results to what it should be, rather than the outsize significance it has been given for simply being the first contest.
I came across this montage of Bernie Sanders over several decades that shows that what has changed with time is the amount of hair that he has, not his views about social justice.
I will never stop fighting for the working people of this country. pic.twitter.com/1V91xa638J
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) January 29, 2020
It is interesting that most candidates have consultants who make sure they are well groomed and who carefully oversee how they are look, speak, and are dressed. Remember the idiotic attention paid to Al Gore’s ‘earth tone’ clothing, Lamar Alexander’s plaid look, the expensive haircuts that Bill Clinton and John Edwards had, and Hillary Clinton’s laugh? The idiotic media obsession with ‘likability’ and whether the candidate is someone whom an average voter would ‘like to have a beer with’ (an absurd suggestion about why people preferred George W. Bush over John Kerry)?
Sanders seems to not care at all about these things, appearing with rumpled clothes and tousled hair, and speaking intensely and passionately, often yelling and scowling as he does. I suspect that that most ordinary people do not care about these superficial things, only the political insider class does.
After all, what does it say about you if you care more about how a candidate looks than what their policies are?
I’d say that “likability” doesn’t depend upon what haircut somebody has or how their clothes look like. Unless somebody actually looked and smelled like they haven’t had a shower for three weeks, their visual appearance wouldn’t be what determines whether I would like to have a beer with them.
That you’ve judged the US political system pretty well?
The US demands election results within minutes of the polls closing, and yet has two months between electionnight and inauguration. Meanwhile, many other countries manage to count and recount paper ballets twice within a few days of an election, and swear in a new government within a week. The mind boggles.
re Intransitive @3: You can bet that if The Orange Toddler-Tyrant does lose in November, he will spend the next two months doing as much damage as he can to everyone and everything possible. And bet on the Senate republicans helping too.
Surely you can’t be serious! The media wants to know as soon as possible. The campaigns want to know as soon as possible so that, if they are determined to be the victors, they can use the press to rake in some sweet, sweet cash. Mystifying? No. I seriously cannot understand how you would think that. I would have thought this to be obvious for someone who follows politics as much as you do.
It would have been good had the IDP (Iowa Democratic Party) told those interested parties that there was no plan to rush out the results and they’d just have to wait for us to take our time in reporting. Heck, they really should, from now on (assuming we are allowed to be the first state to have a primary/caucus), tell media and campaigns that they won’t release results until a minimum of two days after the caucus to ensure the integrity of the results.
@5 over here (UK) we count paper ballots. Polls are open until 10pm (though if you’re already in the queue, you still get to vote.) Counting starts as soon as the polling station closes. Some results are in within a couple of hours. Many results are in by 2am. Most results are in by 5am -- usually enough to pretty much call the election, or at least see your favourite bastard voted out. Almost all results are in by midday next day -- usually everything unless there has been a mishap which requires multiple recounts or judicial intervention.
Voting integrity has never really been a problem. (The whole local thing about introducing voter ID requirements is just a transparent attempt at voter suppression, one we’ve borrowed from the US -- thanks guys! -- which will hopefully never come to pass.)
(Of course we still keep voting in asshats, nothing seems to be able to prevent that.)