That Political Thing in Iowa

You know what the Democratic Party seems to be missing? Shindigs. We do not seem to have neat gatherings like CPAC and traditions like the Ames straw poll, and hosting religious groups like The Response, or doing that very interesting "Freedom Summit" in Iowa--you know, shindigs. I watch them as a political observer, but have to admit--not my team, looks like fun. I mean, there's Netroots Nation. It's blogger-oriented so I should be able to really get behind that. But that's a wonkfest. Where's our uncovered nekkid id triumphialization? Where's our scattering of red meat for reubens? (Why is Blogger's spellcheck so madly unaware of the correct spelling of the perfectly jake 1930's slang for gape-jawed hayseed? Or even the perfectly cromulent term "jake"?)

Anyway, I digress. Dave Weigel over at Bloomberg notes what "serious" 2016 candidates Mitt, Jeb, Bobby, Marco and Rand have missed.  What I believe they missed was associating too broadly with Rep. Steve King, whose blue eyes always seem to carry the faraway milkseed pollen drift of a person whose thoughts take him back again and again to the border and the constant battle against the cantaloupe-calved drug-runners whose backpacks full of Acapulco's finest hops have once again consigned a generation to jazz music, sloth, and backtalk. There are people who think he might be a little bit too racialist to actually be an appropriate association.

And yet there are so many who do not!

Left bloggers have noted that Sarah Palin's speech seems to have defaulted to Whargarble after her Teleprompter fail--but I listened and frankly think that although her sentence structure resembles nothing so much as an attempt at cut-up poetry using all the Republican memes, I tend to think that a sympathetic audience could have tracked what she was saying very well.

All in all--not really any surprises or over the top signifying that got my leftist goat--oh except Carly Fiorina.  She actually got my Irish up. She said:

“Like Hillary Clinton, I too have traveled hundreds of thousands of miles around the globe,” she said. “But unlike her, I have actually accomplished something. Mrs. Clinton, flying is an activity not an accomplishment.”

Oh huh? You know, I could go back to Hillary Rodham being the first student to give a commencement speech at Wellesley in 1969, or being chosen to help draft the articles of impeachment against Nixon, and point out that she was instrumental in creating SCHIP, which has insured thousands of children who might not have otherwise had access to good health care. I think it's more apropos, though, to point out that Hillary Clinton won two elections to the US Senate which is two more than Carly Fiorina ever did, and that while Hillary blazed a trail as the first woman partner at Rose law firm and sat on the board of many successful corporations, it is true that she never was the CEO of a nearly bankrupted tech firm whose stock prices shot up like WOW after she resigned--which is the kind of "accomplishment" she is probably glad not to have on her CV.

Flying to many nations as a respected diplomat and Secretary of State is probably not an "accomplishment" in Carly Fiorina's mind because she can raise questions about things that are negative, like Benghazi or whatever Putin is doing, but let's ask her what to do about it.  Hard Choices, Tough Choices, meh? But still and all, a nice audition for being selected Vice Presidential candidate, maybe?

I'm sure no one will hold her being a regular Bill Maher Real Time guest against her.