The top three Democratic candidates got something like 96% of the vote between them, leaving very little for the others. Our own Guvnor Bill was a very distant fourth, with only 2%, and Dodd, Biden, and Kucinich were hardly even blips on the screen.

Even so, it pissed me off the way the networks kept showing the totals and percentages for ONLY the top three candidates, never even mentioning the others. It is not any harder to put seven names on a tv screen than three. Let us have ALL the facts, damn it.

They did the same thing on the Republican side, and there the sin was even more egregious, since the middle of the field was more closely packed. Fred Thompson and John McCain were neck and neck for third, at around 13-14%, and sometimes one would show up on the TV, and sometimes the other, but never both… which was ridiculous. When two candidates are a point apart, you don’t report on one and ignore the other. And then there was Ron Paul, running fifth at about 10%… ahead of Guiliani, yet Rudy was being talked about constantly, and the networks did everything they could to avoid mentioning Paul.

This is not the sort of objective reporting I learned in journalism school, back when the world was young.

The most heartening thing about the caucuses was the huge upswing in turnout, especially on the Democratic side.

Huckabee scares me, though. He comes across as very likeable, and could be a dangerous opponent to whoever the Dems end up with. And a Huckabee/ Obama final would be one of the most polarizing elections this country has ever had.

Yes, Huckabee is terrifying. He seems so nice, and then you start looking at the nutbag things he’s said — about women submitting to their husbands, and putting people (read gays) with aids in camps, and _he doesn’t believe in evolution_.

The idea of a president who doesn’t accept scientific fact, but instead puts all his faith in a book “written by animal sacrificing primitives who thought every living species lived within walking distance of Noah’s house” is terrifying. (For the full quote and a fun visual check out my website home page.)

We’re faced with enormous problems and challenges and it’s going to take scientific and technical applications to deal with climate change and alternative energy, etc. etc. And let’s look at where a man who thinks God wanted him in the White House had landed us. Do we really want another four or eight years of that kind of thinking. When God ordains you aren’t real open to new ideas or compromise or negotiation.

I feel a similar frustration to George about the coverage in general. Right now, I’m not exactly sure who’s still in the Dem’s race. I know that Dodd and Biden dropped out last night. I assume that Kucinich, who told his followers to go with Obama, is still there somewhere and I imagine that the only other blip on the radar, your governor, is still there somewhere as well. Anyone else?

I thought that General Clark looked handsome up on the stage with Hillary and Bill, but Madeline Albright looked a little worse for wear.

I’m afraid that Obama, if he wins the nomination, will be killed, and plunge this country into chaos. Remember what happened after Martin Luther King was killed? Can you imagine if the first viable black candidate for President was shot by some white supremacist? I can. I don’t want to. It’s just too awful to contemplate.

On the other hand the man inspires me as I haven’t been inspired in a long damn time. You don’t win big if you don’t risk big. Of course it’s easy for me to say, I’m not the one who potentially has a target on my back.

Now that Dodd and Biden are out it’s between Obama and Edwards for me, and Obama, right now, is my choice. Of course by the time NM votes it won’t matter a damn.

Richardson is still hanging in, I’m not sure why. Maybe he’s hoping to do better in Nevada among Hispanic voters. Or he’s just running for Veep.

And every time you talk about the events of ‘63 and ‘68, please cross your fingers!