Holy moly!

I'm totally stunned by the results in Iowa and I'm totally thrilled with the Democratic turnout (50% higher than expected and almost double the turnout 4 years ago). Great, great news! I can't wait to vote on Feb 5th!!!


(I stole this photo from msn.com).


ADDENDUM

Truly startling and eye-opening post at Hullabaloo (excerpt below):

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/

Strange Days
by tristero

. . . religious extremists and rightwing nutjobs should have no place in American national politics. While their candidacies may be doomed, there lie monsters.

Which brings us to the genuinely repellent topic of Michael Huckabee. The fact that he won the Iowa caucus chills me to the bone. This is a ruthless, ignorant, and dangerously opportunistic fanatic who is so unqualified for the presidency that no one in the media should have returned his calls. And they still shouldn't.

. . . Huckabee has absolutely no experience whatsoever in foreign policy and no genuine curiousity about it. His idea of an expert upon which to lean is John Bolton, a man as unhinged as Huckabee's earlier adviser, Steve Dunleavy.
[. . . ]
Of course, Huckabee doesn't believe in evolution, but that's not just because he's a scientific ignoramus. It's because Huckabee doesn't believe in anything except his own will to power, a delusional narcissism so powerful he mistakes it for the will of God. He is a vicious, unprincipled man; the stories of his ruthlessness when governor of Arkansas are legion.

In short, Huckabee's a dangerously awful candidate, certainly at least as bad as Giuliani. The sooner he is defeated and returned to obscurity the better.

He goes on to say:

Numerous commenters responded with something like "Huckabee has zero chance of winning in November. Therefore, tristero, what's yer problem? It's great he won; it will make trouncing Republicans that much easier and sweeter."

Of course, Huckabee will lose a general election. But in the process of losing, maybe even by a landslide, the worst subculture of rightwing extremists and religious fanatics may very well gain a mainstream audience and an influence over that audience that makes their current reach look trivial. Let's not forget, folks, that the current "conservative movement" is traced to Goldwater's landslide defeat.
[. . .]
That viewpoint represents a failure to recognize the uniquely dangerous qualities of Huckabee and the reasons why you would really, really want to prevent him and his followers from gaining any more national attention. Here's one: There are extremely good reasons why this country's founders went out of their way to discourage the kinds of bald appeals to religious exclusion Huckabee wallows in.