In this video from the USA
New Mexico Governor and Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson met with The Des Moines Register editorial board Friday, June 22. Richardson talks about his plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq and the need for diplomacy.In the first phase of the primary elections for United States president for the Republican and Democratic parties, the caucuses in the state of Iowa, the voters dealt blows to George W. Bush, his Iraq war, and the political establishment in general.
We have, of course, to take into account the limits and distortions which the two party system in the USA puts on democracy.
However, in both parties, the pre-ordained favourite candidates of the party elites and the corporate media lost in the Iowa caucuses.
In George W. Bush’s Republican party, victory did not go ‘frontrunner’ (according to the media) Mitt Romney, but to Mike Huckabee. The Christian fundamentalist Huckabee represents a sector of Republican voters on which the party depends if they want to win elections. However, Republican city millionaires still look down on them as ‘country bumpkins’. The establishment might yet try some dirty tricks to get another candidate to become official Republican candidate.
Another man, favoured by the big media and the party bosses, Rudy Giuliani, lost two to one to the only anti Iraq war Republican candidate, “palaeoconservative” Ron Paul. According to these figures, it is still worse for Giuliani: three to one.
In the Democratic caucuses in Iowa, the winner, with 38% of the vote, especially from young voters, was Senator Barack Obama. He was the only candidate considered a ‘major’ candidate by the big media, to have voted against the Iraq war from the start. Number two in Ohio was John Edwards. Like other influential Democrats, he has voted for Bush’s Iraq war when it started. However, Edwards has apologized for that since.
Only number three in Iowa was Senator Hillary Clinton. About whom it had been proclaimed often that she would win big time. She has also voted for Bush’s Iraq war when it started. Contrary to Edwards, she has not apologized.
Number four in Iowa was Bill Richardson. An outspoken opponent of the Iraq war, he had not been considered an important candidate by the media.
Also on the Iowa caucuses: here.
African American presidential candidates before Obama: here.
Tom Hayden about Edwards and the Iraq war: here.
McCain and the Iraq war: here.
