All Eyes On Iowa (Wednesday's Show)
Hi everybody! Are you ready to caucus?! Woo hoo! Feel the energy. Well, my work schedule has kind of screwed me here because the late blogging means by the time you read this the panels are going to be pretty moot. So I might steamroll over that stuff. Anyhoo, the state that has everyone's tongues a-wagging tonight is Iowa and Anderson Cooper kicks us off with the latest poll numbers. We then move into a Candy Crowley piece that checks out what the candidates are doing as it gets down to the wire. Edwards is doing a 36 hour campaign-a-thon, and Clinton? She wants to make sure the poor cold reporters will be wearing coats. Aw, she's like your mom--with a security clearance. We then hear from some other 08ers, and what piece is complete without the Dean scream? After the package, Candy joins us live, along with John King, for some speculation.
Next up, we've got Jeffrey Toobin live to break down how the caucuses work. Basically, it's craziness! There's no secret ballot and you can vote again if your guy (or gal) doesn't get enough support to make them a contender. Of course, this is just for the democrats. Because we like to do things as complicated as possible. The republicans just have a simple straw poll. But going back to the craziness, Toobin and Anderson demonstrate with CNN's brand-spanking new "multi-touch" technology. Oooh, Santa must have thought someone was good this year. With a swipe of the hand our anchor and analyst are matching voters up with candidates. You know what this totally reminds me of? Wooly Willy.
On now to Tom Foreman live at Merrill Middle School, where some of the action will soon be going down. Here we learn that we're not about to witness just weird voting. No sir. If a candidate doesn't have enough supporters come out to caucus for them, what supporters they do have are totally up for grabs. Arm twisting. Wheeling and dealing. Iowa will see it all. It'll be like the House floor during the CAFTA vote (and many others). You know, I think I have caucus envy. This is probably the first time in my life a part of me wishes I was in the Hawkeye state. Well, maybe I wished that for a minute after watching "Field of Dreams." Is this heaven? No, it's Iowa.
Erica Hill doing the headlines tonight and in "What Were They Thinking?" we learn that a former tv reporter has climbed a big tower and is going to sit up there until everyone gets his message, conveniently written on a big banner. The message? "We are all in trouble." Hm, Erica and Anderson ponder our sudden precarious, yet vague, situation. Maybe we just don't have all the info. Like the whole, "save the cheerleader, save the world." I have no idea what that means, but I don't watch "Heroes." Or, you know, he's just an attention whore with a screw loose. Erica then brings us some footage of the Ultimate Couch Potato Competition. I could totally win that.
Transitioning now to a Joe Johns "Keeping Them Honest" piece that focuses on what issues democratic voters in Iowa find important: Iraq and health care. Joe then takes a look at the top three democratic candidates and where they stand on the these issues (sorry, underdogs). As far as Iraq, we're told the three amigos are pretty much on the same page. When it comes to health care, Clinton would mandate it, Obama would focus on a national program for those that can't get it at work, and Edwards wants to beat it out of the employer. Basically, everyone is pretty close, but then again, I'm always wary when the conventional wisdom is that two candidates have similar stances. That's what they said about Bush and Gore and they were wrong. Very wrong. Catastrophically wrong.
Next up, we have a panel with David Gergen and Gloria Borger and then Joe's back to hit us with the republicans and a couple of their issues: Taxes and immigration. Apparently Huckabee wants the IRS gone, with a sales tax instead. Romney will make the tax cuts permanent and ditch the estate tax, but he'll keep the IRS. Funny this is, as Joe tells us, Congress controls tax policy, not the prez. Sad thing is, it probably doesn't matter. On immigration, Huckabee supports the Bush plan, but Romney is against the guest worker program. These two pieces were good. It's nice to see the issues getting airtime over the horse race. After Joe's piece, we have Gloria and David back for more discussion. While talking about Huckabee, Anderson uses the phrase "not ready for prime time" and I'm going to have to go all Bill Maher and say, new rule, no more saying that phrase. Suddenly it's all over CNN and MSNBC. Was there a memo?
On now to a Gary Tuchman piece on Iowa Christian conservatives. Guess what. They love Huck! And the pastors are doing that whole I'm-not-officially-endorsing-anyone-because-I-like-my-tax-exempt-status wink and nod thing. Sigh. And who's the big loser here? Romney. The whole Mormon thing is not really working out for him, vote wise. Look people, there are lots of good reasons not to vote for Romney. Because he's a Mormon isn't one of them.
The Shot tonight is really disturbing video of a bull festival. No, scratch that. Really disturbing video of a guy getting gored. Ouch. Maybe people shouldn't play with bulls. Anyway, the show was good and what was to be expected. I'll watch most of the coverage Thursday night and see what I come up with post wise. B
Next up, we've got Jeffrey Toobin live to break down how the caucuses work. Basically, it's craziness! There's no secret ballot and you can vote again if your guy (or gal) doesn't get enough support to make them a contender. Of course, this is just for the democrats. Because we like to do things as complicated as possible. The republicans just have a simple straw poll. But going back to the craziness, Toobin and Anderson demonstrate with CNN's brand-spanking new "multi-touch" technology. Oooh, Santa must have thought someone was good this year. With a swipe of the hand our anchor and analyst are matching voters up with candidates. You know what this totally reminds me of? Wooly Willy.
On now to Tom Foreman live at Merrill Middle School, where some of the action will soon be going down. Here we learn that we're not about to witness just weird voting. No sir. If a candidate doesn't have enough supporters come out to caucus for them, what supporters they do have are totally up for grabs. Arm twisting. Wheeling and dealing. Iowa will see it all. It'll be like the House floor during the CAFTA vote (and many others). You know, I think I have caucus envy. This is probably the first time in my life a part of me wishes I was in the Hawkeye state. Well, maybe I wished that for a minute after watching "Field of Dreams." Is this heaven? No, it's Iowa.
Erica Hill doing the headlines tonight and in "What Were They Thinking?" we learn that a former tv reporter has climbed a big tower and is going to sit up there until everyone gets his message, conveniently written on a big banner. The message? "We are all in trouble." Hm, Erica and Anderson ponder our sudden precarious, yet vague, situation. Maybe we just don't have all the info. Like the whole, "save the cheerleader, save the world." I have no idea what that means, but I don't watch "Heroes." Or, you know, he's just an attention whore with a screw loose. Erica then brings us some footage of the Ultimate Couch Potato Competition. I could totally win that.
Transitioning now to a Joe Johns "Keeping Them Honest" piece that focuses on what issues democratic voters in Iowa find important: Iraq and health care. Joe then takes a look at the top three democratic candidates and where they stand on the these issues (sorry, underdogs). As far as Iraq, we're told the three amigos are pretty much on the same page. When it comes to health care, Clinton would mandate it, Obama would focus on a national program for those that can't get it at work, and Edwards wants to beat it out of the employer. Basically, everyone is pretty close, but then again, I'm always wary when the conventional wisdom is that two candidates have similar stances. That's what they said about Bush and Gore and they were wrong. Very wrong. Catastrophically wrong.
Next up, we have a panel with David Gergen and Gloria Borger and then Joe's back to hit us with the republicans and a couple of their issues: Taxes and immigration. Apparently Huckabee wants the IRS gone, with a sales tax instead. Romney will make the tax cuts permanent and ditch the estate tax, but he'll keep the IRS. Funny this is, as Joe tells us, Congress controls tax policy, not the prez. Sad thing is, it probably doesn't matter. On immigration, Huckabee supports the Bush plan, but Romney is against the guest worker program. These two pieces were good. It's nice to see the issues getting airtime over the horse race. After Joe's piece, we have Gloria and David back for more discussion. While talking about Huckabee, Anderson uses the phrase "not ready for prime time" and I'm going to have to go all Bill Maher and say, new rule, no more saying that phrase. Suddenly it's all over CNN and MSNBC. Was there a memo?
On now to a Gary Tuchman piece on Iowa Christian conservatives. Guess what. They love Huck! And the pastors are doing that whole I'm-not-officially-endorsing-anyone-because-I-like-my-tax-exempt-status wink and nod thing. Sigh. And who's the big loser here? Romney. The whole Mormon thing is not really working out for him, vote wise. Look people, there are lots of good reasons not to vote for Romney. Because he's a Mormon isn't one of them.
The Shot tonight is really disturbing video of a bull festival. No, scratch that. Really disturbing video of a guy getting gored. Ouch. Maybe people shouldn't play with bulls. Anyway, the show was good and what was to be expected. I'll watch most of the coverage Thursday night and see what I come up with post wise. B
posted by eliza at 6:31 PM
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