Half-assed Political Analysis

Hey, how about that? For the past year, all the talk has been about how far away the presidential election is, then last night, 300,000 corn-fed Midwesterners dance around high school gymnasiums and libraries and suddenly, the race is all but over.
I watched a couple of hours of MSNBC coverage of the Iowa caucuses, and was struck but how desperately everyone wanted to stretch the importance of Campaign 2008’s first vote. Hillary is out of it, Huckabee is on the way to the nomination with only a cranky McCain standing in his way in New Hampshire.

Uhhh, let’s step back a minute people.

Here is my promise. If Mike Huckabee gets the Republican nomination, I will vote for him, even though he is a social conservative who makes W look like a foreign policy genius. I will vote for him because there is no way in hell he will get the nomination. I mean, I wish he would, just because it would amount to handing the keys to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. to whichever Democrat comes out on top. I think Kucinich could even give Huckabee a run for his money in a general election.

But instead of stating the obvious, everyone jumped on the Huckabee bandwagon, airing every possible scenario where he has the nomination locked up by February.

And the Obama love? Let me just say, Chris Matthews is not a well man, and I say that as someone who usually doesn’t mind Matthews. For two hours, I watched a very confused and confusing man shouting about how Obama’s victory was the greatest moment in history since Lincoln freed the slaves. If Obama does win the nomination, I might be more inclined to accept the Matthews hyperbole, but we’re still a ways from that.

As for Matthews partner on the MSNBC desk, well, Keith Olbermann kept looking at Matthews like he was the crazy uncle who got into the Christmas eggnog and stayed too late at the table. Olbermann, who I also typically like on Countdown, was over his head, out of his league, pick any other cliché you want, I just hope MSNBC doesn’t stick with him as the face of Campaign ’08.