Saturday, December 29, 2007

Too Close to Call

Although I question the usefulness of a caucus that polls the desires of 100,000 white midwesterners, it's fun to think that three Dem candidates are in a statistical dead heat there, with Edwards (maybe) beginning to pull ahead.

Of some concern is the fact that the Dem candidates have spent about $23.7 million on campaign advertising alone, with some estimating $150 per caucus-goer in Iowa. To put that in perspective, $23.7 million was the amount authorized last year by the DOD for defense-related projects to benefit the Hudson Valley. It was the amount offered by the Department of Human Services to help children and families with HIV under the Ryan White AIDS Resources Emergency Act. And in a funny kind of coincidence, it was the amount of money given to the University of Iowa by NIH to conduct clinical trials of vaccines for infectious diseases over the next seven years.

In other words, there are more meaningful uses for that kind of money.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What canidate do you support?

At this point I think I am going to support Hillary Clinton. I have some concerns about her, but think she has the best chance of winning.

I like Obama and Edwards too, but feel like Obama is very inexperienced.......and doesn't reallyw ant to be president.

Edwards, well..........his hais is just too pretty. :)

Anonymous said...

Because I think the number one issue in this country (and the world, cf. Pakistan)is the ever-growing rift between rich and poor, I support Edwards, because at least he's talking about it. I have often been impressed by Hillary's big brain--when you're in the room with her, you can almost hear it crackle--and I think she could marshal a cabinet that would be outstanding--but she's even more Big Business-oriented than her husband, and it's hard for me to get past all I don't like about her foreign policy.

We'll see how things go after Super Duper Tuesday.