COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN THE GUARDIAN
Whoa, there, boys. Don't get so excited.
The Iowa Caucus, historically, is an extremely unimportant
event in American presidential politics, only getting attention because it
comes first.
First, it's not a true simple ballot like New Hampshire or
other primaries. It is a time consuming operation which deters many and this
gives it a built-in bias.
Second, most of the winners in Iowa's caucus history went on
to win nothing, often not even their own party nomination.
Third, there could well have been skulduggery by Hillary's
camp. Microsoft, a Hillary-friendly corporation, was involved in getting the
tally.
Microsoft also, as many know from the on-going Windows 10
Assault upon their personal computers, is not the world's most scrupulous
company in any event.
Sanders is requesting the actual votes. After all, polls
immediately before the caucus showed him in the lead.
On the Republican side, first, Cruz very possibly is
Constitutionally excluded. His case is different in details from Obama's.
It will require a Supreme Court challenge at some point to
decide whether a parent outside the U.S. registering a child with the State
Department under a law of not many years ago, created for the benefit of
corporate and military personnel abroad, is equivalent the Constitution's
demand for "natural born."
That can't be decided outside the highest court.
Two, Cruz's people definitely used an underhanded tactic in
Iowa. They were reprimanded by a state official just yesterday for sending out
postcards with phony claims about official voting records, an effort to
influence who voted.
