15-09-2014, 11:27 AM
As it staggers from one bought and paid for president to another -- for ever and ever, amen.
But does this mean Joh McPain will be the Republican nominee? Or is there another corrupt asshole waiting in the wings for that?
But does this mean Joh McPain will be the Republican nominee? Or is there another corrupt asshole waiting in the wings for that?
Quote:Hillary Clinton returns to Iowa as steak fry sizzles with talk of 2016
Presumed frontrunner flirts with media at event for Senator Tom Harkin while volunteers offer stickers, t-shirts and support
Senator Bernie Sanders thinking of 2016 run from the left
- Paul Lewis in Indianola, Iowa
- theguardian.com, Monday 15 September 2014 08.24 BST
- Jump to comments (232)
Hillary Clinton speaks at Senator Tom Harkin's annual Steak Fry in Indianola, Iowa.Photograph: Charlie Neibergall/AP
When historians seek to mark the moment Hillary Rodham Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign became public, they might take note of unscripted remarks that were delivered by an elderly Iowa farmer on Sunday.
Shortly after flipping a steak with Clinton, Ted Diehl was cornered by a handful of reporters. Did he he have an inside track on whether Clinton was running?
"There was nothing said, but I think so," Diehl confided, doffing his cowboy hat conspiratorially. "I just read into some comments she made. But I don't want to go on."
Imitating what might happen if he was more explicit, Diehl made a neck-wringing gesture with his hands.
Clinton has said she will make a final decision about a second run for the Democratic nomination after her defeat by Barack Obama in 2008 in the new year, but anything less than a run for the White House would baffle as many people in Iowa as it would in Washington.
Her appearance in the state on Sunday alongside her husband, former president Bill Clinton, was ostensibly a show support for their friend, the retiring senator Tom Harkin, who has been grilling steaks in the Iowa fields since 1972.
Harkin's steak fry has grown into an annual jamboree a Democratic institution more venerable than the Clintons themselves. This the 37th such event was his last, and doubled as a campaign rally for the Democratic candidate seeking to succeed him in November's midterm elections, Bruce Braley.
But some 7,000 Democrats didn't just turn-up for a valedictory fry and senatorial rally. "To think you all came here just to see me," Harkin joked to the crowd. "Who am I kidding," he added, turning to the pair he introduced as the "comeback couple".
Introducing the former first lady, New York senator and secretary of state, he said: "There are many more chapters to be written in the amazing life of Hillary Clinton."
The signs of Clinton's impending presidential run were, literally, everywhere, courtesy of Ready for Hillary, the Super Pac that has been preparing the ground for a potential run.
College students had been flown in from the west coast, in order to affix "Hillary" stickers to cars. Free Hillary t-shirts were distributed from a Ready for Hillary bus parked by the gate. Cherry-pickers elevated "Ready" placards above the tree line. Everywhere, young activists with notepads acquired details of potential supporters.
This was Clinton's first direct foray into politics since she stood down as secretary of state, and her first visit to Iowa since the state's Democrats delivered a devastating political blow to her campaign nearly seven years ago.
Iowa, host of the crucial, first in-the-nation caucus, is where Clinton's presidential ambitions began to unravel. Considered the leading candidate nationally going into the caucus, Clinton ended up third, behind Obama and John Edwards. Overnight, momentum shifted to the African American senator from Illinois, Iowa Democrats having turned Clinton into a badly-injured Goliath. The rest is history.
Books have sought to explain what went wrong in Iowa. Clinton's ground campaign was badly organised, and under-estimated turnout. A leaked campaign memo proposing she skip the caucus damaged her reputation. She suffered a backlash from liberal, anti-war Democrats. She was simply blown off course by a whirlwind Obama candidacy that became the political zeitgeist.
But one explanation has been more damaging or, her supporters insist, unfounded. It is that Clinton simply failed to connect with Democrats in a state where face-to-face interaction is so crucial.
Hillary Clinton greets supporters during a 2007 rally in Des Moines, Iowa. Photograph: Jason Reed/ReutersHence, Sunday's subscript … for the media at least. Could Hillary, a former first lady and New York senator, revive, engage and reconnect with Iowa's rank and file?
The Harkin Steak Fry was either the best or worst place to showcase the warmth of a politician's handshake. Despite the hay bales, country music and air of informality, the event remains a carefully choreographed media spectacle. Bill and Hillary arrived in a 12-car convoy, emerging to grill some meat in front of the world's media while regular members of the public were held outside a fence.
For three minutes, the couple prodded at meat for the cameras, ignoring questions.
"Does this count as campaigning?" "When was the last time you flipped a steak?" "What does it feel like to be running?" "Can you bring the reporters some meat?"
"Are you running, Hillary?" one reporter shouted, finally. "From us?"
When Bill and Hillary disappeared around the corner, three quarters of the media scrum vanished, deflated. Then the pair unexpectedly reappeared, moments later, to shake hands and work the line of the few lingering reporters.
The presumed candidate said hello, shook hands, even consented to selfies. Grilled about her intentions, she ducked and dived while smiling. "This is about people running right now," she said: "2014."
Bill was less restrained. "They're amazing, you know," he said of the army of Ready for Hillary activists who had flooded the fields. "I saw some of them here. Under the rules I know we're not supposed to have any contact with them, but they're like Energiser bunnies. They're just everywhere."
Would such volunteers be disappointed if she didn't run? Bill opened his mouth to answer, paused, and replied: "I will not be baited."
Not long afterwards, the pair were engulfed by the crowd. Thousands lined up for a handshake or a tap on the back.
More than 15 months from Iowa caucus, it may be a little preposterous to be discussing presidential contenders. Yet Clinton's primacy, in Iowa as elsewhere, is inescapable, and it was the main topic of discussion on Sunday.
Polls show Clinton soaring ahead of her potential rivals vice-presidentJoe Biden, Maryland governor Martin O'Malley and Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, none of whom enjoy the kind of cachet Obama had in the run-up to his announcement in 2007.
A Steak Fry attendee has her picture taken with a cardboard cutout of the presumed candidate. Photograph: Jim Young/ReutersAlready, formidable infrastructure has been built in Iowa by Ready For Hillary, which operates outside of her orbit or control.
Tyler Olsen, a recent Iowa Democratic Party chairman who campaigned for Obama in 2008 and is now closely involved with Ready for Hillary, said the organisation had built connections in all of the state's 99 counties.
Of those signing up to the the Super Pac some 50%, Olsen said, had not recently been politically active a crucial demographic that helped Obama secure the state in 2008. "We're starting to see that same dynamic with Hillary Clinton," he said.
The Guardian interviewed around a dozen Democrats who encountered the Clintons on Sunday. All said they expected Clinton to run for president, all thought she would probably win Iowa and the party nomination, and all bar one declared themselves "ready" for Hillary.
Yet they also rejected the notion that her suitability for president should pivot on her performance before the media in an Iowan field.
"I would hope people would look at leadership and competence and ambition for the future," said Steve Kautz, a university professor who celebrated his 50th birthday at the Steak Fry. "I don't really care how a candidate shakes hands and kisses babies."
An hour later, Bill and Hillary were onstage. Hillary's speech was carefully pitched: peppered with sufficient innuendo about the presidential run to keep the crowd satisfied, but using the stage to heap praise on Harkin, Braley and Obama.
The line that received the loudest applause was her simple, opening salvo.
"Hello Iowa!" she said. "I'm back!"
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
Carl Jung - Aion (1951). CW 9, Part II: P.14