Edwards spike in Wisconsin

We've been watching the Wisconsin coverage rolling on into the wee hours. Edwards spiked here. CNN said that most voters who decided late went for Edwards, and the newspaper endorsements played a key role, as they did for Edwards in Iowa. Kerry is steaming on with little standing in his way, and the friendly southern gentleman on his left is digging in on horrible trade policy.

Dean is getting a pretty rough time of it as the mainstream media sees him off. Wisconsin got roughly the same results as Iowa, for much the same reasons. Jobs. The black hole budget. Crunched people. And the tidy warfronts.

Edwards turned upwards in the last days of the race yet again, which inclines me to believe that he'll keep attracting independents--which flooded the polls yesterday for him.

In Wisconsin we have the open primary, which attracts Republicans and independents in scads. Are they voting against the D's in general--just toying with it, taking time on these FRIGID days--or has the rather rapid decline mobilized all those random segments of Wisconsin: Families who have seen industrial plants close, the swift collapse of school funding, and horrible rural health care.

Wisconsin has all kinds of odd roots--the socialist movements and Fightin Bob LaFolette. So it's not going to be the tedious flat political competition. There is no monolith of NASCAR dads floating around. It is people considering their interests. These primaries and caucuses work to call attention to the interests and bombard the Bush administration from all directions.

On the other hand i feel somewhat negligent because I didn't go home to visit how it was unfolding.

Edwards is coming to the Twin Cities on Saturday, they say. But where? Unknown!

Posted by HongPong at February 18, 2004 02:19 AM
Listed under Campaign 2004 .