I really need to pay attention to debates

There were more debates in New Hampshire. And as usual I missed them all.

However, my old acquaintance Robert George has come to the conclusion that John Edwards is the most annoying man running for President.

Obama!

Well, I was wrong on both counts -- Obama has taken Iowa. But it was close.

This was Edwards best chance and I think he will now fade. HRC needed to keep this close and she did, but if she loses New Hampshire she is in real trouble.

Early Results

According to Fox, the Democrats Big Three are in a close race.

On the GOP side, Huckabee's supporters have come out in droves at 35%, with Romney second at 23%. Thompson is third. If this holds, Romney is in a lot of trouble. Huckabee does not have the money or the constituency in New Hampshire, where McCain is in the lead and growing. A distant second place finish and Romney is done.

Obama says "No Nukes"

Barack Obama is now making his move by calling for a nuclear free world. Obama proposes that the United States enter into discussions to ban all nuclear weapons and prevent others from acquiring them.

It sounds nice, but the nuclear genie is long since out of the bottle. Hence, total disarmament is impossible and considering the nasties out there, I think undesirable. But what might be achievable is to a post-Cold War system of all the nuclear powers (the US, UK, France, Russia, China, India, Pakistan and Israel) to limit total yields, with a verification mechanism (trust but verify are great words to live by).

If Obama wants to do propose something to make people take notice, an idea would be to propose decommissioning the remaining 300 US warheads in Europe. But as I am a Republican, I doubt he will take my advice.

Could we be seeing President Obama?

While Clinton is ahead comfortably in the national polls, the polls in Iowa show a close race between Obama, Clinton and John Edwards. The Iowa caucus is very early this year. Furthermore, as a caucus, depth of support is just as important as breath -- it does not matter if 90% of the people want Clinton if the 10% that wants Obama are the only people willing to show up and stand around a gym on a cold January night. Obama has shown that he excites people, so that may be the advantage for him.

Ann Coulter is an Embarrassment

For some reason, Ann Coulter has become the "it" girl of conservatives. Why? She is an embarrassment to the right in this country. She is obsessed with John Edwards and not in a good way. There is much to dislike about Edwards. He comes across as an empty suit at times and seems more fluff than substance. I dislike most of his politics and looking at his new home, I think we figured out where the "Second America" went.

Yet this is a man who faced some terrible times with his family, losing a son and dealing with his wife's cancer. He did not run away from his responsibilities I may not want him to be president, but he is by all accounts a great husband and father. In my mind that is the best thing you can say about a man.

So we then come to Ann Coutler. The "faggot" remark to the American Conservative Union and her statements about Edwards dead son -- is she really that callous? Which is why I am glad Elizabeth Edwards called Hardball and had a few words for Coulter. Andrew Sullivan called it a wonderful moment, but I am not so sure. As the father of two small boys, I could not imagine anything wonderful about burying one of them.

I find it sad, that one of conservatism's standard bearers acts as she does. Sullivan thinks of her of as "performance art". I wonder if she is a left wing mole. I mean, has she been sent to infiltrate conservatism to make us look bad? She has replaced intelligent argument with hyperbole and reason with irrationality. She sells lots of books, but does conservatism no favors.