Heading for the Hawkeye State

Heading for the Hawkeye State by MSW

My response:

Kerry's win was no surprise. The DNC decided he was going to win a lot sooner than Iowa. The reason no one is going after Romney is because they can count delegates and read fundraising reports. They want to have a chance at the VP nod. As for abortion, are you saying that Barack Obama is more pro-life in practice than is Mitt Romney? That is an interesting development.

On end of life, I doubt that removing a feeding tube from a child rises to gubernatorial decisionmaking. As for Schaivo, the Florida Catholic Conference originally sided with her husband, finding a feeding tube is an extraordinary measure. She is not like a declining cancer patient - she was incompletely resuccitated and efforts to revive her should have been ended sooner. Nowadays, using hypothermia as part of the process, she might have both lived and woken up. This issue should never have been demagogued by self-serving pro-lifers.

Newt was on a book tour until his wife got designs on the East Wing. He will be out of the race shortly.

Santorum made his career campaigning on policy positions outside the sphere of legislation. Abortion is in the realm of constitutional law and his partial birth abortion law was not designed to be enforced, but to try to change the status quo - something Bush appointees Alito and Roberts declined to do - which shows why abortion is not an electoral issue. The courts are about to make gay marriage a national right - and barring a constitutional convention to overturn it, will be settled law soon. Still, he has a shot of picking up Paul, Gingrich, Bachmann and Perry castoffs, though he will likely falter after South Carolina.

Ron Paul's doctrinaire supporters may alienate his casual supporters, causing them to flee to either Romney or Santorum. Perry won't attack Romney, since he can do the math on who Romney is most likely to pick to shore up his strength in the South - and its not Newt (who can't be counted on to behave) or the publicly Catholic Santorum.

I suspect football and parties will probably take up most people's time, although the Sunday morning news programs will likely focus on Iowa.