Comments on: The Meaning and Significance of Tonight’s Iowa Caucuses.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:17:03 +0000

Leo: Correct, but both my brief mention of that year (not all that relevant when talking about the Republicans) and your fact check totally overlook all that is important about that year for Clinton.

So, here’s the raw data: Harkin came in first place with a whopping 76%. that is very high, perhaps the highest ever for a contested year. After that, essentially, everybody is in last place. Harkin was followed by “Uncommitted” at 12%. So, the top 88% went to Harkin and Uncommitted. Tsonngas, Clinton, Bob Kerry and Brown all got between 2 and 4 percent.

That was quite a year. They made movies about that year! (Well, one anyway.) That was the year that made people realize that what happens early in the race can be totally irrelevant to what happens later on.

By: Leo Buzalsky

Leo Buzalsky — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 13:10:22 +0000

Fact check -> Clinton finished 4th in 1992, not 3rd. (Iowa for the win!!! At least we're not on the bottom, like Texas!)

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 06:39:52 +0000

Yes, we use the term here as well to mean, effectively, those who vote together. Almost everyone in the Congress is either a Republican or a Democrat, but if there is an indy, s/he is said to “caucus with” the Democrats or to “caucus with” the Republicans.

By: StevoR

StevoR — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 05:31:07 +0000

Did you know that a “Caucus” is a Native American Thing?

Nup. I had no idea. Cheers for this post.

Here in Oz ‘Caucus’ has another meaning altogether -being the inner political group esp. in the ALP. (Labour Party – sorta like the Democrats in US equivalent I guess. Our equivalent of tehRepublicans would be, the so-called & really not very Liberal party. Yeah, the word(s) is seen kinda differently here!)

I’ve always found the phoentic proununciation of it – cork something kinda amusing with the mental image that creates.

By: Joseph j7uy5

Joseph j7uy5 — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 03:15:47 +0000

http://qkme.me/35mvxr

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 02:22:20 +0000

Indeed. In fact, this is an often overlooked place to develop crazy conspiracy theories. But for some reason we rarely hear of “The Grand Order of the Iroquois”

By: Joseph j7uy5

Joseph j7uy5 — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 01:53:49 +0000

You probably already know this, being an actual anthropologist and all that, but in case others do not know: The Iroquois political system strongly influenced Franklin and Jefferson. It is likely that much of our political system was derived from Native American culture.

The Iroquoian system, expressed through its constitution, "The Great Law of Peace," rested on assumptions foreign to the monarchies of Europe: it regarded leaders as servants of the people, rather than their masters, and made provisions for the leaders' impeachment for errant behavior. The Iroquois' law and custom upheld freedom of expression in political and religious matters, and it forbade the unauthorized entry of homes. It provided for political participation by women and the relatively equitable distribution of wealth...