anyone have a good recipe for crow?

It turns out I was totally wrong about Dusty. I thought I had him pegged with his chewing tobacco, Mountain Dew, and repressed homosexuality, but it seems I let a tired old stereotype get the better of me. Shameful, shameful, shameful.

Far from being the stereotypical "conservative Iowa farm boy" I had rashly and unfairly judged him to be, apparently Dusty has been active in liberal Iowa politics since he was in middle school, and was a Kucinich supporter in '04. It seems his father is the chairman of their county Democratic Party, which means that every fourth January their house gets inundated with pancake-flipping, baby-kissing, Carhartt-wearing presidential hopefuls trying to pander to fickle Iowans known for making or breaking political careers.

[That reminds me of what I like best about Iowa: the Caucus. Totally fun. Totally insane. Totally anti-Diebold (except that they both leave no paper trail...). I mean, you spend hours in the basement of a retirement home or church, standing in a corner assigned to your candidate, heckling other people so they'll change their vote. Then once the craziness subsides, they simply do a head count. A HEAD COUNT. How ridiculously awesome is that?]

So I'm sorry for misjudging you, Dusty. But your music still sucks. Bad.

Comments

[andrea]

Gotta love the caucus. And the "Iowa conservative" of which you speak is really a different breed. Compared to many conservatives in other "red" states, I find that Iowans have a much more tolerant, "live and let live" attitude toward things.
And the caucus? Aren't they cool? I went to my first one in 2004 and there were like 3x as many people there than usual- then we went home and watched it all on CSPAN, because we are nerds. I also love that we get to be so up-close and personal with the candidates. I've seen John Edwards in very small venues on 3 different occasions and just passed up the chance to see him at a Braley event. It's even better to be at a large university, esp. during an election year. You'll get to meet everyone.

[dear wife]

Yeah I know we are so glad we will be here for another caucaus year. In fact we are both thinking of getting more involved this time around.

[zygote daddy]

Andrea: It was pretty crazy at Iowa State during Dec '03 and Jan '04. Literally every day a presidential candidate would be on campus. EVERY. DAY. And like d.w., I'm really looking forward to getting more involved next time. We adopted Iowans are not normally afforded the opportunity to be part of something of such national importance. Unless you count Asian Soybean Rust...

[dutch from sweet juniper]

I knew a guy like that in Michigan: Dutch Christian Reformed (went to Calvin college, named after and created in the spirit of the most evil theolgian in history!), had a virginity pledge ring through age 29 (when he got married) and yet he is a one-man campaigning machine for the democratic party. Seriously, seriously devoted.

Makes you wonder if all those good old boy republicans aren't voting the way they do for the same reasons they support the sports teams that they do: comradeship and conformity.

[Dad_to_Be]

Here's a thing... It seems to me that the large majority of the US Dad Bloggers are rather left wing in political orientation; socially aware and active in grass roots organisations. Perhaps it's pure accident?

It's lovely though, because all too often we just get Bushite, right-wing, knee-jerk America portrayed as representative of your whole country. From a number of music-orientated boards and forums I frequent, I'm well aware that the US is far less homogenous than is presented to us in the mass media, but it's still nice!

However, are there lots of Rumsfuck-supporting Dad blogs out there? Is there a big contingent of Condi-fancying Dad Bloggers?

[Papa Bradstein]

For one helping of crow you'll need one part your foot, one part your words, and a humble pie. Put them all in your mouth and start chewing.

If anyone knows how to eat crow, it's me.

As for the caucus, please just make sure that we're not stuck with another Kerry.

After "we" (and by "we," I mean "N.H. and Iowa voters") nominated Gore and Kerry, I've switched from the "anyone but Bush" camp to the "anyone but the party's chosen nominee" camp, also known by the names "anyone who's not boring" or the "anyone who has a pulse" or "anyone who has a clue" or "anyone who has a spine."

Me? Bitter that we got the most boring, lifeless, clue-free, spineless cure for insomnia as a candidate? Why should I be? I should have known better, this being the party that nominated Walter Mondale and all.