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The August doldrums were mildly broken by the media whipping up interest in the year 2000 Presidential election through covering the Iowa Straw Poll, with some cable networks and C-Span airing portions of it live. To nobody's surprize, Bush won the contest, which consists of paying for supporters to travel to Iowa State University Hilton Coliseum - Ames, Iowa and cast their lot with their candidate. With Bush leading the campaign finance hunt with a vast majority of Republican money, there was no doubt who would be on top at the end of the day. By the way, all the money Bush has raised so far would be legal under the never passed McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance legislation.
Anyhow, I am not crawling out from under my August rock to crunch the numbers, but the order of finish included: 1. George Bush 7,418 ( 31.3% ), 2. Steve Forbes 4,921 ( 20.8% ), 3. Elizabeth Dole 3,410 ( 14.4% ), 4. Gary Bauer 2,114 ( 8.9% ), 5. Pat Buchanan 1,719 ( 7.3% ), 6. Lamar Alexander 1,428 ( 6% ), 7. Alan Keyes 1,101 ( 4.7% ), 8. Dan Quayle 916 ( 3.9% ), 9. Orrin Hatch 558 ( 2.4% ) and 10. John McCain 83 ( .3% ) - who didn't attend the festivities. Alexander's finish caused him to pull out of the race and I bet Quayle won't be far behind. I was surprized that Bauer finished ahead of Pat Buchanan.
I found it quite uplifting that Alan Keyes finished ahead of Quayle and Hatch ( one potato(e)head and one late for the party ). I was disappointed that Lamar Alexander did so poorly, as he represents one of the most viable candidates that the Republicans have; too bad he had no real message to campaign on. I would have liked to see Buchanan finish ahead of Bauer, but Pat did have a chance to do his " you have the right to remain silent routine " on am imaginary Bill Clinton at the auditorium!
The real man of straw was George Bush. He just didn't seem to be full of energy, entertaining or Presidential material to me. I know I am about to alienate myself from other conservatives, and conservative Republicans in particular, when I say that I just couldn't vote for Bush, if the election was tomorrow. Sorry, I am just not in the mood for a coronation, like the robots in the DNC are paying homage to Al Gore. Bush is going to have to prove himself to be presidential material to me before November 2000, if he wants to get my vote ( obviously Gore wouldn't get my vote even if he promised a Ferrari in every garage ).
Okay, so Bush got a bucket of votes in Iowa, but while collecting those votes, he was busy dodging questions about cocaine use in his childhood. Most people I know just assume that a presidential character like Bill Clinton was, and still may be, busy packing his nose with cocaine. After all, his brother Roger was dealing the stuff and probably snorting up massive quantities in the years while brother Bubba was Attorney General and Governor of Arkansas. Remember, Bill Clinton is the only President in recent history who has refused to release his medical files to the media and the public!
Anyhow, I try to be open minded and allow people to do what they want at parties I throw, but I draw the line on the white powdery stuff. So, I figure that if I wouldn't let George Bush and his cola into my house, how could I vote for him, even if it was a decade or two ago? Sorry man, the Republican party is going to have to do a whole lot better to get my vote in 2000.
I think we can find someone to lead our country who isn't, or hasn't been, a substance abuser!
- Bongo ( Got a match?
