Iowa

I caught a bit of CNN's coverage of the U.S. presidential candidates on New Year's Day while in the laundry room...what CNN was calling "raw and unedited" coverage. It was actually pretty interesting.

The only Republican candidate I caught was Romney: Stiff. Arrogant. Unattractive.

From the Democratic side, I caught Ron Paul (what?), Obama, Hillary, and John Edwards.

Obama has a very inspirational tone and demeanor, but somehow, I've not yet been moved by him.

Hillary: Stiff, tired, and too predictable.

Who I was surprised by was John Edwards. The segment of his stump speech I caught was 100% firebrand revolutionary. Edwards was telling Iowans that he's not going to wait to for insurance companies and lawyers to negotiate away their power over health care--if he's elected, he's going to just go in and take their power away. This is America! he said.

Wow! Is he really saying that he was going to nationalize health care by force? I think I may be for that. Nationalized health care is working pretty well up here in Canada after all.

(So what if Hillary tried the same thing 15 years ago? And didn't Edwards make his fortune arguing class action health care cases? So what! This is America!)

My prediction (which is probably just as bad as my ability to forcast NFL winners) is that Edwards will make a stronger than anticipated showing in Iowa tomorrow. Iowans may surprise us once again!