THANKS FOR THE LAUGH, GOVNA

Yesterday morning, my first laugh from the Sunday paper came not from the comics but rather from news of Gov. Jindal, who has not decided whether he's running for president, but is up there in Iowa and New Hampshire acting a lot like a candidate.

Stratham, N.H. — On a Saturday afternoon edging toward Louisiana hot, Gov. Bobby Jindal climbed onto a farm trailer in front of a weathered barn and spoke about party unity and the American dream to a couple hundred Republicans scattered across the grass by a cornfield.

Bobby Jindal in a farm trailer. Ha ha.

Oh wait!

This was no crowd of yokels...

All right, then. Jindal will have to work hard to stay on message - I should rather say "on messages" - different messages for different groups in the various states, because, so far as I can tell, he has no core principles but is a reed in the wind that goes with the wind wherever it blows.

In each of the last two national elections, a Christian-right candidate has scored a surprising success in Iowa only to crash and burn in New Hampshire, where independents as well as registered Republicans can vote in the primary.

Watch your step, Govna. It's is a minefield up there.

IOWA: A MICROCOSM OF THE US - NOT!

The graphs below, which were posted by Juan Cole at Informed Comment, show the percentages of the various ethnic voters in the State of Iowa as compared to the percentages of the entire US. The crowd of Republican candidates, which consists of five white men and one white woman, is scrambling for votes in tomorrow's VERY IMPORTANT IOWA CAUCUSES, which Cole labels "Conservative White People’s Primary".

The candidates:

Michele Bachmann
Newt Gingrich
Ron Paul
Rick Perry
Mitt Romney
Rick Santorum

Who will win? From Washington Post Politics:

Over the past few months, Iowa has embraced and then rejected four charismatic front-runners: Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.), Perry, Gingrich and pizza executive Herman Cain.

Fickle, fickle Iowans.

ZACH WAHLS SPEAKS ABOUT FAMILY

Zach Wahls, a 19-year-old University of Iowa student spoke about the strength of his family during a public forum on House Joint Resolution 6 in the Iowa House of Representatives. Wahls has two mothers, and came to oppose House Joint Resolution 6 which would end civil unions in Iowa.

From On Top:

The Iowa House on Tuesday approved a bill that seeks to repeal gay marriage in the state, the AP reported.

How sad. Zach Wahls' words will live on toward a better day.