One Week of Political Sound and Fury

English: South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

With a couple of weeks to go before Iowans go to caucus and New Hampshirites vote in their primary, the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates are honing their strategies and sharpened their attacks against each other, leaving the voters in those two states either listening intently or running for cover.  Oh, and President Barack Obama had a few things to say too.

Tuesday, January 12--Washington, D.C.  Obama's final State of the Union address consisted of his summary of his accomplishments in office, along with an optimistic laundry list of what he'd like to see the country become in the next decade or so.  He did acknowledge that not everything is hunky-dory, with terrorist attacks, gun violence, income inequity and the general mood of the populace that made him regret not bringing the country together.  Of course, he blamed the Republicans and Donald Trump for that one, if not by name.

All this was mostly greeted enthusiastically by the shrinking number of Congressional Democrats in the House chamber, an indication that the President isn't going to get much done with one foot out the door.  The GOP majority, who have made it their mission to oppose anything Obama supported from the word go, sat there stone-faced until-- as if by Pavlovian instincts--they got up and applauded whenever the military was mentioned.  That's why the President has had to resort to executive orders just to get his pet projects going, even if they're only symbolic.

After the speech, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley made the Republican response to the SOTU, asking the presidential candidates in her own party to please turn down the volume on the rhetoric.  Her state has gone through so much in the past year, what with the historic flooding and the mass shooting at a Charleston church, that it seemed like a reasonable request.

Thursday, January 14--Charleston, S.C.  Instead of honoring Governor Haley's request, the volume was turned up to 11 for the latest GOP debate, televised by Fox Business Network.  Of the seven candidates invited to share the prime time stage, only Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz seemed to matter.  When they weren't bashing immigrants, ISIS, Hillary Clinton or President Obama (not necessarily in that order), they were arguing the merits of Trump's "New York values" vs. Cruz' questionable qualifications for the Presidency.  It was as depressing as the Oscar nominations.

Three things:  (1) How long can Trump go on invoking 9/11 to shut down any debate critical of himself or his favorite city?  It's been 15 years.  Most of us are over it already.  (2) You could make a drinking game based on the number of times Cruz or the other candidates mention the phrase "radical Islamic terrorists" (or something similar).  (3) Don't GOP politicians sound like parrots whenever they suggest replacing the income tax with the flat tax?  You're not going to get rid of the IRS, no matter what.

Even though Cruz is gaining on Trump in Iowa and New Hampshire, The Donald is still the biggest and loudest mouth in the room.  And still the front-runner nationally.

Sunday, January 17--Charleston, S.C.  Unlike most of the other Democratic debates, which seemed to have been scheduled for times normally reserved for infomercials, this one was on Sunday night prime time on NBC.  Even the GOP can't say that.

This debate was the Hillary Clinton-Bernie Sanders Show. with former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley brought in to occasionally act as the voice of reason.

The former Secretary of State and current Vermont Senator clashed over the Affordable Care Act (for which Sanders wanted a do-over to include universal care), gun control (for which he also changed his position) and whether Clinton was bought and paid for by Wall Street.  The gloves did come off in this debate, but not to the point where Sanders declined to bring up Bill Clinton's personal life (for which we're all grateful).

There was some agreement on how to handle ISIS in the Middle East in a way that differs from the GOP, as well as how to handle the continuing influence of Russian president Vladimir Putin.  What we're not hearing from any of the candidates in either party is who or what should replace Bashar al-Assad in Syria, since he's either killed off or exiled most of his opposition.

What we also did not hear from both parties is the state of race relations on the observance of Martin Luther King Day, though the Democratic candidates did take the time to honor him.

Clinton currently leads Sanders by a wide margin nationally, but her lead is slipping away in Iowa and New Hampshire.  Is it 2008 all over again for her?

Now all the candidates will spend the next couple of weeks directing their pitches to the good folks of Iowa and New Hampshire, hoping to turn them into delegate-generators come early February.  What happened this past week could go a long way toward where the campaign goes from here.  

UPDATE:  Tuesday, January 19  Sarah Palin endorses Donald Trump.  Make up your own joke here.