Caucus Update: "Funny Business" edition

Determining what makes someone laugh can be hard.

Holiday-themed partisan jokes about candidates generally aren't very funny, regardless of party.

Making jokes that no one knows who the guy onstage endorsing you for President can be funny. It isn't funny if the people in the crowd actually don't know who the guy is (In this case, Romney endorsee- Senator from South Dakota John Thune- loved by the beltway insiders, but 80% of Iowa Republicans have never actually heard of the guy).

The fact that Newt Gingrich's ring tone is "Dancing Queen" isn't intentionally funny, but it is in fact, funny. (The fact that Mitt Romney's theme song is Alabama's "Born Country" is more odd than funny.

If you're Jimmy Fallon's band, and you play "Lyin' Ass Bitch" before Michele Bachmann, that may or may not be funny, but it is certainly inappropriate.

Kal's cartoons for the Guardian are funny, and he has one of the more memorable ones so far.





Of course, the best mix of politics and humor so far may be Mighty God King's political Magic cards (which a tip from sigma7 led me to).



Check out four pages of genius from here.

Caucus Update: "Nobody Loves Chester A. Arthur" edition

The GOP loves them some Reagan.

Reagan of course, saved Social Security, negotiated with the Soviets, added the Department of Veteran Affairs (one of the largest government agencies) and raised taxes.  He would never win the party's nomination for 2012, but they love the Gipper.

Which is why they talk about him so much.

Smart Politics has been tracking this, so add this to your list of 2012 minutiae.

Of course, it's the annoying history nerd who has invoked Ronnie's name the most so far in debates-  21 times (almost half of the total mentions by all candidates- 53).  Santorum, Paul, Huntsman, and Bachmann have all got 6 mentions in each (although Santorum has mentioned Dubya - 7 times -more than he has Reagan).

Only one candidate hasn't mentioned Reagan, but then again he's the one they all hate- the one who is so hated that he has inspired the Not Mitt Romney website.

Smart Politics has also tracked the number of mentions of all past Presidents in debates.  Gingrich, no surprise, is first with the most mentions (32) and the most Presidents referenced (Reagan, Lincoln, Carter, Washington, Ike, Dubya, LBJ, and Clinton).  Although, you do have to give Santorum (who finishes second with 16 mentions of 5 ex-Presidents) credit for working in a James Madison namecheck.

Caucus Update: "What's in a Name?" edition

Debate 311 (ya rly) took place this week. It was supposed to be specific to foriegn policy. A great idea, actually, but c'mon, who hasn't made up their mind yet?

I won't beat Kathie Obradovich for coverage, but I will give you more bang for the buck.

It continues to be the Mitt and Everybody Else show, as you can guess. Kathie gave the debate to Newt. No surprise that the guy who writes alt-history books for a hobby won when it comes to this topic.

Again, Gingrich uses his ability as the smartest guy on the stage to really impress the Anyone but Mitt crowd. Still, Kathie points out that Gingrich may have made a colossal blunder- saying that he wants a humane solution to the problem of illegal immigration.

While immigration has not been a hot topic in the 2012 race, it cannot be stated enough that the first major chink in Rick Perry's armor was his stance on immigration (to which Newt's answer was very similar).

Obradeovich said Bachmann and Perry both had campaign-best performances, but likely not enough to turn the tide.

Of course, this debate will probably just be remembered for Cain's "It's Blitz" moment.

Less memorable, this was also the debate (apparently, I just watched the highlights) where Willard said his first name isn't Willard.

Or something.  maybe I should call him Willard Mitt from here on out.

Caucus Update: "Shut Down Everything" edition

In the midst of the Occupy ---- movement, the Iowa caucus has been threatened.

The hacker group Anonymous has made a video asking for everyone to shutdown the Iowa Caucuses.

Of course, everyone from the governor to the FBI to liberal activists have a problem with this.

There's a couple of things worth noting.  First off, it's January in Iowa.  If anything is going to shut down the caucus, my odds are on a blizzard.  Still, with six feet of snow on the ground doesn't stop the most devout politically-minded Iowans, so it's hard to believe anything could.

Second, if you haven't been to a caucus, you don't really know that much about them.  They are a small group of people getting together to pick a candidate.  Caucuses are more similar to a bake sale or church bingo than anything that goes on Capitol Hill,  Anonymous can wreak damage on the candidates and State websites, but they would have a hard time stopping the groups of Iowans in various schools, churches, and other meeting places.

Iowa has always had such unlimited access to candidates, that I suppose clashes with occupiers was inevitable.  I have had some amazing experiences here- literally within feet of many of the big names in Presidential politics.  If the Occupiers don't screw up that (or Popular Voters), it is probably still only a matter of time before people who joke about bombs on twitter or people who throw glitter do.

Occupy Iowa has been busy in the last couple of weeks- occupying Herman Cain's headquarters enough to disrupt a campaign announcement (or at least move it to a restaurant).

Since Romney did not have an office in Iowa (until just days ago), Occupy Iowaers went to the private business of Romney's main Iowa consultant and sat in.

Occupy Iowa has left Santorum and Bachmann, which no doubt should piss them off (if no one wants to protest you, your campaign is doomed).  Obama got the Occupy treatment earlier in the month.

At Frank Luntz's Family Leader forum, about 100 protesters showed up, but Luntz made the offer that they could say their piece before the event, if they promised to behave during it.  The Register reported no one took him up on the offer, although one guy got up and rambled on about the Federal Reserve for two minutes.

The occupy caucusers have rallied around a website (although it looks like only  about 27 people care)- but the movement has been reported as a failure by most (Don't worry some still believe that it will lead massive panic and Willard/Obama conspiracies to bring the most liberal of policies down on us all).