Anti-Game Candidates Do Poorly in Iowa Caucuses
Anti-Game Candidates Do Poorly in Iowa Caucuses
January 4, 2008
The results of last night's Iowa Caucuses are in and the news is not good for the two candidates who hold the most strident views on regulating video game content.On the Republican side, Mitt Romney, who lumps violent video games into what he terms an ocean of filth, was badly beaten by Mike Huckabee.
Among Democrats, Hillary Clinton saw both Barack Obama and John Edwards win more of the popular vote. Clinton has previously proposed video game legislation in the U.S. Senate. She recently told Common Sense Media that she would support such legislation if elected president.
The New Hampshire primary is next.
Comments
1. Hilary didn't win.
2 Mitt Romney didn't win.
3. Obama won.
Now if that can carry through to all the other states I would be extremely happy.
I think we all would. Well, except for the Republicans.
Obama seems to be a somewhat decent character.
I don't know how he can say virtual killing, maiming, and "torture" is worse than real torture in the form of waterboarding.
Although it was interesting to see Iowa vote against the whole "we need to government to regulate the filth" type of idea.
Let's just all hope that the folks in New Hampshire are in the same mood as the folks in Iowa.
I'm really fucking suprised she's on the board of Wal-Mart.
This is merely the first step. We'll see how this plays out in the not too distant future. Still, I'm happy that the "I hate Freedom of Speech" crowd did poorly. There's hope for us, yet.
Sources: http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0021,harkavy,15052,5.html
and
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0207-34.htm
But a simple Google search of Hillary Clinton and Wal-Mart will find a lot of returns.
January 4th, 2008 at 10:54 am
pity Huckabee (the top pick for popular vote) hates mexicans, muslims and gays.
HAHAHAHA!!!! i can't stop laughing at your comment! I really don't care about the 2008 elections this year because i'm moving out of the US in febuary.
On the contrary! Even if you're moving out of the US, you should care. I've been living in Switzerland the past decade and I still make it a point to vote (absentee ballots), because you never know when you'll want to go back. I also really, really want to be able to feel welcome in my homeland again.
Besides, even if I naturalize here and throw away my citizenship, it's pretty damn hard to take the American out of a guy. Depending on where you're going, you'll notice.
*Asplodes* Expect to be taken away in the middle of the night and tortured. They're watching you..
None of the candidates are really qualfied for the position. They are politicians after all. The people most qualified for the position are out finding cures for cancer, figuring out how to launch a shuttle to mars, etc.
I'm just glad that the "politicians" who are preying on ignorance and fear of video games and other violent media are finding out that people aren't as stupid as they were hoping.
if you kill the baby beforehand then they don't clog up the prison system due to the All Childs Left Behind act.
All the Republicans are Hypocrites.
Obama is a mainstream candidate I can like that dose not suck IQ in the rom hes in....but I still like Ron Paul more :P
That;s because you're a FUCKING NAZI =P
oh yes I am a nazi because I prefer goverment without lobbying and regulated monopolies :P
Conservative = Right Wing.
Anyway, Obama strikes me as the kind of guy who would do the right thing for video games: let the industry regulate itself with some minimal guidance and worry more about the big issues, like health care. Y'know, sensible and stuff.
Socialism = Left Wing policy
If you want to make WWII references, you should call him fascist instead. Mussolini's government was fascist.
Fascism = Right Wing policy (taken to an extreme)
And just to contribute to the conversation, WCC is right about the candidates. I don't like any of them; the one man I was hoping would step up did not.
and the elft wing = communist, we must stop the red threat ^_~
On the scale of things hes more indapenant than republican and you ahve to give them man respect for wanting to remove the balls from the black booted big business machine, besides obama the mainstream front runners on both sides are fcking extremists!
Meh, Romney and Clinton would’ve lost even if they never cared about violent video games. They really aren’t the best candidates.
Yep, and part of the reason they aren't the best candidates is that they seem to think that videogame/media in general regulation/censorship warrants time in the campaign for president, when there are far more important issues to spend time on.
besides Ron paul will do the most "damage" to capitalism look at the current way the US goverment creates and nurtures monopolies through lobbying and buying through regulation their protection from the goverment.
Be resetting the goverment it can be changed by ignoring it it leads to a complete break down in time, prehaps that what is what you want a complete break down of capitalism and not a fix for it. ^_~
Plato was a big idea man, he was after generic truths, and at the time teachers weren't state paid, so they earned thier money the hard way.
Free market style.
The conclusions jump to themselves.
Actually the fascists were left wing too.
That doesn't mean right wing is fun either.
I wouldn't vote for Ron Paul because he is a nutjob. Huckabee is a fundie. Or as close as it does not matter anymore.
As a Democrat, I'm quite relieved that Huckabee did well in Iowa. Because, to be frank, the only GOP candidate that has a snowball's chance in hell of beating the Democratic Candidate in 2008 would be Ron Paul. I mean, it doesn't take a genius to see that the vast majority of Americans hate the direction the country is going and want it to change. Whether you think Romney is a flip-flopping hypocrite or Huckabee is a creepy Jesus freak, when you boil both down to their core message, they're really just chanting "More of the same, More of the same, More of the same, More of the same". Ron Paul was the only GOP runner that wasn't beating the Status Quo drum.
People can be stupid sometimes, but we aren't fecal-throwing retarded. Even the lab monkey can only push the red button and get shocked so many times before it dawns on him that he has to push the blue button to get the yummy banana.
you are incorrect. While the Nazi party was the "National Socialists" they were in fact facists. Their idealology was very right wing.
Black Ice,
This is what is wrong with US politics. Conservative does not equal right-wing. Liberal does not mean left-wing. Only the activist parade thinks that way, and the screaming zealots. The rest of the US is left with no choice but to vote for who they think is the least onorous - hence the hopelessly polarized and usless 'debate' we see for 2 years leading to a Presidential race.
To whoever said Rudy was a neo-con. Perhaps you don't know who Rudy is (a closet Democrat), or just use neo-con as a slur. The only candidate that resembles a neo-conservative is Romney.
I have to disagree with you there. I think Mike Huckabee would stand a decent chance of winning the election if he got the nomination for the republican party. At least he's talking about ideas and not crying about how the people are picking on him, unlike certain other candidates I could mention.
"Obama's Winning Formula" by Newsweek writer Howard Fineman
http://www.newsweek.com/id/84326
"Obama's Historic Victory" by Time writer Joe Klein
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1700132,00.html?xid=rss...
"Democrats voted for change, GOP for faith and values" on CNN.com
' "This is as big a generation gap as I've ever seen in politics," said CNN's Bill Schneider. '
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/03/iowa.issues/index.html
The Iowa caucus has become a true turning point in the pro-gaming movement. The gaming generation has shown it's political fangs and all the campaigns has seen it. It's a matter of time that the politicans are going to start looking at how Hillary scared away the youth vote and find the effect of her anti-gaming views.
Maybe soon we'll start to see gamers in the Florida Bars Association.
*paints a target on Jack Thompson's back*
Point taken. Huckabee's at least better than that back-stabber Mitt Romney.
Nutjobs of the world unite!...oh! did I say that outloud? ^_~
but really I support him and all but even I know he has no chance and Obmaa is looking like JFK.
But I agree Huckabee is a funide but not enough of one to be auto fail but I swear the more he opens is mouth the more I turn off to him.
Steven Furtado /Anonymous
Huckabee is VERY likable as a canidante goes and could well get 40% of the vote so he is very viable still.
~the1jeffy
you are correct its a slur I group the big business nazis with the religious riche, neo conservatives focus on using religion as crowd control as they live in indulgence living off the populace and servicing the needs of their elite and rich comrades.
I could not agree with you more.
The political analysts are going to start looking at the youth voter-heavy sucess of the Obama and Huckabee campaigns and see what they did right. The same for looking at how Clinton and Romney lost the youth vote.
When the analysts start contrasting the O and H campaigns to the C and R campaigns, the differences on video games will definatly be within the first ten pages of their reports.
Glad to see Obama doing well. Can't say I'd be upset with Clinton, either, but Edwards don't interest at all.
Not all Southern Baptist are loony. Thats a broad generalizations. Which makes you no worse that those who say all gamers are crazy
Yeah, I agree.
Point taken, but we are talking about US politics - namely the primary to 2008 US Presidential race. And still, how does Conservative = Right Wing?
I did not mean to say the games issue was a major factor in the caucus. What I ment to say that political analysts might redraw the political demographics because of the outstanding turn out of young caucus goers. Videogames might play a major role in determing how political campaigns go about advertaising their canadates (videogames have taken a lot of marketshare from television, thus gamers see less political ads on TV than other groups). The younger generation (18-30) are the heaviest users of public libaries (I was surprised to hear this a couple of days ago).
As for the vote, my father (who makes Rush look liberal sometimes) says that there should be a check box on the ballot for "None of the Above", just to make a point to the politicians.
I don't like both Romney and Huckabee, but I would rather choose Huckabee as the front runner (out of these two choices). And my prediction of Hillary coming in third place, rather than second, was nice.
its easy to misconstrue terms to positions or styles, conservative is as to right wing as liberal is to left wing.
I feel on most issues Ron paul is left of center at least to the current core of the right side, but then again both sides are going fringe like its in.
I really wish though these Aholes would let the whole marriage thing go, marriage is a union between 2 adults under god, just because some versions of god hate on gays dosent mean there should be a full on black booted movement to prevent it.
The fed dose not have and should not have any reason to block abortion or gay marriage this is a indavendaul right that only states might have a reason to effect some limited regulation of it.
Also devroice should be a state matter and the IRS should back the fck off such matters and troll for info to go after their dues like they always do.
Obama isn't a Muslim.
You are correct sir. Wyoming is next, but not officially...sort of.
The Wyoming Republican Party broke Party rules by changing their caucus date. In the process they lost half the weight their votes normally would have carried.
But yes you are right.
I don’t think that they lost necessarily on their veiws on videogames.
True, but their videogame views kinda highlight their general disconnect with the younger generations. That disconnect is what's cost them in Iowa.
Correlation does not mean causation.
Your analysis is absolutely right. In fact, now Hillary is trying to change tack and painting herself as the candidate for youth votes. Take a look at this piece that just got posted.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080104/ap_po/democrats_analysis
My take? Sorry, Hillary. It's too little too late. The youth voters know full well your stance on video game legislation and the like. You're not fooling anyone. You should have realized how important the youth votes were and taken a page from your husband's playbook when he played the sax on Arsenio Hall and got interviewed on MTV rather than alienate them with your anti-gaming rhetoric.
As long as Obama doesn't pull a Howard Dean, he'll certainly take New Hampshire. :)
Nazis were Fascists and the closest thing America has to Fascists are the neo-conservatives. Not to be confused with the traditional conservatives.
America also has some people similar to Communists. They are socialists and are probably going to win the election in 2008. The Democratic party is mostly a socialist party.
So basically for the most part we have to choose from Fascism or Socialism, or so the mainstream media says.
I personally like the traditional Constitutional Republic and I think it should stand as such. So Ron Paul 2008 or Libertarian Party 2008.
A sane person would not want to run.
P.S. Where the hell is my piece of cake? lol
Conservative = Right Wing"
Wrong.
Nazis were Fascists. The thing most similar to Fascism in America is the neo-conservative movement which is not to be confused with the traditional Convservative values. Ron Paul is a traditional conservative with a libertarian streak. He strongly supports the Constitution.
So yes, many right wingers are similar to Nazis in the respect that they are both in line with the Fascist movement in some respects.
By the same ticket, however, left wingers have a similar issue as they are mostly Socialists. Support of big government, taxes and social programs. This is similar to Communism but isn't really in line with it. Similar but I think the Democratic party is more accurately described as Socialists instead of Communists. Still they are pretty similar either way.
I'm personal a Libertarian because they support upholding the Constitutional Republic.
Huckabee has a pretty mean big government nanny streak, so it wouldn't surprise me if he would sign a law regulating games.
And while Obama claims he would "let" the industry try to clean up its act before regulating (and how much does he expect anyway? ESRB ratings enforcement is already like thrice as effective as DVDs...), the fact he even thinks the Federal government would be allowed to do so demonstrates his understanding of the Constitution is as bad as the current administration. Furthermore, he has said that even if the industry does regulate itself, that "there’s still a role for the federal government to play." Or, in other words, he wants to regulate the industry no matter what they do.
What part of "Congress shall make no law" does he not understand? It doesn't say "some" laws. Nor does it say "no law unless/except." No means no. Full stop.
Relax dude. I bet he's one of the millions of people who mistakingly believe that MPAA ratings (i.e. movie ratings) carry the force of law and thus he wouldn't think that making ESRB ratings carry the force of law would be a big deal.
And of course regulating the industry could mean a lot of things, like outlawing marketing mature games to minors (which isn't done a lot but some people want it to seem like it is).
They've missed so many important things I don't know what they are going to do when they come back. (Hopefully a jibjab style song and dance routine over what happened when they were gone).
If he believes MPAA ratings carry the force of law, that makes it even worse! Is it too much to ask that a candidate has even a vague idea of how the Constitution and the government created therein works before they take an oath to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States?"
That was an analogy he used to get young people more politically involved.
That was just a gut feeling, I honestly don't know if he thinks that or not.
In either case I highly doubt games are at the top of his to-do list, and besides we have a court system to help us out.
And the only reason people respect Obama because the man has had such little experience in government that he has virtually NO track record, unlike the conspiracy-ridden Hitlery.
It's not like any legislation on Video Games by Hillary will ever pass constitutional muster.
All in all, I'm glad Obama won. He's the only candidate which appears in touch with modern tech and todays youth. And Hillary's last-minute appeal to "youth voters" is laughable at best.
Now, if the media would stop pushing away Ron Paul and get their heads out of Obama's bum, then there would be hope for all of us
The Iowa causus is not about the winners (Bill Clinton did very poorly in the Iowa caucus but went on to be president), but about the losers. It usually helps to weed out those who do not stand a chance. In this case, Dodd and Biden.
Really though all the canidates irk me in various ways.
You forgot to mention Jon "War-mongerer" Mccain. (I don't have much beef with him actually I just couldn't resist throwing it in).
Romney came in second out of a field of 5 (6 if you count Paul), so yes that is cause for concern.
Hillary came in thrid place out of 3 frontrunners. She's not going to go away but it is a blow nonetheless.
But if Hitlery were president she could try to amend the constitution to say "No violent video games"
Godwin.
My thoughts exactly. Even talking about gaming legislation at a time like this is a total waste of time, way more important things right now
The SBC is the Southern Baptist Convention, an organization and not "Southern Baptists." I'm well aware there are Southern Baptists who are just fine people. There are scientologists who are okay. But that's not going to stop me from calling scientology a horrible worthless scam.
It's not going to make the crazies go away, either, and saying "there are crazy Southern Baptists" or "there are crazy Southern Baptist organizations" is not the same as saying "Southern Baptists are crazy!"
@Joker:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/muslim.asp
@ZippyDSMlee:
Here's the thing that gets to me: if marriage is sacred, what the fuck is the government doing with it's grubby hands in it? It's perfectly possible for churches/synagogues/mosques/temples/etc. to handle or not handle the marriage part as they see fit, and the government to handle the legal side--the taxes, the visitation rights, etc.
As I understand, France already follows this model. (But it's not like we can switch over to a model the French use, or anything. Darn French.)
@people tossing around the word "nazi"
I think this is reasonable: you can legitimately call someone a nazi when you provide evidence that they are engaging in state-sponsored genocide and pogroms. Alternately, give us some pictures of the concentration camps.
I'm pretty sure left-wingers and right-wingers can both be modern-day nazis. All you need is a little hate.
If I were his strategist, I'd suggest -- and hold off on the torches and pitchforks, please -- Joe Lieberman. Yes, the Distinguished Senator from Connecticut has been anti-gaming, and yes, he's an Independant. But look at how many things Obama would answer with Lieberman as his running mate:
1. "Barack is a Muslim!" Yeah, well Joe is a Jew. How cool is that?
2. "Barack's policies are decidedly left-leaning!" Yes, but Joe's far more centrist, and even right wing on a few issues. What better candidate to nab center-right voters who distrust Huckabee?
3. "Joe's policies on the media are offensive to me!" He's running for Veep. He's just supposed to stand there and look pretty while Barack runs the country.
That's my suggestion. Who would you all support for VP?
The Nazi's used socialist ideas as a promotional tool (of the people, by the people etc) but they were very much right wing as they were all about ethnic nationalism, and anti social and political liberalism. He had many socialist ideals, that is true, such as no rent, limiting profits and generous social benefits, but he wanted them for Germans only. Socialism doesn't disclude people by their race, creed, country of birth. Hitler hated Marxism.
Nationalism, xenophobia and nationalistic jingoism are all prominent right wing attributes.
The Strasserites were the left wing arm of the National Socialists, but the followers were pretty much wiped out on the Night of the Long Knives.
American Politics is very different to the rest of the world anyway. Where everyone in the world has the left party red, and the right party in blue, the US has it the over way around... and what you call left wing in the United States, is still classed as right wing, or at least center ground everywhere else. I note for example, Obama talks of a middle class tax cut, not of a working class tax cut.
Personally as a non-American, I think its important the whole world take notice of the issues in the United States when it comes to politics, as you are the world super power and we should all be aware of what is going on, and the policies. I was delighted to see Hilary pushed into third, and to see Obama take first in a state which is 97% white. As for the Republicans, McCain has it all to play for still, and I think he and Obama will take New Hampshire. I think it may be McCain and Obama for the candidacies as it stands, as American's obviously want change candidates, and McCain has always been a thorn in the side of his party. Obama is a new entity that has an amazing charm like JFK and Martin Luther King, that could take him straight to the White House. Hilary just oozes old politics, old ideals and old beliefs and has alienated the young, which is a drastically bad move in today's political climate. She's just not trust worthy. She seems she'll say anything to get your vote, regardless of her actual belief.
Barack Obama is not a Muslim, and his views might be left leaning in the US, but they are certainly right of centre in a world view.
A Muslim-Jew alliance.. That's far too radical for the Bible Thumpers.. And it gets my wholehearted approval.
It's the US doing the voting, so you need to consider things from the US perspective. Here, Barack is left wing.
Also, I was pretty sure he was Muslim. Even if he's not, the fact remains that his parents (grandparents?) are (were?), and it's been hanging around him for a while. Having a Jewish running mate would kill that nonsense once and for all.
@BlackIce
It'd be political brilliance. Besides, Barack couldn't get the conservative vote if he personally gave... wait, that'll get moderated. Let's just say that he'd HAVE his base, could take voters up to the center-right, and pretty much dominate the electoral vote.
You had better E-Mail that to him.
While I agree that Hillary's stance on video games had very little to do with the result on specific terms, I do find myself wondering whether it is indicative of her 'Government in every living-room' policies, which are, I think, losing her votes.
Because moralistic politicians insert their beliefs like hot seamen into everything, they want the legal martial side of marriage to be equal with the chruchs/religions side, this can not be on so many grounds, besides marriage is possible without a church or religion they are trying to hard to inject their beliefs into it.
Legally there should be no diffrance, Ican see how soem states might need to regulate it due to brainless mobs hurting people but out side of that is a legal thing that might have a ceremony in a religious building after wards.
The people need to be protect from the moral bizy bodies.
While John Edwards has a better stance on games than Obama, Obama has the popularity to get the votes.
Hillary supporters at my local caucus (which I didn't attend due to work) tried to use the "Join the Dark Side! We have cookies!" ploy in attempt to draw others... which obviously failed.
I've already written off the republican side, especially if Mitt Romney gets their nomination because of his ideals clash with gamers.
I can likely see Obama eventually winning the presidential elections in November... which is around 304 days away (@ time of post).