Democrats' bid to challenge Trump off to a messy start in Iowa

By Jarrett Renshaw, Ginger Gibson

 

Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders speaks to supporters at his rally in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S., February 3, 2020. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

 

DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) - The Democratic Party’s effort to choose an election challenger to Republican U.S. President Donald Trump got off to a chaotic start in Iowa, with officials blaming “inconsistencies” for an indefinite delay in the state’s caucus results.

 

Early on Tuesday, hours after voters made their choices at 1,600 schools and other public locations, Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Troy Price told reporters to expect results sometime on Tuesday in the state, the first to hold a nominating contest.

 

The party said it had to make “quality checks” after finding “inconsistencies” in the reporting of the data from the caucus sites, sparking frustration in Democratic campaigns and criticism from Republicans.

 

It was unclear when any results would be released.

 

Iowa voters were meeting to render judgment on a field of 11 Democratic contenders led by front-runner Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and his rivals, former Vice President Joe Biden, former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

 

Party officials voiced confidence in their ability to ensure accurate results, citing a paper trail to validate the votes.

 

Republican Brad Parscale, Trump’s campaign manager, called it a “Democratic Party meltdown,” on Twitter. “They can’t even run the caucus and they want to run the government. No thank you.”

 

But Republicans in Iowa have their own history of chaos. On the night of the party’s 2012 caucuses, Mitt Romney was declared to have won by eight votes. But the party said two weeks later that Rick Santorum was the actual winner by a 34-vote margin. Romney went on to be the nominee.

 

DISMAY IN THE RANKS

 

Long lines and heavy crowds were reported in some locations on Monday, but more than eight hours after the doors closed there was no word on the outcome. State party officials twice had phone calls with the candidates’ campaigns to update them.

 

“Every second that passes undermines the process a little bit,” said Warren’s campaign manager Roger Lau.

 

A source in Buttigieg’s campaign said the delay would “delegitimize” the win and dampen the immediate benefits of a strong night. Biden’s general counsel, Dana Remus, told state party officials in a letter there were widespread failures in the party’s system of reporting results.

 

Mostly white, rural Iowa is the first test in the state-by-state battle to pick a Democratic nominee to face Trump in the Nov. 3 election. After more than a year of campaigning and more than $800 million in spending, the results in Iowa were expected to begin to provide answers for a party desperately trying to figure out how to beat the businessman-turned-president.

 

Voters are pondering whether to back someone with appeal to independents and disaffected Republicans, like moderates Biden, Buttigieg and Senator Amy Klobuchar of neighbouring Minnesota, or someone who energizes the party’s liberal base and brings out new voters, like progressives Sanders and Warren.

 

DECLARING VICTORY

 

With no results to celebrate or mourn, the candidates spun their own upbeat view of the outcome. The Sanders campaign released what it said were its internal numbers collected at 40% of precincts, showing him in first, ahead of Buttigieg, Warren and a trailing Biden in fourth place.

 

“I have a strong feeling that at some point the results will be announced, and when those results are announced I have a good feeling we’re going to be doing very, very well here in Iowa,” Sanders told cheering supporters.

 

Buttigieg told his supporters in Iowa that “we don’t know the results” but was looking ahead to the next contest on Feb. 11 in New Hampshire.

 

“By all indications, we are going to New Hampshire victorious,” he said.

 

Several of the candidates, including Biden, Klobuchar and Warren, headed to New Hampshire immediately after the caucuses. Sanders planned to fly there on Tuesday morning.

 

“Of course we don’t know the results yet - minor problem - but we know we did incredibly well,” Klobuchar told a small group of cheering supporters who met her at the Manchester, New Hampshire, airport.

 

At the caucus sites in Iowa, voters had gathered in groups by candidate preference in a public display of support. If a candidate did not reach a threshold of support of 15% of voters, the total needed to be considered viable, that candidates’ supporters were released to back another contender, leading to a further round of persuasion.

 

Even if one candidate wins by a commanding margin in Iowa once the results are announced, Democrats may still lack clear answers as the race moves on to the other three early voting states of New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina later in February.

 

Whoever remains in the race by Super Tuesday on March 3, when 15 states and territories vote, will also confront billionaire former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is skipping the early states in favour of focusing on states rich in delegates to the Democratic National Convention in July.

 

Sanders, who finished in a virtual dead heat with eventual nominee Hillary Clinton in Iowa during his first presidential run in 2016, has surged in many Iowa polls to move just ahead of Biden.

 

Beating Trump was the prime consideration for voters as they entered the caucus, according to a poll of 1,512 Iowa Democrats conducted by the National Election Pool, with 62% saying they want someone who can beat Trump and 36% wanting a nominee who agrees with them on major issues.

 

The entrance poll also found 57% backed a government-run healthcare plan similar to the Medicare for All proposals of Sanders and Warren, a potentially good sign for them.

 

Republicans were also holding Iowa caucuses on Monday, with Trump, who has around 90 percent support in his party, declared the projected winner by various media outlets.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-02-04

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I was waiting for the first clown to try to draw a connection between a faulty app, alongside a desire for the truth, with someones ability to govern. Two entirely separate things of course, to any rational mind at least, and it seems Donald Trumps campaign manager has won the prize. The truth has never been a strong point in Donald, but trying to form such a ludicrous connection sums up everything that is wrong with American politics. Sticking to the issues and discussing facts should be more important than trying to snipe cheap political points, something which if adhered to, would have the country in less of a mess than it is right now.

 

I think Democrats should begin calling witnesses immediately. ????

 

Everything Democrats touch turns to disaster.  They are the undisputed Champions of Unintended Consequences.

Typical of the liberal mindset...everyone gets a participation prize.

What a complete embarrassment! The talking heads on CNN were amusing with NOTHING to talk about for hours. Wolf Blitzer has such a big mouth that when one of the secretary’s were calling in the results after waiting an hour + to get through while speaking with Wolf ( which I don’t think he should have been) the guy got hung up on!! Great clip to google and check out! All over twitter for sure. Results should have started coming in almost 12 hours ago. What a way to start a circus! So pathetic. Not a proud moment. 

The thing is there weren't even that many people to count. I was watching it live last night laughing at how it looked like such an amateurish fiasco. At the main caucus in Des Moines the big ones like Bernie and Warren had something like 102 people each. Somebody like Yang ended up with a number around a dozen. They can't even keep track of that?

 

The whole way it was done is comical. Pick a group and then when you aren't viable go here and go there. lol It was like watching deaf people play musical chairs. But yeah for sure Biden was getting slaughtered in every place they showed. Bernie and Warren were the big winners. Buttigieg was a surprisingly strong distant third. The only real question is how much of the unviable vote syphoned off to each camp. 

 

The race is now down to the deplorable vs the unviables.

I have a feeling the Democrat party is rigging the primary again. "Quality checks"? They didn't test all this before the caucus? Perhaps "quality checks" constitute insuring the correct candidate is being selected as the nominee.

 

Another aspect of this topic is that if the Democrat party can't even run a primary in a small state without massive problems, how can they possibly run an entire country with multiple and complex issues?

 

Now THIS is interesting. From the LA Times:

 

"An app created by a tech firm run by veterans of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign is taking heat for the unprecedented delay in reporting Democratic caucus results from Iowa."

 

https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2020-02-04/clinton-campaign-vets-behind-2020-iowa-caucus-app-snafu

38 minutes ago, Crazy Alex said:

I have a feeling the Democrat party is rigging the primary again. "Quality checks"? They didn't test all this before the caucus? Perhaps "quality checks" constitute insuring the correct candidate is being selected as the nominee.

 

Another aspect of this topic is that if the Democrat party can't even run a primary in a small state without massive problems, how can they possibly run an entire country with multiple and complex issues?

 

Now THIS is interesting. From the LA Times:

 

"An app created by a tech firm run by veterans of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign is taking heat for the unprecedented delay in reporting Democratic caucus results from Iowa."

 

https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2020-02-04/clinton-campaign-vets-behind-2020-iowa-caucus-app-snafu

 

Bernie was a huge winner. It isn't even questionable. At least his people were alert enough to write the numbers down on their own. The crowds except for a few places were a couple dozen people in a high school gymnasium. In hindsight they should have held the events at the local small town rollerskating rink. They would have at least had advanced hand stamp technology and be able to count who goes in and out. 

 

You could literally just look at footage on CNN and do a recount. The two key things I take from this is the dems are as divided as ever. The other thing that doesn't bode well is turn out was really low. The rep caucus had high turn out and since they aren't completely innumerate like the dems they were able to count and confirm them.

 

Enough footage exists they won't be able to rob Bernie again without people going ballistic. It is really funny the dems always cry about the EC vs pop vote and then run caucuses this convoluted. 13 year old kids could put together a FB group and get an accurate count from that. Maybe they should consult Amazon, Google or FB next time.

 

 

2 hours ago, Cryingdick said:

 

Bernie was a huge winner. It isn't even questionable. At least his people were alert enough to write the numbers down on their own. The crowds except for a few places were a couple dozen people in a high school gymnasium. In hindsight they should have held the events at the local small town rollerskating rink. They would have at least had advanced hand stamp technology and be able to count who goes in and out. 

 

You could literally just look at footage on CNN and do a recount. The two key things I take from this is the dems are as divided as ever. The other thing that doesn't bode well is turn out was really low. The rep caucus had high turn out and since they aren't completely innumerate like the dems they were able to count and confirm them.

 

Enough footage exists they won't be able to rob Bernie again without people going ballistic. It is really funny the dems always cry about the EC vs pop vote and then run caucuses this convoluted. 13 year old kids could put together a FB group and get an accurate count from that. Maybe they should consult Amazon, Google or FB next time.

 

 

Shall we wait for the result.

 

As for your ‘enough footage to prove a crowd size’. LOL.

 

Away with your conspiracy nonsense.

 

 

Edited February 4, 20206 yr by Chomper Higgot

Good times for Putin!

Last week he got the beginning of the end of the EU,

his DC stooge remains in place and his bought-off US Senate delivered handsomely,

and now the primaries are in chaos.

On to New Hampshire, let's see what heaping buckets of excrement he has next for what used to be the world's showpiece of democracy.

A war being won without firing a shot, just like the Republicans would go on about in the Cold War era: turns out they were right, and they themselves are the foils. 

As Lenin said "the capitalists will sell us the rope with which we shall hang them."

 

The Pol Pot regime was brought to an end by Cambodia being invaded by a neighboring country (Vietnam).  Canada, I'd like to ask a favor....

 

 

1 hour ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Shall we wait for the result.

 

As for your ‘enough footage to prove a crowd size’. LOL.

 

Away with your conspiracy nonsense.

 

 

 

The crowd size you could tell because on camera they would announce how many people were in each group. There were 5 groups and at the largest site in Des Moines Warren and Bernie had around 100 each. Yang had a bit over a dozen. Klobuchar had maybe 30 Pete had around that, Biden had a dozen or so. Now if you do the math you are going to know that means it was much less than 500 people.

 

You see because they were actively announcing the counts on live television it isn't hard to estimate how many were there. The doors closed at 8 pm so it would be very easy to know how many total went inside. 

 

Most locations were just high school gyms. You could literally count the few dozen people on each side of the bleachers. 

 

They actually counted right on camera in front of the entire world. The only guess is how many switched once they were declared unviable. How many of the entire 9 people for Biden went to Pete, Warren or Bernie? 

 

You could simply divide the unviables by 3 and give that to each of the winners and be pretty close.

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 hour ago, bendejo said:

Good times for Putin!

Last week he got the beginning of the end of the EU,

his DC stooge remains in place and his bought-off US Senate delivered handsomely,

and now the primaries are in chaos.

On to New Hampshire, let's see what heaping buckets of excrement he has next for what used to be the world's showpiece of democracy.

A war being won without firing a shot, just like the Republicans would go on about in the Cold War era: turns out they were right, and they themselves are the foils. 

As Lenin said "the capitalists will sell us the rope with which we shall hang them."

 

The Pol Pot regime was brought to an end by Cambodia being invaded by a neighboring country (Vietnam).  Canada, I'd like to ask a favor....

 

 

As Lenin said "the capitalists will sell us the rope with which we shall hang them."

 

We know that it didn't work out that way, but it looks like there isn't need for that, because many are working hard on their own destruction ????

9 hours ago, alex8912 said:

What a complete embarrassment! The talking heads on CNN were amusing with NOTHING to talk about for hours. Wolf Blitzer has such a big mouth that when one of the secretary’s were calling in the results after waiting an hour + to get through while speaking with Wolf ( which I don’t think he should have been) the guy got hung up on!! Great clip to google and check out! All over twitter for sure. Results should have started coming in almost 12 hours ago. What a way to start a circus! So pathetic. Not a proud moment. 

https://noqreport.com/2020/02/03/iowa-debacle-democrat-representative-hangs-up-on-precinct-secretary-live-on-cnn/

11 hours ago, Cryingdick said:

The thing is there weren't even that many people to count. I was watching it live last night laughing at how it looked like such an amateurish fiasco. At the main caucus in Des Moines the big ones like Bernie and Warren had something like 102 people each. Somebody like Yang ended up with a number around a dozen. They can't even keep track of that?

 

The whole way it was done is comical. Pick a group and then when you aren't viable go here and go there. lol It was like watching deaf people play musical chairs. But yeah for sure Biden was getting slaughtered in every place they showed. Bernie and Warren were the big winners. Buttigieg was a surprisingly strong distant third. The only real question is how much of the unviable vote syphoned off to each camp. 

 

The race is now down to the deplorable vs the unviables.

Honestly they looked more like trump cult because so many unhealthy, obese and all greys in one room. Exception being a ton of youth. Woman of America will decide the election.

Iowa did 3 things for Democrats:

1) Hide the collapse of Joe Biden;
2) Diminish the win by Bernie Sanders; and
3) cover-up a less than enthusiastic voter turnout.

 

I doubt that they are astute enough to have planned their debacle, but it has allowed their propaganda arm, the media, to move on to New Hampshire.

It's the Russian's fault. Russia, Putin, Russia, Putin - all their fault. Start the investigations, bring back Mueller from the rest home, have the FBI issue illegal wiretap subpoenas, and of course blame Trump.

 

The Democrats are so pathetic. Some moron in the media actually tried to tie this cock-up to racism (hint: if everything's racism, then nothing is racism). This whole mess makes the Thai election look stellar.

Well, at least Iowa didn't join in the screwing over of Bernie in 2016; so there's that. Got to feel like Hilary is running in the dark though, a savior for a hung convention.

Wonder if all those American posters who reveled in slagging off the Thai election results delay will be wondering what their Democratic Party and DNC are up to?

 

Either complete incompetent numpties; or up to something unsavory?

25 minutes ago, Baerboxer said:

Wonder if all those American posters who reveled in slagging off the Thai election results delay will be wondering what their Democratic Party and DNC are up to?

 

Either complete incompetent numpties; or up to something unsavory?

Whether incompetent or unsavory, it confirms that Democrats are the undisputed Champions of Unintended Consequences.

3 hours ago, Ricohoc said:

Whether incompetent or unsavory, it confirms that Democrats are the undisputed Champions of Unintended Consequences.

 

One of the Unintended Consequences may be seeing in October the Democrat nominee, Michael Bloomberg (78), standing on a box on stage during the debates.....

10 minutes ago, blazes said:

 

One of the Unintended Consequences may be seeing in October the Democrat nominee, Michael Bloomberg (78), standing on a box on stage during the debates.....

Maybe not so Unintended. The Democrat Party is petrified that Bernie is their nominee, just like 2016. They screwed him over royally in 2016 and are set to do the same this time. Biden's campaign has just had the air let out of it (4th place finish in Iowa - jeez) so Bernie is becoming the front runner.

Bloomberg is palatable to the party elite, especially since he is self funding and making huge donations to the party. But he is damaged goods to most Democrat voters - stop & frisk policies as Mayor of NYC, being a Republican as Mayor of NYC, insanely wealthy billionaire buying his way into the process, and more conservative than the party at the moment. He may be the party elite's choice, but not that of the rank and file voter. 

Which leads to my hypothesis that the convention is split and Hillary comes in as the savior. 

16 minutes ago, phkauf said:

Maybe not so Unintended. The Democrat Party is petrified that Bernie is their nominee, just like 2016. They screwed him over royally in 2016 and are set to do the same this time. Biden's campaign has just had the air let out of it (4th place finish in Iowa - jeez) so Bernie is becoming the front runner.

Bloomberg is palatable to the party elite, especially since he is self funding and making huge donations to the party. But he is damaged goods to most Democrat voters - stop & frisk policies as Mayor of NYC, being a Republican as Mayor of NYC, insanely wealthy billionaire buying his way into the process, and more conservative than the party at the moment. He may be the party elite's choice, but not that of the rank and file voter. 

Which leads to my hypothesis that the convention is split and Hillary comes in as the savior. 

I'm with you until (surely you can't be serious) you offer HRC as a "saviour".  Surely you mean "as a Satanic som nam na"???

1 hour ago, phkauf said:

. . . 

But he is damaged goods to most Democrat voters - stop & frisk policies as Mayor of NYC, being a Republican as Mayor of NYC, insanely wealthy billionaire buying his way into the process, and more conservative than the party at the moment. He may be the party elite's choice, but not that of the rank and file voter. 

. . . 

Agree with the vast majority of your observation.

 

Except for maybe one thing.  Democrats often put things like that aside and practice almost religiously the concept of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend."  

 

Anyone who has stood against Trump has been embraced regardless of their past -- McCain ... Romney ... they always loved Collins until she confirmed Kavanaugh and voted against witnesses ... Lamar was a sometime friend for them until he voted against them this week ... Congressman Amash ... Bill Kristol ... George Will -- it's a long list.

 

If Mayor Mike ends up being their last hope to beat Trump, enough will rally around him to be the nominee.  After all, the motive in all of it is GET TRUMP BECAUSE TRUMP.  However, Dems risk Bernie's and Elizabeth's followers staying home in disgust (Dems will lose most of those rank and file voters).  And then there's the demographic minority groups.

1 hour ago, Ricohoc said:

If Mayor Mike ends up being their last hope to beat Trump, enough will rally around him to be the nominee.  After all, the motive in all of it is GET TRUMP BECAUSE TRUMP.  However, Dems risk Bernie's and Elizabeth's followers staying home in disgust (Dems will lose most of those rank and file voters).  And then there's the demographic minority groups.

Agree, the way the party has and is treating Bernie - his followers will stay home. Warren's followers I feel will probably do the same. I can't see Bloomberg picking up a large minority vote - he was immensely disliked by those groups as mayor and in spite of his apology tour they will not forget Stop & Frisk. They will also stay at home for the most part. 

He like Trump, is delaying his financial statement release - not something that will go over well in the Dem camp. With a net worth over $60 Billion, he is sure to have lots and lots of investments that are sure to be hot buttons for most Dems.

Then add that he is VERY anti-gun, he will lose a lot of the rural vote which will make a difference in the midwestern states HRC lost last time. He will have a hard time trying to relate to the average American and has no charisma.

I can just see the party split and HRC coming out of the woods trying to be the hero for one last time. It makes me sick, but that's my theory. 

10 minutes ago, phkauf said:

Agree, the way the party has and is treating Bernie - his followers will stay home. Warren's followers I feel will probably do the same. I can't see Bloomberg picking up a large minority vote - he was immensely disliked by those groups as mayor and in spite of his apology tour they will not forget Stop & Frisk. They will also stay at home for the most part. 

He like Trump, is delaying his financial statement release - not something that will go over well in the Dem camp. With a net worth over $60 Billion, he is sure to have lots and lots of investments that are sure to be hot buttons for most Dems.

Then add that he is VERY anti-gun, he will lose a lot of the rural vote which will make a difference in the midwestern states HRC lost last time. He will have a hard time trying to relate to the average American and has no charisma.

I can just see the party split and HRC coming out of the woods trying to be the hero for one last time. It makes me sick, but that's my theory. 

Hillary = trump cult. Only do they say this, nobody else.

58 minutes ago, phkauf said:

. . . 

Then add that he is VERY anti-gun, he will lose a lot of the rural vote which will make a difference in the midwestern states HRC lost last time. He will have a hard time trying to relate to the average American and has no charisma.

I can just see the party split and HRC coming out of the woods trying to be the hero for one last time. It makes me sick, but that's my theory. 

Anti-gun, anti-straw, anti big drinks will be difficult baggage to explain away to those same midwestern, southern and even southwest citizens.  Those folks don't like the government making choices for them.

 

A debacle at the convention could very well bring HRC out for real.  She will think that she's going to save the party and the country; but that'll also upset Bernie's and Elizabeth's supporters.  They'll do what they would do with Mayor Mike as the nominee.  I'd venture a guess that well over a third of the party is sick of Hillary.

Troll post removed. 

 

So Trump is found not guilty. As a Brit following this i really am confused how people thought the outcome would be any different. 

 

I am sure that some TV posters will be outraged. I guess they better get use to another 4 years of DT.

The messy start certainly doesn't help Democrats. However, what is REALLY going to be a problem in challenging Trump is the most important kitchen table issue: Economic optimism or the economy in general.

 

 

59% of Americans (the highest ever recorded by Gallup) think they're better off than they were a year ago. Only 20% (the lowest ever recorded by Gallup) think they're worse off than they were a year ago. As you can see in the graph, the gap between the better off and not better off has accelerated greatly since Trump took office.

 

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/record-economic-optimism-under-trump-better-than-reagan-clinton-obama

 

While the optics of the Democrat bungling of the Iowa caucuses are certainly bad, I don't see it as a big issue come November- well, unless they keep screwing things up.

 

The big challenge for the Democrats will be data like that in the graph above.

Edited February 5, 20206 yr by Crazy Alex
clarification