Iowa 2016

My main takeaway from listening to the five frontrunners last night is that all but one of them were acting.

Rubio, a Roman Catholic who came in third, was acting like a generic and chipper Ned Flanders Christian who had won the whole thing.

On the other stage, Clinton was putting everything she had into acting like an alpha dog in control Bill Clinton. While she lacks his warmth and magnetic personal charm she can miminc his cadences and hand motions.

Cruz looked like he was auditioning for the role of venal, God-pandering, sleazebucket politician. Nothing about him seems real (or likable). When he takes the stage and affectates that speaker's voice all you see is a little kid struggling to act like some grown-up he once saw in a movie.

And in the most convincing performance of the night Trump acted like he didn't care that he'd lost the race the last eight Iowa polls assured him that he would win. He was quick, breezy and indifferent. Which is a shame because i was hoping hard for a Howard Dean style meltdown.

Meanwhile, that old socalist jew didn't seem to be acting at all. I felt like I was seeing the real man. True, the real man is a curmudgeonly, socialist, billionaire-basher with a bit of a Jeremiah complex but that is who was on stage last night.

And I'll tell you something else. That old socialist Jew pushed a lot of my buttons. At long last I think I understand why GOP Jerks are always so flushed and breathless when their guys talk about guns and God. I'm not quite ready to join seemingly all of my Twitter feed and jump on the Bernie bandwagon but I admit that last night, for the very first time... I felt the Bern