November '08 Kicks Off.

- The interminably long march to the US Presidential election kicked off last night in Iowa and though the media tends to place too much importance on the Iowa primary it does give you some insight into what might happen in November.

I have always thought the biggest problem with the US election has been the party nominatin process, more so for the Republicans (but not much more so than for the Dems). 50% of the Republican primary voters are religious social conservatives, which means a bible thumping twit like Huckabee has a decent shot and a pro-choice, not overtly religious guy like Guliani never has a hope in hell. That becomes a problem for the party in the general election because the 25-30% of the voting public that would consider themselves undecided (at least 35% of voters vote Democrat regardless of who they run, and 35% vote Republican regardless of who they run) and would strongly consider Guliani will never get the chance. And I am not really knocking religious candidates here, I don't begrudge anyone their faith I just don't like it interfering with how they govern.

Having said that, whoever runs for the Republicans will win anyway because there is no way in hell Obama can win the Southern states (I will be shocked if Obama cruises through the South Carolina primary). The US bible belt is exactly like Quebec in Canada - a minority of the population that tends to vote as one and needs to be catered to to win elections. The Democrats can't seem to figure this out and that why the fact there hasn't been a Northern Democrat elected President since JFK nearly 50 years ago is not just some strange coincidence. And Hillary sure as hell can't win over the South either.

- Knight Rider is back. I am less than enthused about this. I remember the original so fondly watching this can only diminish those memories.

- At this point I honestly feel sorry Britney Spears. The girl is clearly not well and needs help. As someone who has been treated for depression I think it's horrible that she has to go through this in the media spotlight.