Doubts and Discouragement in theElection of Obama’s Republican Rival

Whoever wins the first round of the primaries that kicked off with the Iowa caucuses, this is not only a race to elect Barack Obama’s rival in November for the Republicans. This is also to clear the confusion, shared with the Democrats, about which path to follow to take the nation out of the pit that it fell in after the 2008 financial crisis.

The candidates exhausted their last cartridges with television appearances and appearing live throughout all of Iowa. They are trying to draw the greatest possible number of supporters to the caucus corresponding to their precinct, the local assembly where they vote for one of the White House hopefuls. So that the intense cold would not be a problem, the results then left by telephone to the party conventions. Until last night, it was not known who had emerged the victor.

Surveys assured that Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts, was the favorite with 22.8 percent of votes, followed by Ron Paul with 21.5 percent and the rising conservative Christian Rick Santorum with 16.3 percent. Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, and Jon Huntsman followed further behind. But nothing guarantees that winning in Iowa means taking the candidacy in November.

Many potential voters quietly confided that they didn’t know who to elect, that no one convinced them.

For example, Judy Johnson, the owner of a small pet supply store on a small street with a handful of businesses in West Des Moines, surrounded by short houses, excitedly received the visit of Michele Bachmann. The heroine of the Tea Party, the candidate went there to shake the hands of small business owners.

Judy told the T.V. that she “would like to see a woman president,” and that she would “keep thinking” about voting for Bachmann or not. She later found herself talking with this newspaper and confessed that she had voted for Obama in 2008. It didn’t matter to her what party the president was as long as he “is good to the people, doesn’t get involved in more wars.”

This anti-militaristic discourse is a preferred one of the followers of the libertarian Ron Paul. Hundreds of young people cheered him in the gymnasium of Valley High School. One said, “As much as I love the Jewish people, I agree with Paul that we don’t have to get involved in wars in the Middle East.”

If not for the Ron Paul t-shirt, one could to think that these young people belonged to a leftist party or a small group of indignants from Occupy Des Moines that are concentrated in the bohemian East Village neighborhood in the center of the city.

Discouragement and disillusion is felt in the air of Iowa. The exception is the furious conservatives and evangelicals that are committed to anti-abortion and anti-gay candidates.

After listening to Paul live, the student body president of Valley High, Roshan Abid, told Clarín that he supports the representative because he distrusts him the least.

“What’s the biggest problem with this country?” asked Abid, born in Washington, D.C. to Pakistani parents. “Corruption,” he answered, synthesizing the anger and the anguish around the “democratic” election machine in the U.S.

*Editor’s Note: Quotes, accurately translated, could not be verified.