Lost in the hysteria of the Nevada Democrats/Fox News fiasco was the meaning of the joke that killed the debate.
I'm no defender of Roger Ailes or Fox News, but the target of Ailes' joke was not Obama; the target of the joke was Bush. Ailes, like Kerry, has trouble delivering a joke, but the punchline was mildly funny -- Bush is so dumb he doesn't know the difference between Obama and Osama.
Nevada Democrats should have never entered into a deal with the devil. But the Nevada Democratic Party is a peg below Neanderthal Man. If you want a visual of your typical Nevada Democratic Party official, think Geico Caveman, only older.
Nevada Democratic Party Chair Tom Collins sounds like a Republican. He's pro-life, pro-gun and anti-gay. Like Harry Reid, Collins is a Mormon. Why is Collins a Democrat? He's a union member. That's it.
And that brings us to the problem with allowing Nevada to hold a caucus immediately following Iowa. One labor union dominates Nevada. The Culinary Union has more than 50,000 members. They have enough muscle in Vegas, a town run on muscle, to dictate who will win the Nevada Caucus.
This is bad for the Democratic Party. If Obama scores big in Iowa, one union has the muscle to stop him in Nevada with a humiliating defeat.
I attended the Nevada Democratic Caucus in 2004. It was a joke. Clark County (home to Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas, Mesquite and Laughlin) had one caucus location. In a football field. Residents of Mesquite and Laughlin had to drive 90 miles to attend the caucus. Most people wandered around the football field looking for neighbors they could caucus with.
Only union members were schooled in where to go. This meant Kerry overwhelmed Dean. Many Dean supporters couldn't find their caucus. Some precincts didn't even have a caucus.
To avoid another Nevada fiasco, it might be wise to videotape one of Tom Collins' next speeches. Maybe he'll tell a joke. Maybe he'll compare Osama to Obama in a failed attempt to illustrate Bush's lack of intelligence. And maybe national Democrats will be outraged enough to scrap the ill-advised Nevada caucus.
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