News today

First, I want to pass on congrats to my brother-in-law, whose small company won lots of awards for building churches around the Midwest. I thought it was neat to see that the story made the Indy Star. I also think the creative ideas the designers at the company come up with are pretty neat.

I'll admit, I let out an audible "Yeah!" in the car on the way to work when I heard on NPR that Barack Obama had won in Iowa. The event was historic, and reflects that his talk of "change" has hit home for a lot of people. He's now got momentum, and a lot of 'kids' behind him. Huckabee won too, and I'm interested to see how that plays out with the rest of the primary season. I'm cautiously hopeful we'll have better presidential choices from the two parties come election time, compared to the last election.

Here's tidbits from a New York Times commentary about both the wins:

About Huckabee:

Huckabee understands how middle-class anxiety is really lived. Democrats talk about wages. But real middle-class families have more to fear economically from divorce than from a free trade pact. A person’s lifetime prospects will be threatened more by single parenting than by outsourcing. Huckabee understands that economic well-being is fused with social and moral well-being, and he talks about the inter-relationship in a way no other candidate has.
...
A conservatism that recognizes stable families as the foundation of economic growth is not hard to imagine. A conservatism that loves capitalism but distrusts capitalists is not hard to imagine either. Adam Smith felt this way. A conservatism that pays attention to people making less than $50,000 a year is the only conservatism worth defending.

About Obama:

Barack Obama has won the Iowa caucuses. You’d have to have a heart of stone not to feel moved by this. An African-American man wins a closely fought campaign in a pivotal state. He beats two strong opponents, including the mighty Clinton machine. He does it in a system that favors rural voters. He does it by getting young voters to come out to the caucuses.

This is a huge moment. It’s one of those times when a movement that seemed ethereal and idealistic became a reality and took on political substance.