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CANDIDATES COMPETING FOR the Democratic nomination in this year’s US presidential election will see the race heating up as Iowa makes its decision on who it wants to see take the title.
In a race that began almost a year ago when more than 20 people threw their hat in the ring, just 11 candidates remain.
Despite the historically diverse field consisting of men and women of color and young candidates with little Washington exposure, the leading candidates are Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden.
Iowa’s all-important vote will likely whittle the field further as it provides the first verifiable results in a contest deciding the party’s future direction, and its 2020 flagbearer.
In a typical election year, Iowa absorbs the country’s full political attention. But this presidential cycle has been anything but normal.
Today will see those still standing cross swords at the caucus in Iowa, a swing state that Trump took from the Democrats in 2016.
That will be followed by the New Hampshire primary contest a week later and then in early March by Super Tuesday where there are votes in 15 territories on the same day. The final states vote in June.
Perhaps the most significant to fall by the wayside before the voters had their say is Kamala Harris, the California prosecutor who was seen as an early favourite but failed to make an impact.
The Democrat party is still licking its wounds from its defeat in 2016 when Trump confounded the pollsters with a comfortable electoral college victory over Hillary Clinton, winning several key states from the Democrats, notably in the “rust belt” which covers the mid-west states that were formerly known for their heavy industry.
Looming over the process is Trump’s impeachment saga, which is coming to a climax on the same week Iowa votes.
A final vote on Trump’s fate, with acquittal almost certain in the Republican-led Senate, occurs Wednesday.
With reporting from AFP. © – AFP 2019
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Is there a chance the track would bend?
@Barry Goodwin: if ya have nothing good to say just say nothing!
@Barry Goodwin: haha Barry. Now I have that song stuck in my head.
@Barry Goodwin: Not on your life my Mancunian friend.
@Elrond Rivendell: what about us brain dead slobs?
@Stephen Boland: you’ll be given cushy jobs
@Stephen Boland: you’ll be given cushy jobs!
@Thomas McDonnell: were you sent here by the devil?!
@Fergal O’Hagan: Not unless you’re Gary Neville!
@Fergal O’Hagan: No good sir I’m on the level
Any chance of some public transport on the Northside? Sick of sitting ages in traffic AT 6am! Whats happening with Metro North? Or are we going to be constantly vilified for having to use the car? I have osteoarthritis before anyone mentioning cycling!
@Lisa Jones: traffic at 6am, where?
@Dublin days: From Crossguns bridge right through Phibsboro and over the 2 luas lines and right up as far as the quays. Lights stay red longer, lanes have been reduced to one lane. I have been working the whole last year starting work at 6.30am and traffic is getting mental. Yes even that early, most likely by people trying to avoid getting caught up in rush hour traffic.
@Lisa Jones: Metrolink – Metro North was the old plan – is still going ahead.
Is the electrification of the line to Maynooth included as was suggested last year? I don’t see it mentioned here but it has been on the table for years. Let’s hope this isn’t another endless pipe dream consultative process that will cost the taxpayer millions without a single sod turned like Metro North, the Royal Canal Greenway deep sinking project, the DART extension to Maynooth. Consultants and engineers making money left, right and centre for flashy drawings and brochures of fictitious, never to be built infrastructure.
https://www.newstalk.com/news/irish-rail-reveals-details-plan-extend-dart-maynooth-1066555
Extension from Heuston…does the dart go to Heuston??
@dreiglaser: Not sure if you missed it but it says in the article a feasibility study and concept design would be undertaken for a future station at “Heuston West” (I assume that is within walking distance from the main Heuston station and it is a change stop), that line would run from Hazelhatch to Connolly via the Phoenix Park Tunnel
Well I hope they have better success than reopening the current line to navan, wasn’t even a priority for the greens
@Hugh Mc Donnell:
Public transport in Ireland is for the fairies.
@iohanx: there must be an election coming up, the usual empty promises and grand plans. Do politicians really think we believe this nonsense. It’s going on years now, metro North an underground Harcourt line to Bray navan rail line
But there’s a train
@Sazzle: if you have nothing good to say just say nothing
@Mark Dit: Nothing
@Mark Dit: sometimes saying nothing is good. I enjoyed Paul’s saying nothing, brightened up my day no end did that.
@This time its personable!: this applies to you more than Paul
With the money in all of these reports and consultation over the years, they would have the price to pay for metro-north and the extension to the Dart line
Should be extended to Sallins/Naas. What a wasted opportunity.
@Tomo: it should be all the way at to Portlaoise
So as per usual with the semi state and the department of wasting money. This will take years. Cost millions more than it should and be over loaded before it launches.
Needs to include a revamp of Hazelhatch Station. Secure bicycle parking, quicker access to platforms, hourly shuttle bus into Celbridge, go-car spaces.
Stations and commuters. Need I say more
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