Swamp Gas, January 4, 2008

by Frank James

A quick guided tour of some of the morning's most important, most interesting, or both, Washington-related stories.

Democrat Sen. Barack Obama and Republican Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, won their respective Iowa caucuses by decisive margins, riding the desire for change and dealing significant blows to Democrat Sen. Hillary Clinton and Republican Mitt Romney who were expected to do much better.

Obama's victory was a vindication of his strategy to keep pushing his message of change, even when some in his own camp were advocating that he follow conventional political strategy and go negative in an effort to close the distance between himself and the front runner, Sen. Hillary Clinton. It was also showed the success in his effort to energize young and independent voters.

Mike Huckabee won as many Republican Iowa caucus goers rejected the presumptive power of big money and a large political operation represented by Mitt Romney though the discomfort of evangelical Christians appeared to play a significant role too.

Clinton's campaign intends to focus on Obama's relative inexperience in the five days until the New Hampshire primary.

It hasn't always worked out for numerous winners of early the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary as the party establishment has come out in full force against them or they withered under more intensive scrutiny.

The Bush Administration is restricting the effort in some states to expand Medicaid as it tries to prevent them from allowing all but the very poor from using the program.

The economy only added 18,000 jobs in December, the smallest increase in more than four years, with the unemployment rate rising to five percent from 4.7 percent the month before, raising expectations that there would be a fourth consecutive interest-rate cut by the Federal Reserve Board.

The Kenyan opposition has called for new elections as unrest continued following last weekend's disputed presidential balloting and the U.S. stepped up its efforts to mediate between incumbent President Mwai Kibangi and opposition leader Raila Odinga.

The Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve food and milk from cloned animals, perhaps as soon as next week, but there's expected to be a consumer backlash.

Several commercial airliners will take part in real-world testing of devices meant to protect the aircraft against shoulder-fired missiles, according to the Homeland Security Department.