Thursday, January 03, 2008

Did Civility Win in Iowa?

Looking at the results of the Iowa caucuses, there are certainly many particulars that are parts of the explanations for the victories of Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee. At the same time, there is a similarity: the two nice guys won.

After decades, especially the last seven years of faux-tough guys, politicians full of fake swagger, folks who avoided Vietnam pretending to be GI Joe, is this indicative of a shift in the cultural zeitgeist? Have we gone from "a guy I'd like to have a beer with" to "a guy I'd like my daughter to marry"? Or is this reading something in that isn't there?