In this video CBS political analyst Jeff Greenfield explains how the Iowa caucuses work for both parties. The caucuses for both parties function very differently. The Republicans' Iowa caucus process is the much simpler one. It is very similar to a straw ballot with voters casting secret votes on a piece of paper. The voting process used by the Democrats is public. It is quiet complex and involves people standing in designated areas to support their candidate of choice. The Democratic candidates also need to achieve at least 15% support or their supporters can leave and go home or switch their support to another candidate.
Jeff Greenfield - who was a political analyst on CNN for many years before joining CBS - always manages to make complex political issues much easier to understand. If you want a written explanation of how the caucuses work you can read about the process here on Wikipedia and here on the Iowa Caucus website.
Bloomberg reports that the ruling Fatah Party won the largest number of votes in the Palestinian elections. But coming in right behind Fatah is Hamas, which will now be a part of the Legislative Council. Hamas is classified as a terrorist group by the United States.
Fatah, the party founded by the late Yasser Arafat, took 46 percent of the ballots cast throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip, compared with 39 percent for the Hamas-supported Change and Reform list of candidates, according to the poll of voters conducted by Bir Zeit University in the West Bank.
Palestinian Authority Deputy Prime Minister Nabil Shaath, a leader of Fatah, earlier cited unspecified exit poll results showing his party won between 40 percent and 46 percent of the vote and Hamas got 30 percent to 32 percent.
Hamas, which is classified by the U.S. as a terrorist organization and has staged 58 suicide bombings against Israeli targets in the past five years, would join the Palestinian Legislative Council for the first time since the body was founded in 1996. The group campaigned on a platform opposing the Palestinian Authority's efforts to resume peace negotiations with Israel.
"We need the world's support to help us get back to the negotiating table with the Israeli side in order to renew the peace process and implement what hadn't been implemented," Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, a leader of Fatah, told reporters at his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Voter turnout was almost 78 percent, the Palestinian Central Election Commission said on its Web site. Voting was heavier in the Gaza Strip, where 82 percent had gone to the polls, compared with 74 percent in the West Bank, it said.
It may seem shocking to Americans that Hamas is now considered a major political player in mainstream Palestinian elections, but the leadership of Hamas has been working very hard on its image at home. With a huge flow of money coming into the party from other countries, Hamas is able to distribute aid to the poor and sick, which gains them big points with the public. Some of their leaders recently said that talking to Israel isn't out of the question, which would be a major change in position for the group.
The United States is putting pressure on President Mahmoud Abbas to exclude Hamas from the new government, which puts Abbas in a really awkward position. The U.S., along with major European powers, has repeatedly said it won't deal with Hamas unless it disarms and agrees that Israel has a right to exist. Abbas says he wants Hamas to disarm, but he won't use force to make this happen. So for now, everyone is just sitting around wondering if Hamas will morph from being a terrorist group into a peaceful political party. After all, in his day, Yasser Arafat was a notorious terrorist and he founded Fatah. But it seems most unlikely. And if Hamas ever gains control of Palestine, that's probably it for any hope of a peaceful solution to the Israel-Palestine problem.
At the same time, the incapacity of Ariel Sharon has led to uncertainty about what's going to happen in the upcoming Israeli elections. As usual, the Middle East shows no signs of settling down anytime soon.
Update 1-26-05: Update: It looks like the Palestinian exit polls were wrong; Hamas has won the majority of votes in the election. President Bush today praised democracy in Palestine but also noted that is was going to be difficult for Hamas to be a partner in peace negotiations if it is still calling for the destruction of Israel.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice caused such a furor last week when she wouldn't rule out a presidential bid in 2008, that she had to make the rounds of the Sunday talk shows yesterday to put out the fires. In her own words, she said: "I don't have any desire to run for president. I don't intend to. I won't do it....I won't. How's that? Is that categorical enough?" That was on ABC. On Meet the Press she said, "I will not run for president of the United States. How is that? I don't know how many ways to say 'no' in this town." On CBS' Face the Nation, she said "I don't think I even ran for class president at any point. I love being secretary of State thus far. I liked being national security advisor. And one of these days very soon I'm going to want to return and be an academic again and get back to the California life and to the world of ideas." So, there you have it. She's not running--this week, at least.
