Disillusion about Candidates

Newspapers in Japan reported Iowa caucus as disillusions of voters about a Democratic female candidate who had been the top runner and GOP billionaire who reiterated eccentric gaffes. Hillary Rodham Clinton failed in impressing American voters her invincibility based on established political dynasty. Lagging behind of a Hispanic conservative, Ted Cruz, Donald Trump was not so popular in Hawkeye State as Japanese media had been indicating. It is possible for United States Presidential race will keep on going against Japanese expectations.

Asahi Shimbun focused on advance of extremism. “Voters’ frustration against existing politics such as gap between the rich and poor appeared to be supports for the candidates with radical opinion rather than the centrists in each party,” elaborated the paper. It reported that the election started in unprecedented division and confusion in America, raising segmentation in GOP with conservative, moderate and Trump and in Democrats with leftist and centrist.

But, the result was not so simple. Good fight of Bernie Sanders does not mean a defeat of Clinton. Although polls indicated advantage of him in next primary in New Hampshire, Sanders does not have a clear vision for winning the ticket. Having said that, it is possible that Clinton had to win in Iowa with only a slight margin, not because she was a centrist, but because her personality failed in addressing some difficult issues like emailing classified information through her private email account.

Another question would be whether Cruz was an extremist. Although Cruz had been holding strong position against President Barack Obama, it was too early to say that the victory of Cruz was an advance of extremism. The policies upheld by Cruz, such as small government or opposition to gun regulation, may be categorized in traditional GOP conservatism. Considering eccentric populism shown in Trump campaign, the result of Iowa caucus can be a sober conclusion of the voters after enthusiastic discussions.

Mainichi Shimbun reported that another GOP winner was Marco Rubio, who caught up with Trump. “He secured central position among centrist candidates by winning the third place close to the second in conservative Iowa,” said the paper. But, the third place means a loser to the other two. Affected by American media in quadrennial enthusiasm, Japanese news organizations are vividly reporting the election of new conceptual world leader. However, the result of Iowa caucus was a reasonable choice as former presidential elections had been.