LETTERS: GOP HAD MOST VOTES IN IOWA

To the editor:

After watching the Republican and then the Democratic presidential debates on CNN, I turned to ABC to watch "Nightline" to see what Ted Koppel had to say. It was a show about Al Gore. Ted said Gore had just come into New Hampshire off a "huge victory" in Iowa. Excuse me, but 1,269 total Democratic votes for the whole state of Iowa is a huge victory? Granted, Bill Bradley only had 698 total Democratic votes in Iowa, but this was not a huge victory.

Only 2,000 (33 of those were uncommitted votes) Democrats voted in the Iowa caucuses, compared to 85,947 Republicans. Bush got 35,231, Steve Forbes got 12,268, Gary Bauer got 7,323, John McCain got 4,045, and Orrinn Hatch got 882. And Hatch has quit the race.

I would like to applaud the voters of Iowa. All is not lost in the heartland of America. These voters sent this nation a message to the Democratic Party of Bill Clinton and corruption: We are sick of it.

To the Republican Party of "who knows": You are not off the hook. No campaign-finance reform, no overturn of Roe vs. Wade, couldn't get the job done of impeaching "out the door" Bill Clinton just to name a few. In 1996 you shoved Bob Dole down our throats, and in 2000 your are not going to shove George W. Bush down our throats. We have plenty of other choices.

No one will ever really know if most of the Democrats in Iowa stayed home or crossed over to the Republican side to give so many votes to so many different candidates. But whatever the reason, it was priceless.

According to CASPIAN, Iowa voters could cross over at the caucuses and change parties. C-SPAN carried a live Republican caucus and a live Democratic caucus. The Republicans passed out paper ballots, and each person voted for his favorite candidate. The Democrats split their people into two sides, Al Gore on one side and Bill Bradley on the other. Then they counted heads. All votes, paper and head count, were entered on a paper a then called in to the party top dogs.

Of course, we know the national media are untrustworthy. And, true to form, they have not mentioned the "huge victory" of Republican votes over Democratic votes. Since they have been cramming Al Gore, George W. Bush and, for some reason, John McCain on the American people, it wouldn't look good to admit that the media and party-head favorites got the least votes of all.

I think the media have lost control of the American people. I know of no one who trusts the elite media anymore. They say Alan Keyes is drawing huge crowds at the rallies he holds, but we out here who try very hard to get information and actual facts have never seen this for ourselves. Maybe he will come to Missouri.

When Pat Buchanan won New Hampshire in 1996, the next day his fellow Republicans tried to foul up their own candidate. I pray to God they do not try this with Alan Keyes.

It is up to the American people to decide who our next president is. It is not up to the power of the party or the national media. With the Internet, the powers that be are losing control, and that will be for the betterment of America. Go to voter.com or vote.com and enjoy.

CAROL M. WILKINSON

Cape Girardeau