February 2 - The Youth Vote in Iowa's Close Democratic Caucus; The Quirky Nature of Iowa's Democratic Caucus; Fox News and ISIS are Driving a Wedge Between Muslims and the Rest of American Society

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the extremely narrow victory that Hillary Clinton eeked out over her Democratic rival Bernie Sanders in the Iowa Caucus and assess how much of a role the youth vote played in last night’s election and which of the candidates was the beneficiary of it. Sarah Leonard, a senior editor at The Nation and co-author with Bhaskar Sunkara of “The Future We Want: Radical Ideas for the New Century”, joins us to discuss the political priorities, mood and outlook of the millennial generation and the apparent enthusiasm deficit the Democrats have in the 2016 election races indicated by the record number of Republican voters who turned out in Iowa that could spell trouble for the Democrats in the general election.

Part 2

Then we look into the quirky nature of Iowa’s Democratic caucuses which unlike the Republican caucuses in which actual votes are cast, operates on headcounts as huddling groups of voters assemble in support of candidates as the clock ticks. We speak with a veteran of the last several Iowa caucuses, Robert Leonard, the News Director for KNIA KRLS Knoxville and Pella, Iowa about the razor-thin majority Hillary Clinton won over Bernie Sanders and the fact that some caucus results were decided by a coin toss.

Part 3

Then finally we speak with Ken Gude, a Senior Fellow with the National Security Team at the Center for American Progress about President Obama’s visit to a mosque in Baltimore scheduled for Wednesday that already has Fox News and the right wing press trumpeting lies alleging the mosque has “extremist ties”, “ties to al Qaeda” and “ties to radical Islamic Groups”. We examine the difficult job Obama has in trying to assure American Muslims that they and their religion belong in America while Republican candidates and Fox News drive a wedge between Muslims and the rest of society, the very strategy that the Islamic State is employing.