I have nothing against Iowa. I think it's a fine state full of small to medium sized cities such as Des Moines, Sioux City and Davenport. I would be proud to count myself among them and if I did the first thing that I would do would be to ban the Iowa caucuses or at least ban television campaign advertising, maybe radio too. Newspapers need the money, so I'd allow that. Can you imagine Iowa television for the past 6 month's, Hillary Clinton, Rudy G and Ron Paul round the clock. I get nightmares thinking about it. As a matter of fact I've given up watching cable news for the duration. By my estimate, every Iowan between the age of 4 and 84 has been interviewed at least twice and two network correspondents have filed for workman's comp after gaining 35 lbs doing the coffee shop tour of rural Iowa.
Of course we have Jimmy Carter (who else) to blame for all of this. Before lusting in his heart and fending off wild bunnies he made his name winning the Iowa caucuses. Ever since politicians have tried to recreate that magic and TV news networks desperate for something to talk about besides actual news have created a cottage industry of pollsters, analysts and well groomed correspondents fresh from TV journalism school (an oxymoron if there ever was one). Now, God help us, a few hundred thousand Iowans have more to say about who becomes the next president than 40 million Californians, which on second thought may not be a bad thing after all.
Go Hawkeyes!
5 comments:
Ha! When I was in NC for New Year's, I was passed by a Prius (a car that shouldn't be allowed to speed) with a "Re-elect Carter" bumper sticker. Must be from the People's Republic of Chapel Hill...
Thanks for your thoughts. Just so you know I voted for Jimmy Carter and admire him. He's served the world well and followed his conscience. Its a lot more that most folks can say.
I think Carter's an admirable man; I think he was too nice to be a great President.
I "think" I wish we all had our caucuses/primaries on the same day, sort of a uber-super-duper Tuesday. Maybe the circus would be even worse, though. But at least it wouldn't give an undeserved amount of legitimacy to any one candidate.
The whole system is a disaster and a bonanza for the media. Without this they'd be left covering Britney Spear's, Natalie Holoway or the natural disaster of the day.
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