Iowa Won’t Matter By Saturday
January 3, 2008 – 1:49 pmTomorrow, the media will have a field day sorting out who won today’s caucuses and what the results mean for the upcoming race. What it means? How about zilch. Remember, Iowa is where the Reverend Pat Robertson came in second place in 1988 (ahead of eventual nominee and President George H.W. Bush) and where Bill Clinton came in fourth in 1992 behind “Uncommitted.”
Fun historical footnotes but completely irrelevant to the way the process played out. At a time when our candidates for president should be more interested in how they would protect us from the magnitude of dangerous anti-American jihadists around the globe, they are instead forced to play make believe with a microscopic cross section of super partisan voters and political activists in an inconsequential state (and we continue to wonder why foreigners continue to land the best paying jobs).
2008 will be just like past meaningless Iowa caucuses, particularly on the Republican side. Huckabee, who can’t even point out where Pakistan is on a map yet is the current GOP front-runner, will have his 24 hour moment in the sun. But by Saturday, it will be forward march to New Hampshire where John McCain has an edge over Mitt Romney and Huckabee is a well deserved afterthought. Enjoy your day in the sun, Iowa and maybe a whole 15% of you will turn out for tonight’s silly caucuses.
2 Responses to “Iowa Won’t Matter By Saturday”
The Iowa Caucus is an embarrassment. If any other country ran its elections this way, we’d be ridiculing them unmercifully.
The National Democratic Party has to put a stop to this madness.
And the media have to stop shining the spotlight on this non-representative state and its inconsequential practice.
Maybe then, Iowa will just go away.
By Steve Levine on Jan 3, 2008
Unfortunately, we are better at exporting democracy abroad than we are at practicing here at home. The best replacement for this madness would be a national primary the first Tuesday in March where the winner of each party entered is granted the nomination (no electoral college). Until then, we will be forced to adhere to this joke.
By Joshua Rosenstock on Jan 3, 2008