| Vote for Barak and he'll provide free baby | | | | |
| sitting. Isn't that illegal or at least | | | | "It stinks," says veteran political reporter |
| somewhat shadly? But alas, the Iowa caucus | | | | Jack Germond. "The voters ought to have time |
| process isn't democratic anyway, so why does | | | | to make a considered decision, and the press |
| Iowa get so much attention- other than | | | | ought to be a little less poll-driven, and |
| because of tradition. Why aren't there 3 or | | | | we're not." Between the coverage and the |
| 4 states that have a PRIMARY (a democratic | | | | hyper-compressed campaign calendar, he says, |
| process) on the same first day that's | | | | "the whole system this year is absolutely a |
| representative of the nation. | | | | disgrace." |
| | | | |
| Why do various campaign aides need to show up | | | | The term of choice for the more thoughtful |
| at Iowan homes with DVD's that explain how | | | | reporters, in describing the Iowa rules, is |
| the caucuses work. Iowans need help from | | | | arcane. With its arcane caucus rules, Iowa |
| outsiders to tell them about their process? | | | | remains a small battlefield. Only 124,000 |
| Nobody needs a DVD to understand | | | | Democrats voted last time, less than a |
| one-person-one-vote, a level playing field, | | | | quarter of those eligible. So if Barack |
| and a secret ballot | | | | Obama, say, edges Hillary Clinton by 2,000 |
| | | | votes, he'll be hailed in headlines as a |
| And we need to blame the MEDIA for the | | | | giant-killer despite the tiny margin. |
| hysteria that's a part of the Iowa insanity! | | | | |
| | | | Much ado about nothing- escept for what hype |
| Every day there has been a poll as though | | | | the press makes it. |
| life and death hinged on what the latest | | | | |
| trend was. If you look at the polls one thing | | | | When you read an honest reporter like Dan |
| becomes obvious. There is no trend. Who cares | | | | Balz you appreciate the depth and extent of |
| about what Iowa thinks anything. I know, I | | | | the fraud that is being practiced on us all. |
| know the MEDIA does. And so we see pictures | | | | "In a primary," as he put it, "voters quietly |
| of Huckabee shooting a bird, praying on | | | | fill out their ballots and leave. In the |
| bended knee, and running in the cold morning | | | | caucuses, they are required to come and stay |
| snow with reporters. Anything to get an angle | | | | for several hours, and there are no secret |
| on a candidate that will sell tabloid or TV | | | | ballots. In the presence of friends, |
| commercials. Besides with all the 24 hour | | | | neighbors and occasionally strangers, Iowa |
| cable news networks, one has to fill the air | | | | Democrats vote with their feet, by raising |
| time with something- anything! | | | | their hands and moving to different parts of |
| | | | the room to signify their support for one |
| What we have are less than 3,000,000 people | | | | candidate or another. For Democrats, it is |
| offering their vote an attention to whomever | | | | not a one-person, one-vote system. … |
| will give them the time of day while | | | | Inducements are allowed; bribes are not." |
| 300,000,000 other Americans look on with | | | | |
| doubts. And in a state that 92% white, what | | | | Maybe Rudy Guiliani was smart by staying out |
| does that tell the rest of us across the | | | | of Iowa! |
| United States? Rudy Guiliani decided to woo | | | | |
| the religious right from New York, rather | | | | What the Iowa insanity-laced caucasuses do is |
| than get involved in Iowa directly. | | | | give the whip to the moneyed political |
| | | | professionals, to the full-time party hacks |
| Every four years the press has been promising | | | | and manipulators, to the shady pollsters and |
| to swear off the bottle and stop treating the | | | | the cynical media boosters, and to the |
| Iowa caucuses as if they were a primary, let | | | | supporters of fringe and crackpot candidates. |
| alone an election. Credit Howard Kurtz of the | | | | Remember that not Iowa but its "caucuses" put |
| Washington Post for being the first writer | | | | Pat Robertson ahead of George H.W. Bush in |
| this year to try to hold his fellow | | | | the race for the GOP nomination in 1988. So |
| journalists to that pledge. Listen, without | | | | is there any wonder the Iowa now loves |
| that massive media boost, prevailing in Iowa | | | | another ministger named Huckabee? The process |
| would be seen for what it is: an important | | | | might be a good way for Iowa to pick its |
| first victory that amounts to scoring a run | | | | party convention delegates, but it's an |
| in the top of the first inning. | | | | absolute terrible way in which to select |
| | | | candidates for the presidency. |
| No big deal! | | | | |