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