Held Hostage in Iowa
No state should have this much power every four years.
By Jonah Goldberg
National Review Online
I’m writing this just hours before Iowans head to the caucuses to pick their party’s nominee. The day before the caucuses, Hillary Clinton proclaimed the “eyes of the world” were on Iowa. This is something of an overstatement, of course. Something tells me very few of the women around the village well in some shanty outside Lahore are, at this moment, debating whether Joe Biden will have enough drivers to get his people to the Martin Memorial Library, at 406 Packwaukee St., in New Hartford on caucus night. And the cafes in Saigon are hardly abuzz with the question of whether Mike Huckabee nailed his closing argument to the guests of the Council Bluffs Cracker Barrel.
Still, the Iowa caucuses are important, enormously, absurdly, outlandishly — scandalously! — important. And here’s the thing: If we are going to drive a stake through the Iowa caucuses, now is the moment to do it. Regardless of Thursday’s results, come Monday of next week some other twisted soul is going to start scouting Des Moines locations for his 2012 campaign office. And not long after that, a whole passel of politicians will find it in their interest to protect the Iowa caucuses in a craven attempt to win sympathy from the Hawkeye State political machine.
By Jonah Goldberg
National Review Online
I’m writing this just hours before Iowans head to the caucuses to pick their party’s nominee. The day before the caucuses, Hillary Clinton proclaimed the “eyes of the world” were on Iowa. This is something of an overstatement, of course. Something tells me very few of the women around the village well in some shanty outside Lahore are, at this moment, debating whether Joe Biden will have enough drivers to get his people to the Martin Memorial Library, at 406 Packwaukee St., in New Hartford on caucus night. And the cafes in Saigon are hardly abuzz with the question of whether Mike Huckabee nailed his closing argument to the guests of the Council Bluffs Cracker Barrel.
Still, the Iowa caucuses are important, enormously, absurdly, outlandishly — scandalously! — important. And here’s the thing: If we are going to drive a stake through the Iowa caucuses, now is the moment to do it. Regardless of Thursday’s results, come Monday of next week some other twisted soul is going to start scouting Des Moines locations for his 2012 campaign office. And not long after that, a whole passel of politicians will find it in their interest to protect the Iowa caucuses in a craven attempt to win sympathy from the Hawkeye State political machine.
posted by Andy W. Rogers | 4:05 PM
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