Iowa's Last To Be First?

Thursday, January 3, 2008 will probably mark the end of an era.

Considering the jumbled musical chairs the primary season has become, it is likely it will be the last time Iowa will hold its caucuses as first in the nation.

Even at that, to be first this time around both the Iowa GOP and Democratic parties have had to push their caucus date forward to New Year's week.... the night of the Orange Bowl game.... January 3.

Other larger and more populous states are throwing elbows, crowding into line.... and really, who can blame them. Every four years the national spotlight falls on Iowa as presidential wanna-bes of both parties travel, spend money.... almost camp out in the state. Other states want part of the action.

In the future, retail politics as practiced in schools, churches, even living rooms of prospective Iowa caucus goers will give way to the realities of the electronic age.... and sadly one-on-one campaigning will fall into the dustbin of history. As quaint as the notion of knowing your neighbor.

Although just four states.... Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina.... were designated by the Democratic party to hold their nominating contests pre-February 5, Florida jumped their date ahead forcing South Carolina to hold their primaries earlier, while Michigan set its primary for January 15, a week earlier than the scheduled date for New Hampshire. New Hampshire will undoubtedly nose forward on the calendar.... bumper-car politics.

Hopefully when the primary scheduling traffic jam is addressed for future contests, other common-sense things will be addressed also. Like limiting the length of the campaign season.... and reining in the monstrous cost that increasingly only produces corporate-beholden nominees.

Otherwise, just rearranging the order of the starting lineup won't save the dangerously out-of-control Mad Max race to the White House.

Puerile Primary Poker

New Hampshire thinks they are in the catbird seat.... keeping mum while fiddling with the date of their primary, thus making other early primary states sweat it out. Especially Iowa who, as New Hampshire well knows, by state law is required to hold their caucuses at least eight days earlier than any other contest.

The Secretary of State in New Hampshire, Bill Gardner, has the sole power to schedule his state's primary.... and he's not telling anyone what his decision will be, although some are hinting at December 18. December 18! In the midst of the Holiday Season.

Such an early date might work against New Hampshire.

In 1988 Michigan held a delegate selection process before Iowa, and got little attention. Later, Alaska held an earlier contest as well. Never heard of that.... no wonder. It was no big deal.

While Iowa Governor Chet Culver (D) has said "In this state, we're going to have Christmas," others in his party aren't so accommodating.

As David Nagle, the former Iowa Democratic Party chairman who largely established the current calendar in 1984, warned in a memo to party leaders... "If New Hampshire chooses to move in front of us, then we will move again."

This delegate selection musical-chairs is just another annoyance for voters faced with unreliable electronic voting machines, and inundated with dinner-time campaign phone calls and focus-group-tested slick candidate television ads.

Let's not further degrade the primaries with juvenile "gotcha" games. Serious voters.... who must choose that candidate who can lead us out of the current abysmal state of our country.... deserve a serious primary process .

Iowa: Mama 0 - Obama 1

Hillary has some tall explaining to do in the tall corn state.

"In corn-growing Iowa, the first stop in the presidential nominating process, Clinton will have to explain the ethanol vote she cast on June 15, 2005." (WaPo)

"Clinton-Obama Differences Clear in Senate Votes" and the ethanol difference is a silo-sized stumbling block for Hillary since Iowa has more ethanol plants than any other state.

Hillary supported an effort to block a proposed amendment to the 2005 energy bill that would have established an ethanol mandate for refineries, Obama voted for the ethanol mandate.

On the Iowa caucus scoreboard, chalk one up for Obama.... who is already wildly popular in the state that put John Kerry (D-Mass) on the road to his successful nomination as the Democratic presidential candidate in 2004.

As Iowa's Democratic governor-elect Chet Culver opines, "Many of us dream of a day where Iowa is the national leader in renewable energy...." (Des Moines Register, 1/1/07)

Hillary tramples Iowa's fields of dreams at her peril.