The Iowa caucuses

I am going to ignore the results of the Iowa caucuses.

For one thing, it is antidemocratic. Only people who can afford to spend two hours talking politics on an evening are represented, so that excludes many working people, the sick, the old, and many others. It also attracts the extremist wings of both parties. And, while it pains me to say this as a former Minnesotan, Iowa is not representative of the United States. It is too rural, too elderly, too white, too agricultural, and does not have enough contact with defense and military issues.

I lived in Des Moines from 1986-1988 and attended the 1988 Iowa caucuses. As a 26-year-old, I liked Bruce Babbitt because he was talking about Social Security reform, but I eventually switched to Paul Simon because I liked his values and he made a real effort to campaign in the state. Plus there were more hot chicks working for the Simon campaign, and the Dukakis campaign volunteers were snobby Easterners (note--this may explain some of the appeal of Barack Obama). During that year, I also met Bob Dole and Jesse Jackson.

Dick Gephardt won the Democratic caucus that year, eventually losing to Michael Dukakis. Bob Dole won the Republican caucus, with Robertson in second and George H.W. Bush in third. Gephardt? Robertson? Dole? I liked Dole, and think he would have been a reasonably good President, but to think that Iowans thought that Robertson and Dole were better qualified to be President than George H.W. Bush is simply ridiculous.

Therefore, I plan to ignore the results of the Iowa caucus and wait for results from other states (like New Hampshire, Nevada, and Florida) before making up my mind. I have made no secret that I like McCain the best at this point, but if his campaign fizzles, I will look elsewhere for my candidate.