Friday, April 29, 2011

Excuse me while I give Iowa the finger...

And I thought New Yorkers were full of themselves.

Are you from Iowa?  I’m sorry if I insulted you—but you really need a reality check.  Apparently, down the line of our crooked election system in America someone, somewhere died and made you important.

Recently, I read a column by some liberal moon-bat at The Atlantic who claimed that just because Sarah Palin didn’t have a “serious ground game” —whatever the hell that is—in Iowa  that must mean that she’s either not running or not serious about being a candidate for president in 2012.
Yes, I’m a Palin Partisan and have been an admirer of hers since 2008.   But this is not about a snub made in the media against her.  This is for all the political candidates who have to travel to Iowa every election cycle and forced to kiss the ass of Iowans all over the Hawkeye state.

And the Iowans are quite full of themselves these days by the way.  I’m not necessarily talking about the average, working class, Iowan putz who goes to bed praying to God every night the media will turn off it’s hot lights and go home.  No, I’m talking about the party bosses on both sides, the whoring delegates, the supporters on both sides—that’s who I mean.

You put a camera in front of their face and they’re yacking all about who’s kissing their ass good and who’s not.   Which candidate really knows what Iowans want and which that doesn’t.  They talk of who the candidate is that will go the farthest because they paid attention to the needs of Iowans, on the third day of the week, with a full moon out that night and on and on.

Why is this?   You would think that the pedestal that Iowa is put on by all political parties and the media that the state would change the nickname from “Hawkeye” to “Kingmaker”.   It’s just the opposite as Iowa and it’s caucus has the worst track record for predicting future presidents.

In fact, since the United States via the mainstream media have really drawn the public’s attention to the caucuses or primaries—going back some forty years ago—there has been at least thirteen elections.  Out of those thirteen elections ONLY TWO candidates who won in Iowa have gone on to win the presidency.   Those two are George W. Bush and Barack Hussein Obama.

In 1980, Regan lost in Iowa to Father Bush and then won the GOP nomination and became president.  In 1992, Bill Clinton lost to some dude named Tom Harkin (I don’t even remember who he was, what he did or if he’s even still alive).  Kerry won in 2004, but lost to Bush.  In 2008, Huckabee won, leaving McCain and Romney in the dust—only to lose to McCain in the end!  I could go on and on.

If the caucus in Iowa is so instrumental in predicting a president then we should have seen the presidencies of Bob Dole, Richard Gephardt, Walter Mondale and a few others. And let me just state the obvious, Iowa has SIX electoral votes.  New Hampshire has FOUR.  For a candidate to bust his/her ass in a state with a such an insignificant amount of electoral votes—when they could be doing damage in a state like Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Indiana—makes no sense.

In my opinion, a long time ago some cigar smoke blowing bigwigs in the media decided the caucus in Iowa would get people to buy newspapers and in front of the TV to sell advertising.  They got together with the powers that be in the political machines and made a deal.  It’s all for ratings and it doesn’t matter.   In 2008, out of the 2.2 million people registered to vote in the state only 1 in 6 Iowans ever came out to caucus. Perhaps the Iowans were only worried about the revenue the state would rake in instead of voting.  In 2008, Iowa raked in $70 million due to the excitement of the caucus.

In short, this is a bullshit process, it’s un American and it should be eliminated immediately.  As Martin Gross highlights in his book “National Suicide”:

States should hold a simultaneous semi closed primary in February.  If independent boll weevils want to vote in those, they would have to be forced to enroll in a party on that day, but they can only vote in one party.
The top five winners of that first race would enter a second national primary held in April.  In June, the top two winners of the April 15 national primary, will enter a third national contest.  The winner of that contest will be the nominee of that party and confirmed at the national convention.

Change the primary system the way you like—agree or disagree with the author—you have to admit the primary system needs to be reformed.  The primary system is antiquated, undemocratic and often misleads the public via the mainstream media.


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