Latest national presiential polls have Hillary Clinton with a double-digit lead over her Democratic rivals, and Rudy Giuliani ahead of his GOP competition. But as we should know by now, presidential races -- and nominatons are done by state-by state and two of the state's that have a huge early impact are New Hampshire (home of the nation's first primary) and Iowa, which hosts its nominating caucus in the cornfields on Jan. 14, 2008. Iowa now promotes its "Firt in the Nation," nominating contest.
One has to look back to just 2004 to prove that "All Politics is Local," but with a national significance. Democratic also-ran John Kerry, who was buried in national polls won the Iowa Caucus -- the word coming from the Algonquin origin meaning "gathering of ruling tribal chiefs." Reportedly, he focused on meeting Democrats throughout Iowa's 99 counties. Meanwhile, Howard Dean, who had an apparently large blogosphere, finished a distant third. Then was YouTubed out of the campaign by his post-Caucus Scream Speech.
http://www.marriedadults.com/howarddeanscream.php
For more on the Iowa Caucus, link here: http://www.iowacaucus.org/iacaucus.html
Iowa and New Hampshire may be demographically than the rest of the nation, that's why some have suggested that we go to nation-wide primary. But there is no doubt that are state-centeed electoral process can throw are curve ball to the media scorekeepers that have Hillary and Rudy ahead of the field of presidential contenders.
This week, a Newsweek poll shows Hillary locked in a tight three-way race with Barack Obama and John Edwards and Mitt Romney hold a sizable lead over Rudy and others in the GOP race among likely Iowa caucus goers. See the political cartoon above, Rudy and John McCain may be hurting in Iowa because they blew off the Iowa Straw Poll in August, while Romney has been stumping among the Hawkeye Huskers all nearly all summer.
The headline, "Romney in Heaven? No, just Iowa," comes from the line in the classic baseball film Field of Dreams. Romney's religion (Mormon) and its importance may be a blog for another day.
For now, consider the presidential nominating process in the United States. Does it work for you that suffrage is a state issue and Iowa and New Hampshire get the prime time early spotlight?
4 comments:
I forgot to post the link of the Newsweek poll story. It's at:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21038955/site/newsweek/
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=howard+dean+scream
howard dean
"BYAH!"
Until someone thinks of a better way to kick off the Primaries, I am not too bothered by having Iowa and New Hampshire being the first two states to make their choices. However, I think too much emphasis is placed on who comes in first, second, and third.
I have no real opinion about which state holds what type of preliminary selection process first. However, the media has become too overfocused on Iowa and New Hampshire. We are talking about maybe fifteen electoral votes between the two of them. Besides, what really matters is the outcome of the final election in November, although the primaries certainly help narrow the field. Especially if a media favorite yells "FYAAAAAAAAHHHH!"
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