Iowa Must Always Go First

Americans benefit because Iowa hosts the first-in-the-nation political contest.

And it should always be that way.

The Iowa Caucuses serve American democracy well because they flesh out candidates in the flesh versus as an image on television. In a caucus, voters must gather and interact with their neighbors before casting votes. In Iowa, people have an expectation to meet all the candidates once – if not twice – before casting votes.

As the joke goes:  One farmer says to another farmer, “What do you think of this Huckabee fella?” The other farmer answers, “I don’t know. He’s only shoveled my driveway twice.”

Iowans are a politically savvy people. They don’t rely on political ads to make up their minds. They have to be persuaded in person to vote for a candidate. They favor candidates who travel to the 7 a.m. prayer breakfast in the middle of farm country versus the flashy and well-financed candidate who swarms the airwaves with attack ads.

This is why unknowns like Jimmy Carter, a peanut farmer from Georgia, and Mike Huckabee, a governor from Arkansas, defied conventional media wisdom and won spectacular victories after Iowans felt they would make good presidents.

And in that tradition, Rick Santorum, a relatively unknown Pennsylvania senator, will likely score a phenomenal upset Tuesday because he travelled to all 99 counties – and then stayed at each location for two or three hours.

The Iowa Caucus system is why candidates like Hillary Clinton got their political butts spanked because they arrogantly think they could show up for an airport press conference, fill the state with political ads, and fly off.

Sorry elite eastern media and Washington political establishment; my native Iowans are just not that dumb. They can think for themselves, thank you very much.

In a primary system like California’s, candidates can show up for press conferences – that is, when they’re not using Hollywood as a political ATM – suck up to the media and buy up some air time.

(As a Californian, I’m embarrassed how we Golden Staters will figuratively drop our pants – if not literally – for any celebrity who gets an actual brain wave about politics. The truth is we Californians don’t have the smarts to deal with a caucus system and we can be persuaded by campaign ads.)

Iowa should always be first in the presidential sweepstakes. Every four years, a couple of states act like punks – I’m looking at you, Florida! – by attempting to jump ahead of Iowa. But Iowans are as plucky as they are smart because they’ve passed a law mandating that their caucus must go first, even if that means starting in December.