The Story of Iowa

The day has finally arrived -- caucusing in the lead state of Iowa will begin this evening at seven. No later than 8:30, the nation will know which candidates are leaving Iowa on a galloping white horse, and which are limping towards a political grave. As I have previously written, I will be caucusing for Mike Huckabee.

Much has been made in the press, both pro and con, about Iowa being the kick-off state for presidential elections. Our local Cedar Rapids Gazette reported the following statistics this morning:

• Upwards of $40 million has been spent on campaign ads (the last few days, political adds have run six at a time to fill the entire commercial break of television programming). Of course, much more has been spent on travel, mailings and all the other trappings of being on the road
• Candidates have spent the equivalent of 600 days in the Hawkeye state (I'll bet that's a conservative number, as John Edwards spent much of the 2004 campaign here as well)
• 2,500 media pundits have said everything there is to say about campaign stops in such obscure places as Grundy Center and Dike

In addition to these, by all accounts Mitt Romney alone has spent about $7 million on his Iowa campaign, a good portion of which is his own money. That's a lot of dough for a job that pays $400,000 a year.

Whether Iowa should be the first caucus in the nation and the nine-month focus of the political process is another topic for another day. But this much is true -- the caucuses are important to Iowa. If Iowa was one of two dozen states casting their votes on Super Tuesday February 5, few of the candidates would be here at all. Iowa would be off the map, like our Midwestern counterparts in South Dakota, Kansas, and Nebraska. Maybe a few TV adds here and there. Perhaps a media conference at the airport between stops in Illinois and Missouri. But not the untold millions that are spent now, and the countless coffee shop appearances by a dozen or more candidates.

The last time Iowa was in the news as much as it has been the last month, was in January of 2004 -- the last caucus. The last national impacting news story out of Iowa that doesn't relate to the caucuses was probably the floods of 1993, now 14 years ago. Whether or not the nation needs the Iowa caucus may be a debatable topic. But this is not up for debate -- Iowa does need to be the first-in-the-nation stop for the next President of the United States. If not for your benefit, then for ours.

P.S. It is estimated that about 250,000 Iowans may caucus tonight. If indeed upwards of $40,000,000 has been spent wooing my vote, perhaps in 2012 one of the candidate might just consider writing me a personal check. I don't want to suggest that my vote can be purchased ... obviously the candidates are already convinced that it can be.