One more little rant here, and I'll even offer a token apology to Mayor Pete and Bernie, but the Iowa Caucus has long since outlived any usefulness, if you could ever give it that much credit.
I believe the idea is that candidates are supposed to engage in "retail" politics, whatever the hell that means.
OK, not to play dumb -- in theory it's supposed to be an old fashioned, door-to-door, meet the voters up close and in person, blah blah blah, the same as in New Hampshire, whatever...I also think the idea is that somehow the playing field would be leveled with a low budget caucus and a small time primary in a small state.
Also in theory it's a way to let candidates gradually pick up speed while offering the politics junkies a small taste to curb their cravings.
Calling bullshit, and I doubt that's even controversial.
Both Iowa and New Hampshire require full court, amped up, high-level and big money efforts and are merely parts of the oversized and overheated load lumbering along the never ending campaign. It's business -- a way to fill hotels and rental car quotas above and beyond any ski-season in New Hampshire...and above and beyond, well, anything you'd do in Iowa in January or February.
Plus, after last night's dud...
Forget it. Move on. Establish a national or limited series of regional primaries. It's not like the alleged retail politics of either makes a damn bit of difference in a 24 hour news cycle.
Who knows? The public, even those of us who follow this stuff, might find a sane alternative to the election slog --and it's a slog, not a cycle -- refreshing enough to re-engage. Just me personally, but even as a political science major in college I find the process at best tiring...
Now back to regularly scheduled programming...oh, will I watch the Doofus State of the Union?...ah, maybe, but likely with the sound off. I can only take so much.
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