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This is No Way to Pick a President
January 03, 2008

As most of you know by now, I am a big supporter of Hillary Clinton…but, no matter what happens tonight in Iowa…win or lose, I really think this is no way to pick a President. For 100,000 – 150,000 mostly white, rural voters to anoint the major party nominees is a farce at best and a mockery of democracy at worst. Instead of candidates crossing the nation, running campaigns in all 50 states, they have spent millions…by many accounts, hundreds of dollars per vote…and most, if not all of their time, living and running in Iowa. Most Iowa voters have seen each candidate personally several times and have had individual or small meetings with key surrogates. All so a candidate can win or lose by a few thousand votes. And the worst part is that in a caucus, one’s vote is not even cast in private…you stand in your candidate’s “corner” in one of 1,700 locations throughout the state…and then people begin horse trading and trying to influence people to come to your candidate’s spot in the room. Candidates cut deals and even collude to help each other in different districts where one candidate has more than enough votes and another does not have the required 15%.

You have to get to your district caucus no earlier than 6:30 and at 7:00 they close the doors. And you don’t even have to be from Iowa to caucus…Obama is counting on tens of thousands of students who live in Illinois to come over the border and caucus for him (can you imagine the uproar if Hillary Clinton was doing this). It’s a total farce. Who has decided that these 100,000 Iowa caucus participants should decide who is the nominee…who decides who actually won and who lost…no matter who actually wins and no matter how close the vote…the media. It’s the media who has made Iowa…and then the equally small and irrelevant New Hampshire…the center of the universe. And by doing so, they become the news…they make the news…instead of reporting it.

So, no matter what happens tonight…even if Hillary Clinton wins by a landslide…I hope that this is the last time that Iowa is allowed this position and this type of power…millions of dollars and thousands of candidate hours for 150,000 people to meet on a January night…is no way to pick a president.

[Image courtesy of IowaPolitics.com]

Posted by Michael Kempner at January 3, 2008 03:05 PM