Iowa: Why are we still listening to you?

November 1, 2011 by Daniel Burton

Why is Iowa still first in the nation? The little states has almost no relevance in the general. Why should we care what they think in a caucus?

And Iowans gave us Mike Huckabee, for heaven’s sake.

That’s the real story in the weekend’s big poll: how we’ve managed to concoct a system whereby so much influence is granted to one homogeneous subset of voters in one smallish electorate in a state that will have seven electoral votes in 2012. It is because our elite political media determined once that the Iowa caucuses were cute and fun, and because of some sort of misbegotten notion of where the “Real America” is to be found. An electorate that four years ago thought Mike Huckabee was a suitable president and that now appears to believe the same thing about Herman Cain, should not be trusted to cut its own meat, let alone have such a critical role in picking a president. It makes more sense to base your choice on who you saw in your bran muffin this morning.

[Esquire]