Iowa is first in the nation for a reason

[Omaha Steve]

http://iowadailydemocrat.com/news/2015/10/iowa-is-first-in-the-nation-for-a-reason/

Credit: Greater Des Moines Convention and Visitor's Bureau
By Jack Hatch 10/23/15

Des Moines, Iowa – Iowa becomes the focus of the political world again Saturday as we Democrats hosts our Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, where activists and party pooh-bahs get a chance to hear from the major presidential candidates with the first-in-the-nation Iowa Caucuses just over 90 days away.

And just as sure as the traditional J-J bucket pass is the fact that some East Coast media hotshot, working his or her way through a Centro calzone, will decide to write the mercilessly flogged piece about Why Iowa Goes First.

It’s so pervasive, some political scientists even wrote a book, “Why Iowa: How Caucuses and Sequential Elections Improve the Presidential Nominating Process” in 2009. (David Redlawsk with Caroline Tolbert and Todd Donovan).

And here we go again this weekend.

FULL story at link.

[riversedge]

1. On his first bid--Obama got his jump start in IOWA JJ dinner--and the rest is history.

[uawchild]

2. because like New Hampshire it's predominantly white and protestant?

I can't help but feel that having two states like Iowa and New Hampshire that are soooo unrepresentative of America is a purposeful choice to avoid discussing the real issues confronting the country as a whole. So much early attention is given to the electorates in these states that by the time larger more diverse state enter the process the national agenda and talking points have already become set in stone.

[BlueCheese]

3. I feel caucuses are inherently undemocratic as well and should be abolished.

You have to show up at a fixed time, and stay for hours? If you had to do that in a general election, it would be unconstitutional. Caucuses have far lower turnout than primaries-- I remember in 2008 some states had both caucuses that selected all the delegates, and meaningless primaries that were symbolic, and still more people voted in the primary than in the caucus.

Have kids at home? Work a fixed shift? Out of town on business? Deployed somewhere else? Sorry, no voting for you!

[Fred Sanders]

4. Iowa and NH go first because white privilege is not just an individual thing, it is systemic.

Ever hear of a black writer praising these all white all the time States going first?

It takes a lot of moving parts and lots of verbal oiling to keep such massive systemic machine running and avoiding all the logical arguments why states with 90% white folks, mostly rural - just like all of America we insist! - get such a "privilege"...it is almost like it was a plan.

[Nye Bevan]

5. Which would explain why Obama trounced Edwards and Hillary there in 2008.

Oh wait.....

[Fred Sanders]

6. Obama was (is) one of a kind....much like Clinton. I remember 2008 very well and what Obama did to

overcome the handicap within the Democratic Party....but the Democratic Party voters are not quite like the Republican Party voter on race, are they?