As Iowa goes, so goes Des Moines…..

By on December 27, 2011

The media attention focused on Iowa far outweighs its importance in the greater picture. First of all the process is convoluted and eccentric as we learned in 2008. The Obama people mastered it and this gave their campaign a great boost. It seems that Iowa will not play such a critical role this time around. The other problem is that Iowa is typical of… well Iowa, and it does not pass as a representative for the country as a whole.

If ever we needed a poster child for what’s wrong with the way we nominate and elect presidents now, this is it. Who anointed Iowa to go first and why does the rest of the country passively acquiesce? And then New Hampshire and North Carolina????? Why isn’t the media talking about this ridiculous process rather than treating it all like one long evening of Dancing with the Stars through 50 states and Guam and Puerto Rico and the Marianna Trench? It guarantees a full news schedule through most of the year but the quality of the dough-see-dough-ing has already started to annoy.

It is clearly time (again) to speak out for electoral reform. Why not divide up the 50 states into five packs of ten plus the territories and have a rotating system of super Tuesdays throughout the late Spring each election year? We do not need to start so early. It is too easy for parties to end up with candidates who don’t look so hot by November. The long process wastes far too much money. We are learning that many voters don’t really start paying attention until Labor Day anyway, which come to think of it, is not such a bad idea. And let’s give the antiquated Electoral College a heave-ho while we are at it too.

In California this week talking to younger people, it becomes clear the deciding factor in November may well be who stays home and doesn’t vote. Will it be young Democrats and Independents who feel betrayed by Obama? Many who worked for him thought they were electing another Theodore Roosevelt and ended up with the social director of a cruise ship. The other group in question is tea party Conservatives and right-leaning Independents who may feel they are getting yet another party hack if Romney or Gingrich ends up with the nomination.

There is a better way to choose presidents. Journalists, pencils out now and start writing…. you have eleven months to complete this test.

 

Tom Godfrey

About Tom Godfrey

8 comments on “As Iowa goes, so goes Des Moines…..

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