Iowa and Presidential Candidates

As you may know, Iowa is the earliest popularity test for candidates running for President of the United States. It involves a caucus instead of a primary. I am not going to go into detail about how a caucus works. Suffice to say it is a weird, convoluted system that only hardcore political junkies understand.

But that's not the issue of this post. The Iowa caucuses won't take place until sometime in January of 2008. This is February of 2007 yet candidates for President from both parties have been visiting Iowa in droves and they will relentlessly visit Iowa for the entire year. And each will be followed by a horde of journalists, photographers, and cameramen. The whole thing builds to a screaming crescendo the week or three before the actual caucuses. Press will outnumber Iowans at most events. And candidates will do anything to get the lead story.

In past years, it was easy to meet anyone you wanted. You could even invite a candidate to give a talk in your living room, especially if you invited them early enough in the process when they were building an organization.

In 2003 I wasn't particularly aggressive, but I met John Edwards, Howard Dean, and Dennis Kucinich. We even had Kucinich over to our house for one of those so-called cozy living room things. Little did we know that the Kucinich people advertised the event on their web site and 350 people showed up. Really. Even the New York Times sent a reporter.

This year I thought I'd invite every single candidate to my home. Since one of them was bound to become President, it seemed like a cool idea. But then I made a list of candidates. Frankly I wasn'€™t interested in meeting most of them. While it would be cool to chat up Rudy, Hillary, McCain, Obama, and Edwards, it suddenly struck me as an enormous amount of time to organize the whole thing and these days I am so deeply committed to doing the long meditations that I described in previous posts.

But that is not the whole story. It looks like the quaint Iowa caucus thing where candidates will sit with you over coffee or in your living room with a couple of your friends is a relic of the past. Today, some of these candidates are like rock stars giving huge rallies that attract thousands and command major press coverage. And those were the ones I wanted in my house. Since we barely fit Kucinich'€™s 350 in our home (it strained every seam), I thought it prudent not to attract a gathering the size of the Chinese army.

Of course, if I wanted to meet the second and third tier candidates I'd have plenty of takers, but, let's face it, zzzzzzzzzzzz.

www.lazyway.net

Comments

[Rob VH]

Dear Fred,

You yawned at the prospect of meeting a "2nd or 3rd tier" Presidential candidate. I would urge you to make one exception and to meet a man who is FAR for interesting than the disappointing same-old-same-old first stringers.

If you want to meet an exciting candidate, then make a point of meeting with Congressman Ron Paul (www.ronpaul2008.com). He's a fascinating man, a true warrior for freedom and integrity, and -- perhaps most importantly -- the chutzpah and amazing growth of your ice cream company mirrors the amazing story of Dr. Paul's own run for President.

Here's a "little guy" with a ton of character, integrity, and testicular fortitude who's getting phenomenal grassroots support from people of every social and political stripe. And I'm saying this as a Canadian who can't even vote in your elections but who is fascinated by your country's history and very concerned for its future -- which affects us all.

Sincerely,
Rob VH