Jan 06 2008
A Big-Picture Look at the Iowa Caucuses
Here’s some minor food for thought:
The Iowa Caucuses, “silly” though they may be, are the first real look we have at how the American people may vote come November. Polls are all well and good, but this was the first time in this election cycle where people actually took time out of their weekday to go and vote for a candidate for President. Iowa has also often been talked about as something of a swing state, so I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to look at the results as a possible microcosm of how the rest of the country might vote.
Now, keeping in mind that this is to be taken with a big grain of salt, I combined the Democratic and Republican vote counts (according to Wikipedia) into a single chart, and the result is pretty startling:
(h/t Hubris Sonic at Group News Blog for giving me the idea, and C&L, always my first stop in the world of political blogs, for finding the post)
I realize it’s January, and it’s the Iowa Caucus, and every other caveat you can think of, but in a year where both sides were breathless about record voter turnout, the combined totals were roughly 2 to 1 in favor of the Democrats. That’s even more amazing when you consider the fact that the Democratic caucus’s process is much more time-consuming and arcane than the Republican caucus.
If these results from Iowa turn out to be any kind of indicator about how the rest of the country will vote in November, the Republicans are toast.
One can only hope.
It is indeed quite silly that as a country we allow the fine yokels and townies of Iowa and New Hampshire respectively to determine who to take seriously in the coming months leading up to the election in november. Why the fuck should a person living in Brooklyn, San Francisco, Miami, Atlanta or Boston give two shits about what people dumb enough not to find a reason to live somewhere other than Iowa think about the electability of the candidates 9 MONTHS BEFORE THE ELECTIONS??
The worst part is that if a candidate does poorly in meaningless primaries with voter pools half the size of the actual election 9 MONTHS BEFORE A SINGLE MEANINGFUL BALLOT IS CAST he/she can be rendered an overlooked also-ran regardless of what the rest of the country actually thinks about him/her. The way our election process is set up, one bad week in Iowa and New Hampshire and a candidate is politically dead in the water, the entire country shifting their attentions to more “electable” prospects regardless of what they may be leaving behind.
Don’t mind me, i’m just bitter after last night’s debacle at Heinz Field and this was distracting me from the construction of my Bruce Arians effigy…
Very good points indeed. Though I will say I like who came out on top in Iowa…Obama/Edwards is slowly starting to look like my dream ticket. Though the PA primary is some months off. Who knows what may happen.
As for Bruce Arians, save the effigy…or rebuild it into one for Bob Ligashesky, the special-teams coach. I’ll help you burn that one while offering up a lament for the five turnstiles we call the offensive line…
Couldn’t agree more on the dream ticket…huuuge Obama supporter and Edwards has that whole clean-cut white guy thing going for him. I think that usually plays well with voters.
I think there’s enough old black and yellow clothing and unused crash test dummies for multiple effigies.
And when exactly did the line become a weak point? I know Max Starks shouldn’t be allowed near the starting spot, let alone in it, but there’s still talent there, but they really shit the bed after Russ Grimm left for warmer climes.
This team needs a home run threat in the receiving core, a veteran free agent o-lineman for depth and another run stuffing d-lineman. I’d settle for any 1 of the 3.