Iowa ("0.08 percent of Americans"): Harvesting Candidates, and Taking Its Own Sweet Time

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: IOWA'S SEASON
Harvesting Candidates, and Taking Its Own Sweet Time
By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 3, 2008; Page A11

DES MOINES -- In a land of corn and caucuses, where harvests are measured by bushels and buzz, the presidential campaigns march through the seasons in a curious rite of persuasion. First comes biography, then policy and, finally, a political pitch calibrated to the shifting climate. The tone reflects the pace and priorities of an electorate that will not be rushed. An unusually fervid batch of candidates spending an unprecedented sum of money have been forced to sweat this year as Iowans take their sweet time deciding.

That's how it could happen, one sunny autumn afternoon in central Iowa, that Michelle Obama could do everything but invite a prospective supporter to supper and still not walk away with a commitment. Obama spent 30 minutes talking her way through a careful portrait of her husband and lingered long enough to greet anyone with a question. A 50-something woman who lived on a nearby farm said she was impressed. But no, she was sorry, she would not feel comfortable pledging to support Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). Not until she had met him.

Politics tend to work that way in Iowa during caucus time. It is a state with almost exactly one one-hundredth of the U.S. population and considerably more of its political significance and sophistication. For reasons that elude the proverbial experts, only a small fraction -- sometimes as few as 10 percent -- of registered voters actually show up on the designated winter night to stand up for their candidate. This may have something to do with the temperature, for the January air tends toward freezing whatever the mercury in the political sphere.

Optimists estimate that more than 150,000 Democrats and perhaps 80,000 Republicans will caucus this year, when the night is expected to be cold but snowless. As more than one wag in dissed and distant states has pointed out, this means that 0.08 percent of Americans will decide who leaves the Plains with the best chance to become president and who barely escapes at all....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/02/AR2008010202822.html

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Who the hell does the math checking at the Washington Post? I will agree that Iowa with a

population of about 3 million has 1/100th. of the US population (300,000,000), but if only 230,000 actually caucus (150,000 + 80,000) that makes the deciders only 0.008 percent of Americans!!

[sabbat hunter]

2. according to my figures

the amount of delegates that Iowa gets is about 1% of the total needed to win the nomination.