Our view: Iowa's straw poll doesn't deserve mega attention

[mfcorey1]

The presidential election is 15 months off, but the political world is abuzz (sort of) about the Republican straw poll to be held in Ames, Iowa, on Saturday. Will Tea Party favorite Rep. Michele Bachmann win, as some insiders predict? Will former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty survive? What dark horses might emerge? And which candidate will do the best job of spinning his or her results to maximum effect.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2011-08-11-Iowa-straw-poll-hype_n.htm

[sendero]

1. I think if the Repugs..

... want to let a completely NON-REPRESENTATIVE state like Iowa pick their candidate that is fine, but why the Democrats continue letting fundie hayseeds pick our candidate is beyond me.

[BackToThe60s]

2. The Iowa Caucuse THEMSELVES don't deserve megamedia

And neither does the New Hampshire primary. States like Ohio and Pensylvania would be much better start-offs.

[Turbineguy]

3. Why not?

It's right up there with celebrity nosejobs.

[KharmaTrain]

4. The Next Big Shiny Thing...

In 1988 I had the "pleasure" of working in Iowa during the caucus and election and always chuckled when the locals called it the "silly season". There were always more news trucks and stenographers at events than there were real voters and most people stayed out of their way...leting them spend their money and laugh at how screwed up both the politicians and their followers are.

As you say...it's 15 months to the general and 5 months until the Iowa caucus and that means there's little for the corporate media to play with. There's no Democratic race this year so all the focus will be on the rushpublicans...and that's not a bad thing. The more people see how whacked out these gadflies are and how ill-prepared they are to deal with serious problems the better Democrats look.

[ellenrr]

5. I have to admit that Bachmann IS much more entertaining than

Noam Chomsky.
If her world were the entertainment world, and people and media were paying a lot of attention to her, I wouldn't care.
But how did our governing system - become the arena of the clowns??

It's like Anna Nicole Smith was running for president. I say that with re to celebrity, not clownishness. I have a lot of sympathy for Smith, zero for Bachmann.

Bachmann is a seriously disturbed person whom I would have sympathy for if she wasn't trying to ruin the country.

[liberal N proud]

6. Why does it only have to be the big states that get the attention?

Start small and work up to the "more important" states.

IMO, they are all important!