Iowa

It’s immensely entertaining to watch the media froth over Iowa — or, at the very least, listen to half the pundits grumble that such a small state and oddball primary (caucus) system has such a large effect on the elections (read: “We can’t proclaim the outcome in advance”), while the other half point fingers at the first half and laugh.

Well, I’m mildly annoyed that Iowa (and New Hampshire, and even South Carolina) will largely decide (one would guess) who ends up running next November. But I’m greatly pleased that it’s still too close a race to call for either party. Perhaps a wake-up call that the electorate is getting tired of politics as usual.

On the Democrat side, Iowa is more or less a dead heat for Clinton, Obama, and Edwards (depending on which poll you read). I have problems with each of the candidates on a meta level — Clinton’s too political, Obama’s too inexperienced, Edwards (who was the “inexperienced” one last time) is too implausibly populist. On the other hand (and the flip side of the above), Clinton has the background and connections, Obama brings a fresh and inspiring outlook, and Edwards has some valuable things to say about the “two Americas.” I’m probably leaning toward Clinton more as the least “challenging” candidate, but I’ll be the first to admit that might not be the best basis for such a selection.

And I’d choose each of them over the flock of remaining GOP competitors — Mitt “I changed my mind about almost everything, please don’t reject me for my good looks” Romney, Mike “Taking the country back for Christ” Huckabee, Rudy “Pay no attention to my personal life, just trust me to be the progressive leader who SAVED NEW YORK ON 9/11” Giuliani, or John “Hey, I mastered brown-nosing the conservative right long before Mitt” McCain. All of them have something good to offer, but are overwelmed by the negatives that (to my eye) they’ve accrued in the primary process.

What will Iowa think? Or New Hampshire? Or even (depending on whether those states don’t decide things for us) South Carolina? Who knows? And that’s makes this all a lot more interesting than it has been for quite some time.

I look forward to seeing it — and seeing the election move into its “real” phase.