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Next President Should Pledge Better Way To Field Candidates

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 3, 2008

After an achingly long preseason in Iowa, Hawkeye State voters will caucus tonight and officially put the presidential primary race in motion.

So far it's been an election unlike any in recent memory. There is no incumbent running and no anointed heir apparent. It's simply a horse race.

The year spent in Iowa by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney on the Republican side and former Sen. John Edwards for the Democrats has given voters a deep familiarity with the two. It will be interesting to see whether those who know them best will stand behind them when it counts.

Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, too, have spent accumulated weeks in stores, schools, diners and family homes, trying to persuade Iowans each is the country's best hope. If he pulls off a win, Obama will show the nation that an almost all-white state is willing to vote for a black man for president. Clinton, on the other hand, hopes to reclaim her air of inevitability.

The biggest surprise in Iowa is the surge of Mike Huckabee, the guitar-playing former governor of Arkansas who advocates a 24 percent sales tax. According to the latest polls, Huckabee has pulled ahead of Romney among Republicans.

Whether the self-styled "Christian candidate" wins depends on who turns out in daunting cold for the 1,781 caucuses, the small community meetings run by the political parties where individuals publicly announce the candidate they support.

All this makes us continue to ask, is this any way to elect a president?

Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post recently asked the question so many Floridians and residents of other states would like to know: "Who Elected Iowa?"

"The caucuses draw a small, unrepresentative sample of a small, unrepresentative state," wrote Marcus. "Most Iowans view the caucuses as an obscure art practiced by an elect few."

Anyone old enough to vote can take part, but only a small number traditionally show up. Of Iowa's approximately 1.8 million registered voters, about 180,000 are expected to participate in the Democratic or Republican caucuses.

So it seems unfair that this largely rural, overwhelmingly white state that ranks 30th in population should have such make-or-break significance in choosing the next leader of the free world.

Things may be changing. Republican frontrunner Rudy Giuliani decided to bypass Iowa and is pinning his hopes on Florida's Jan. 29 primary - a contest the Democratic candidates have foolishly ignored. Sen. John McCain, too, has made few visits to Iowa, concentrating instead on New Hampshire, where polls show him leading the pack going into that state's Tuesday primary.

Soon, the results from the bunched-up primary season will be coming at citizens fast and furious.

Whoever comes out on top, regardless of party, should pledge to help the nation find a better way to stage an election.

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