Campaign Spot sanely argues that Iowa GOP voters are not exactly a cross section of America, the GOP or even the Iowa GOP. Hence the argument that the results coming tonight, like the tag line about Las Vegas, should “stay in Iowa.” Aside from the ideological differences between Iowa caucus voters and the GOP electorate at large which Campaign Spot points out, there is something whacky about letting 50-80,000 Iowans tell us who the “frontrunner” is on the GOP side and 150,000 or so tell us that Hillary is through (ok, forget that last part). That is a tiny percentage of Iowa’s approximately 2.9 million people and a miniscule percentage of U.S. registered voters which is over 170 million people. Yet it does matter because millions and millions have been spent — by the media and by the candidates telling us how vital the results are. (Sometimes it is too much to bear even for the MSM. David Broder makes a
plea for NH’s greater relevance.) So I will try to keep some perspective and remember that Ronald Reagan won the nomination and the presidency in 1980 without winning in Iowa and so did George HW Bush in 1988.