Word: iowa
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...John McCain, who calls events such as this weekend's Iowa straw poll a sham, the whole thing doesn't matter. If you care a little or more, the big news is who finished third. From a strict cost-benefit standpoint, the best showing may have been that of Elizabeth Dole, who spent less than either top dog George W. Bush or runner-up Steve Forbes and captured a strong 3,410 votes (14.4 percent). While that respectable finish still didn't present a serious threat to George W., it did position her as a strong contender for the veep...
Only one person has nothing to lose at this year?s supercharged Iowa straw poll: the treasurer of the Iowa Republican Party, who?ll have raked in a cool half-million for the cause by the time voting kicks off Saturday. For the nine GOP presidential candidates frenetically bribing voters with free tickets, celebrities and tchotchkes galore -? it?s OK, it?s not a real electoral event ?- it?s pretty much do or die. For George W. Bush, who has spent about $750,000 on the event, anything less than a convincing win is a dangerous stumble. Steve Forbes, whose...
...death blow. John McCain, meanwhile, skipped the event completely, calling it a "scam," and in the run-up to the vote it?s not hard to see why an avatar of campaign finance reform would find the event distasteful. The event itself is just a fund-raiser for the Iowa GOP, held a full six months before the state?s caucus. Candidates ply farmers with barbecue, musical acts, gold pins, luxury bus rides to the polls; they?ll even pay your $25 entrance fee if you vote for them. It?s the first indignation of an election cycle over-stuffed...
This political Elmer Gantry has been loose in the Iowa cornfields for weeks, making his speech after Forbes finishes his on flat tax and fortitude. Grubbs, an Iowan, is an example of the modern Iowa, which has become big-part yuppie, little-part farmers and small towners. But for all its struggle to be like California and Connecticut, most of Iowa's area remains farmland, and the crops underlie the economy. The biggest political pretenders must at some time or another take off their suit coats and go to the land where strange things can happen...
...there was an undercurrent of sadness. The people in Greenfield and other rural towns are on the edge of disaster. The prices of cattle, hogs, corn and soybeans--the bedrock of Iowa's agriculture--are at levels of the Great Depression. "There is no way right now that anyone can make money here in agriculture, no matter how you figure it," said farmer Joe Vandewater. He took note that the day before in the same room, Forbes had not mentioned price, cost or any firm plan for the future of agriculture. But there was the free barbecue--and the little...