Word: iowa
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...attention has been a bonanza for the state's hospitality industry, media outlets, politicians and pundits. (Des Moines fairly glowed after it was described recently as "cool" by the New York Times.) We realize that for one brief shining moment, we're no longer confused with Ohio or Idaho. "Iowa matters in a very serious way, despite all the punditry a year ago that it wouldn't," says David Redlawsk, a political science professor at the University of Iowa...
...Which, of course, once again makes Iowa's unique role every four years vulnerable. Iowans are very familiar with the arguments against giving such a small demographically unrepresentative state such a big say in the presidential race. We know the caucus critics are grumbling again. ("Who the hell cares about Iowa?" New York Post columnist Cindy Adams growled recently...
...True, only a small percentage of Iowa voters participate in the caucuses. (In 2004, about 122,000 Democrats, out of 573,631, actually took part; President Bush was unchallenged. Some predict a record turnout this year, weather permitting.) But despite reports to the contrary, most people who show up at the caucuses won't be party activists or people with a vested interest but instead everyday folks doing their civic duty. "Most are just friends and neighbors, they're not political animals," says Redlawsk...
...play such a major role. They just happen to live in a state that just happened to become "first" and "important" - an unlikely position that is truly just a historical accident, the unintended consequence of several developments: Democratic party rule changes in the late 1960s that pushed Iowa earlier, shrewd Democratic presidential campaigns in the 1970s that used the caucuses to gain attention, and a few eagle-eyed national journalists...
...made a conscious decision to say 'Iowa should be first,'" says Redlawsk. "I'm not sure anyone would have invented this process." Yet Iowans have risen to the occasion, becoming "the most politically knowledgeable and aware voters in the country," argues Redlawsk, a New Jersey native and an active Iowa Democrat. "The system actually works quite well, despite its oddities and limitations. It's an accident that's panned out very well...