Iowa's "first in the nation" status for the 2008 Presidential election comes to a head tonight as a number of people travel to polling places across the state to pick their preference as to who they think they'd like as the next President in the Iowa Caucus. After some date-jockeying and saber rattling by other states who wanted to cash in on Iowa's prestige as having the first test of the Presidential campaign, Iowa settled on January 3 as the day of their caucus. And I'm glad it's finally here because the electioneering going on has been absolutely stifling.
The Iowa Caucus does give Iowa some national - and some global - notoriety as candidates, election workers, volunteers, and reporters have descended on the state. And they've been here for a long time - some have been here for over a year. To me, it's all ridiculous.
We've been bombarded with political ads, mailings, phone surveys, push polls, volunteers knocking on the door, the whole shebang. While it's exciting to some, it's tiresome to me. I'm a pretty apolitical person, definitely not wanting to wear my political allegiances on my sleeve. A lot of this political posturing is usually pointless after all the dust is settled. And this year, with a lot of states moving up the date of their primary elections, the dust will be settling by early March.
But the length of time leading up to the Iowa Caucus is a boon to the state's media outlets. I was told earlier this week that KWQC-TV here in Davenport took in a bit over $5 million in election ad revenue in 2007. The candidates have spent a lot of money in this state and it's no wonder why other states would like to have a crack at being the first in the nation for the Presidential election.
One other thing that I won't miss are the numerous articles in weekly magazines, newspapers and on Internet sites that depict Iowans as hayseeds who live in a God-awful boring place. Most of those writers are from the east and west coast who are sentenced to come out to Iowa to cover the campaigns. Look, I know Iowa doesn't have the glitz of New York or Los Angeles, but it's a great place to live. Well, it's a great place to live nine months out of the year especially with a hard winter like we've seen so far this season.
I won't be going to either the Democratic or Republican caucuses tonight. And I'll be happy when life in Iowa - as we know it - gets back to normal.
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