"The Myth of the Rational Iowa Voter"

The Myth of the Rational Iowa Voter
Paul Waldman | October 3, 2007 | web only

<snip>

If this is a typical election, somewhere between 6 and 10 percent of voting-eligible Iowans will bother to show up to a caucus. Yes, you read that right. Those vaunted Iowa voters are so concerned about the issues, so involved in the political process, so serious about their solemn deliberative responsibilities as guardians of the first-in-the-nation contest, that nine out of ten can't manage to haul their butts down to the junior high on caucus night. One might protest that caucusing is hard -- it requires hours of time and a complicated sequence of standing in corners, raising hands, and trading votes (here is an explanation of the ridiculousness). But so what? If ten presidential candidates personally came to your house to beg for your vote, wouldn't you set aside an evening when decision time finally came?

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_myth_of_the_rational_iowa_voter

This is why organization is key to Iowa. It's all about turnout. Some way to pick a President, eh?

on NPR the other day.

Holy crap, what a nightmare.

To help with that organization. Everyone on the campaign has been saying all along, that that is indeed, the key.

Only people who really care participate. That's exactly what I want.

Treat democracy seriously. It's too bad it couldn't be done in every state. But most people would want to just run in, vote, and out again.

gets a 30 day timeout and a new caucus or primary be called.