I fear this may be a lesson in irony. The first time I am genuinely interested in a presidential campaign also happens to be the first time I am not living in Iowa. And not just Iowa, I lived in the middle of it all, just ten blocks from the state capital.
I never before believed that Iowa truly is over-saturated when it comes to the political arena; I assumed that my childhood anathema to anything political was shared by everyone else until at some point in time, they got over it. From my point of view, how would it be possible not to? It was everywhere, the radio, the news, they'd block off roads for political events; it was the kid equivalent to waking up one morning and finding your world had been reprogrammed to "golf". I assumed this was the case everywhere.
Er, no. Living here in Illinois, I've heard virtually nothing. There are no television commercials, no radio ads, no television programming focusing solely on candidates and their viewpoints. If this were Iowa (and my parents attest to this) everything began at the State Fair, back in early August, and has progressed from there to the point that the national news and local news are now exactly the same thing.
However, my parents finally have the opportunity to become as politically involved as they used to be before I was born. I've been getting summaries from them, but it's irritating not to be getting all the stuff I'm so used to seeing every year. Because, even so much as I hated it, I picked up political information by osmosis and could tell you a lot more about the candidates than I could now.
Anyway, it's been practically a three-way tie in Iowa, and everyone's been interested to win because of all the undecided voters.
This is important to note because of the reason that the Iowa caucus ever became anything important.
When Jimmy Carter ran, he decided that the best way to run without any money was to go to the Iowa State Fair, hang out at the Democratic booth and shake hands. When Caucus time came around, he came second- but only because "undecided" came first. The headline in the local paper read, "Jimmy Who?" And Jimmy went on to win, and started a political tradition that he doesn't get credit for, like everything else that happened in his presidency.
So, with that big three way tie, it was considered really important to make those who came to the caucus make a decision, because although coming in third is no big deal (as someone should've better explained to Howling Howard back in '04), a three way tie is worse.
Anyway, now that I have no say and plenty of interest, here I am, interested. Figures, doesn't it?