KEEP THE IOWA PRIMARY

Don’t believe it!

Bill Whalen of the Hoover Institute wants to take away the Iowa
primary. That’s right. We are the folks that take Presidential primaries
seriously. When a presidential hopeful shows up, watch out. There will be a crowd.
Remember when President George Bush packed the Noel ridge Park? How
about the time President Clinton had an overflow crowd down at Quaker Oats
parking lot?

Whalen is saying in the NEW REPUBLIC (2005/8/15:36) that Iowa and New
Hampshire just don’t represent America. Okay. So who does? Well, if you
do your research, there are states in the last election in which the blue
state candidate or the red state candidate barely won. This means that Ohio,
Colorado, Nevada, Mexico…and IOWA! This Research Fellow at the
conservative think tank called Hoover Institute begrudgingly acknowledges that Iowa
was a close call. But, he doesn’t want to include us; too many rural types
populate the state.

Folks, you know better. Iowa is not a blue state. Iowa is not a red
state. Iowa is PURPLE. Now if you mix red and blue together, you get purple.
Let’s see for a lot of years the Democratic presidential candidate would
barely win Iowa. Right? Then Bush barely won.

Now let’s look at our senators. You want a purple state with a split
personality? Try Harkin and Grassley. For some reason, both won big
last time out. Then you got a Democratic governor and a house and senate
that well rumble along with one party or the other. Then there are numerous
other elected officers from both parties. We're talking purple. For many
years, we are talking purple.

Then another survey from the Bay Area Center for Voting Research
indicates that we are intrinsically red-blue or blue-red. It was smack dab on the
front page of THE GAZETTE (2005/8/12:8A) In so many words, when you
look at how Cedar Rapids and Des Moines vote we are conservatively liberal or
liberally conservative. Why, Dammit! Were purple and that makes us a
good Presidential primary state. Those other states are wholesale and who
knows how they will vote in the future? They are only on television with one
sound bite after another. It makes you nostalgic for those fertilizer
advertisements.

Iowa is not only purple, but it is a retail state. That means the
candidate has to get in there with the people and in their homes so they can ask
a few embarrassing questions. And if you and I can’t see them in person, by
gosh we can watch them wilt on camera. That’s global purple retail!

Mr. Whalen please comes see us again. Pretty soon, when you land your
plane, the corn will turn purple. No lie! Well sometimes the corn is purple
toward sunset. At least somebody told me that. He looked kind of purple too!
Amazing.