The Iowa Caucuses

Almost all of the Republican presidential candidates are at the Iowa State Fair. I am totally perplexed by this obsession with Iowa. A review of the history reveals that the winner of the Iowa caucuses is the eventual nominee only about a third of the time in contested elections.

This review shows these winners: for Democrats, Muskie won in 1972, with eventual nominee McGovern 2nd; Gebhardt won in 1988, with eventual nominee Dukakis 3rd; Harkin 1st in 1992, with eventual nominee Clinton 4th (with only 3% of the vote!)

On the GOP side, Bush won over Reagan in 1980, Dole won over Bush in 1988, Huckabee won over McCain in 2008, Santorum won over Romney in 2012, and Cruz won over Trump in 2016.

Caucuses are a horrible way for a political party choose its candidates. because only the most passionate party members turn out, and these are usually the most extreme party members. The result is we get radical leftists from the Dems, and radical rightists from the GOP, adding to the horrible polarization in today's politics.