Ready? Fire Ames
There are other arguments proffered in favor of retaining the straw poll. Among the more novel comes from the media. It is argued that Ames occurs during a key moment in campaign-narrative construction — a news lull before the caucuses in which the mainstream media is already staffed up for full-bore election coverage but does not have much of anything to cover. In this environment, the fair-like (or is it carnival-like?) atmosphere of Ames is nothing short of a “Woodstock for politicos” and a respite for assignment editors in this cruel, cruel summer. You’ll forgive us if we are not moved by the exigencies and enthusiasms of the lot who quadrennially cover the Republican nomination process as an anthropological curiosity.
In fact, the spotlight is part of the problem. The media as much as anyone have imbued the story of Ames with an import that the reality of Ames has not justified — and cannot justify. And they help sell the fiction that the straw poll highlights the divergent preferences of the “grassroots” and the “establishment,” and not the divergent preferences of a hand-picked, bused-in sample and the Republican electorate nationwide. This fiction now infects the debate about Ames’s future, because the Ames we read about is not the non-predictive, distortive Ames of reality, but a mythic creature in a story. And like so many mythic creatures, this one needs slaying.
Blowback
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I approve of the cleverness of this article headline
Drunk Report on November 26, 2012 at 4:11 PM
Ready..Ames fired…
rich801 on November 26, 2012 at 4:12 PM
How about fire Iowa completely? Why a blue state gets to go “first” and have such an impact on who our nominee will be just because they always have is ridiculous.
changer1701 on November 26, 2012 at 4:14 PM
T-Paw approves.
CTSherman on November 26, 2012 at 4:16 PM
This idea of getting rid of the Ames straw poll is silly.
The role the poll serves is obvious: it gives candidates, particularly ones who are severely underfunded, a chance to directly interact with voters and court them directly, rather than having to rely on benevolent media filtering. The Ames Iowa straw poll allowed both Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum break through and get noticed.
By reducing the influence of money, you also get a better sense of exactly who does a better job at capturing the imagination of voters. If it was strictly money, then we’d be talking about how our nominee Tim Pawlenty did.
Ultimately, the straw poll is not about picking who the final nominee is. It’s about finding a dark horse — a diamond in the rough, who would otherwise be passed over, and elevating them sufficiently such that they get a glimmer of the big time, with the opportunity to sink or swim from that point, rather than have the ladder pulled up on them.
Stoic Patriot on November 26, 2012 at 4:18 PM
Yes please. A bunch of corn sucking libs manage to foist ethanol subsidy worship every four years among Republican candidates and it’s aggravating as all hell. Guess what I don’t care about at all as someone not living in a corn farming state?
John_Locke on November 26, 2012 at 4:19 PM
Reasons #1 and #2 for ending the Ames straw poll right there.
John_Locke on November 26, 2012 at 4:20 PM
I was ambivalent on the issue, but this is one of the most eloquent defenses I’ve read of the straw poll. Nice job.
Doomberg on November 26, 2012 at 4:21 PM
Iowa used to be a red state. The caucus didn’t injure Mitt’s campaign either, don’t know what you’re upset about.
alwaysfiredup on November 26, 2012 at 4:53 PM
It’s simple. The state with the highest R turnout goes first next election, and so on until you get to the last.
Irritable Pundit on November 26, 2012 at 5:00 PM
Now tell us about how well it’s worked out for the “diamond in the rough” strivers discovered in Ames? Your argument would have had more validity a few decades ago. But nowadays the dark horse types have other ways of getting their message out.
cicerone on November 26, 2012 at 5:08 PM
Oh cry me a river….why is National Review complaining about Ames?
They got the GOP nominee they relentlessly pumped for 4 years (Romney); regardless of the Iowa Straw Poll results.
Norwegian on November 26, 2012 at 5:25 PM
Beat me to it.
With that said, the answer is that no one cares about the primary for the 3 and a half years that it’s not going on. Everyone swears blood oaths to change it between New Years and Valentine’s Day every 4th year, and then it is utterly forgotten. This article is probably the most thought given to the topic in almost a year.
As to the idea that we should give a heavier weight to redder states, are we all aware that we just lost an election – soundly, and without qualification or equivocation? I don’t think and didn’t think Romney was a particularly good candidate, but the party’s interest is to find someone who will win. Letting the rump decide is not going to help that effort.
Also, the idea that Iowa is a “blue state” full of “liberals” is essentially condemning the conservative movement to irrelevance. We all know and despise the ethanol pimping that drives that state, but if we’re ever going to win the White House again, it’s going to be with states like Iowa.
In any case, all the normal partisan-based alternative theories are, as always, DOA: the primaries are very expensive and paid for by the states. They pick their dates and, as we see every year with rent seeking expletives like Florida, the states can set their elections whenever they please. They certainly would not pay for more than 1 primary. Any system would have to be amenable to the RNC as well as the DNC.
There’s a hard core of Romney primary supporters darkly muttering that he lost because the GOP didn’t fall into lockstep before Christmas. Instead, Romney had to campaign all the way through March! Horrors!
HitNRun on November 26, 2012 at 5:45 PM
I have no problem with the straw poll..Since this is pretty much a fund raiser for the Iowa GOP..BUT the caucas need to go the way of the dinosaur..
Dire Straits on November 26, 2012 at 6:25 PM