Iowa Straw Poll Damages Republican Prospects: Margaret Carlson

[marmar]

(Bloomberg) After this past weekend, perhaps Republicans will finally end the disastrous Iowa Straw Poll. In five tries, the circus in Ames has picked a future president once, which is about the same success rate you’d get by picking names from a hat.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney won it last time. If this year’s winner, Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, goes on to become president, I will come to your house and mow your lawn (to borrow a marker used by former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty at last week’s Republican debate).

The straw poll does little for winners. For losers, though, it can be decisive; it is where presidential dreams go to die. Ask Pawlenty, who finished third. Before he could take to the seas with his executive experience as a two-term governor of a blue state, a gathering of about 16,000 Iowans scuttled his candidacy before it left port. Pawlenty isn’t the best candidate in the world, but compared to Bachmann he looks like George Washington. He dropped out of the race on Sunday.

You wonder why Republicans allow this mix of carnival and county fair to have such an outsize impact. With country guitars twanging, ice cream melting, Randy Travis singing and food everywhere, the straw poll is primarily a commercial enterprise designed to fill the coffers of the Iowa Republican Party. Its standards of bribery would make a traffic cop in Lagos blush. Just about every vote is bought and paid for. If a Republican attends the straw poll without being treated to the $30 ticket, being driven to the event and stuffing himself to the gills on free food, he’s a chump. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-15/iowa-straw-poll-damages-republican-prospects-margaret-carlson.html

[Auntie Bush]

1. Margaret hit it out of the ball park. nt