The Iowa Caucus

**Warning: This post has 1150 words, not including these three sentences. But it is pretty interesting! Just wanted to give you a heads-up!**

I am not a rabid politics follower. I’m kind of an in and out participant. If an issue piques my interest or inflames my anger or disgust, then I’m all over it. However, if national or local events are going on in a same-old-same-old fashion, I tend to tune out and can lose a few weeks or months at a time. Normally, my greatest interest is during the presidential elections, as I guess is the case for most people.

My earliest memories of a President is of seeing President Eisenhower on TV. I was really little and didn’t know who he was, I just know I thought he looked like my grandpa. When I got older and went to school, I recognized him in a book as the man on TV who looked like Grandpa!

In 1964, on Election Day, I guess, most all the kids in the bus on the way to school were yelling for Johnson, Johnson, Johnson to win (I lived in MN, a very liberal and Democrat-controlled state.) My sister and I as well as three other kids (coincidentally we all attended the same church- I guess that’s kind of telling about political affiliations, isn’t it?) were being drowned out as we yelled Goldwater, Goldwater, Goldwater. I had no earthly idea who either of those men were- I just knew I was for Goldwater!

In 1968, I remember listening to my transistor radio(!) by myself in my bedroom to the Republican Convention, especially to the Roll Call (to which I still love to listen) as Richard Nixon became the nominee.

In 1976, I was finally old enough to vote- and VERY excited about it. However, by this time, I was married. Darrell and I stood in line that year for over two hours to vote- just to cancel each other out. He voted for Jimmy Carter (boo-hiss!) while I voted for Gerald Ford who is still one of my favorites. Not only because he was the first president I ever voted for, but he allowed a national tax rebate. I remember that Darrell and I each got something like $150- which seemed like a windfall to us at the time!

When we moved in 1977 to where we still live currently, it was the country! Our first two national election nights, we stood outside to vote for hours- once the line stretched out into a nearby cow pasture. We knew for sure we were in the sticks then!

Fast-forward to January 20, 1993. For some unusual reason I was home that day and I was literally almost sick on the couch watching Bill Clinton (double boo-hiss) take the oath of office (maybe I was home sick that day!) And then to see the Bushes get on that helicopter to take them away from the White House was just one of the saddest and most unnecessary things I’ve ever seen in my life. That was an extremely dark day for our nation. I was so mad at Ross Perot- for ruining the national elections. I spent a lot of that day trying to figure out what country we could move to to get away from Clinton and his liberal pack of cronies.

Election Day 2000 was a sweet victory for Republicans- but I was especially thinking of President and Mrs. Bush, Sr. on that day. There had to be some sense of vindication when the country elected their son to take the role that they had just previously held.

Well, here it is the night before the “official” start of the 2008 campaigns (not like the candidates haven’t been going at it for over a year already!)

I really don’t know much about the Iowa caucuses, so I looked up a few details that I thought were interesting, and I thought I’d share them here on my oh-so-educational blog!

First of all, no one actually votes in an Iowa caucus. In the Republican party, members are handed blank pieces of paper on which they write the name of any candidate they would like to support. From all those slips of paper, representatives are then elected to local conventions at which state delegates are then elected who eventually choose Iowa’s Republican nominee.

In the Democratic caucuses, members literally cast their “vote” according to which area of the room they stand in. Tallies are made of the number of people who are standing in each area. After some politicking and changing of areas in the room, final results are tabulated. These totals relate to the number of county and state delegates that are finally chosen for each candidate. Those state delegates, like the Republican delegates eventually choose Iowa’s Democratic nominee.

That all sounds like a crazy system to me. On top of that, none of this is held in a normal polling place. Each precinct just chooses a convenient place for their caucus to take place: a local church, school, public library or wherever. No wonder the candidates are spending so much time in Iowa. This is truly grassroots politics.

Well, I am anxious for the results from Iowa- which may or may not predict the eventual winner from either party. However, I do think the caucuses could predict who will not be the winner in 2008. I was interested in who has/has not won in Iowa since 1972 when they became the earliest state to bring national results to the presidential primaries. Here’s what I found out: 

Candidates in bold eventually won their party’s nomination. Candidates with an asterisk won the national election. I’ll only list the top couple of names as applicable.

Democrats

•  2004 – John Kerry (38%), John Edwards (32%)
• 2000- Al Gore (63%), Bill Bradley (37%)
• 1996 – Bill Clinton* (unopposed)
• 1992 – Tom Harkin (76%), “Uncommitted” (12%), Bill Clinton* (3%) Interesting! I don’t think he put as much emphasis in Iowa in ‘92 as his wife in doing in ‘08!
• 1988 – Richard Gephardt (31%), Paul Simon (27%), Michael Dukakis (22%)
• 1984 – Walter Mondale (49%), Gary Hart (17%)
• 1980 – Jimmy Carter (59%), Ted Kennedy (31%)
• 1976 – “Uncommitted” (37%), Jimmy Carter* (28%)
• 1972 – “Uncommitted” (36%), Edmund Muskie (36%), George McGovern (23%)

Republicans

• 2004- George W. Bush* (unopposed)
• 2000- George W. Bush* (41%), Steve Forbes (30%),  Gary Bauer (9%), John McCain (5%)
• 1996- Bob Dole (26%), Pat Buchanan (23%), Lamar Alexander (18%)
• 1992- George H. W. Bush (unopposed)
• 1988- Bob Dole (37%), Pat Robertson (25%) MY FAVORITE!, George H. W. Bush* (19%)
• 1984- Ronald Reagan* (unopposed)
• 1980- George H. W. Bush (32%), Ronald Reagan* (30%)
• 1976- Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan

So, you can see, it’s kind of a mixed bag as to who will eventually win their party’s nomination and ultimately the presidential election, based on the Iowa results- especially in a non-incumbent year. But there is one thing I know for certain: God is in the details of our lives, individually and nationally. He is in control!