On February 10, 2007, Barack Obama stood before the Illinois
capital building and announced his potentially historic
presidential bid. The next day, he was in Iowa Falls, campaigning.
He was far from the first--Hillary Rodham Clinton, John Edwards,
John McCain, and Mitt Romney were already swarming the Hawkeye
State, seeking votes behind every hay bale.
Why Iowa?
After all, in the lead-up to the 2008 presidential primary, both
Iowa and New Hampshire have come under significant fire--as usual.
Critics like Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) have charged that these
early contests dominate the nomination process, yet are badly out
of step with the ideology and demographics of the party and the
country writ large. However, while New Hampshire has suffered a
serious setback, Iowa has once again emerged as the first
presidential primary contest, in part by arguing that its Precinct
Caucus was a time-honored tradition that helped winnow the field
with good old retail politicking and grassroots activism.
This debate comes to a head this coming Winter, when tens of
thousands of Iowans will troop to libraries and churches, prepared
for an hour or more of party business. Each of these party
meetings, or "caucuses," will hold straw polls, the results of
which will be broadcast around the world. One analysis found that
the Caucus generates 143 times as much media coverage as other
presidential primary contests, controlling for the date and size of
the contest. In other words, being first thrusts the Iowa Caucus
onto a towering public stage with extraordinary public interest.
Both of these factors--the normative public debate and the
empirical public frenzy--demonstrate the need for a veryclose look
at the Caucus, in all its warts and beauty. Grassroots Rules" was
written to provide just such a study.
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