2008 Woodie Awards
Don't blindly follow early primaries
Issue date: 1/9/08 Section: Opinions
There are many things that the great states of Iowa and New Hampshire can claim.
Both boast areas of wonderful scenery. One is a haven in the middle of the northeastern forests and mountains. The other sits on the beginning steps of the great plains and the breadbasket of the Midwest.
Yes, they both make their own great contributions to the country, but there is one thing they are not.
They are not a proper representation of the entire country.
For some reason, around this time during an election year, people have the bad habit of treating these two states as just that.
The two states, with a combined population of more than 3 million, do not come close to the amount of people that America as a whole contains. Yet, after the presidential primaries in those respective states, some get the idea that Iowa and New Hampshire speak for all of us.
Florida is definitely not in the midwest, nor is it in the northeast. Therefore, you, the voters should not simply fall in line with what the voters in another state choose to do, despite how easy it may be to do so.
After the Iowa primary, we were bombed with ideas and predictions from all sorts of media outlets, from pundits to political analysts. They told us all the odds of the new winners taking the whole thing.
They shouted that after a Barack Obama victory and an Edwards follow-up, Hillary is dead in the water. The same was said about McCain from the Republican side after the Huckabee win. The shock waves of those claims reverberate in the minds of many voters.
Even the candidates themselves seem to be doing it. Democratic candidate Dennis Kucinich, sensing a defeat in Iowa, preemptively called for his supporters to lend their caucus votes in Iowa to Obama.
The result of all these early premonitions is a series of bandwagon-jumping rarely seen outside the world of sports. Just as fans of a football team seem to all appear in a winning season, the winners of early primaries and caucuses seem to leap in popularity. The same is seen in reverse, as the losers take a sharp loss.
Both boast areas of wonderful scenery. One is a haven in the middle of the northeastern forests and mountains. The other sits on the beginning steps of the great plains and the breadbasket of the Midwest.
Yes, they both make their own great contributions to the country, but there is one thing they are not.
They are not a proper representation of the entire country.
For some reason, around this time during an election year, people have the bad habit of treating these two states as just that.
The two states, with a combined population of more than 3 million, do not come close to the amount of people that America as a whole contains. Yet, after the presidential primaries in those respective states, some get the idea that Iowa and New Hampshire speak for all of us.
Florida is definitely not in the midwest, nor is it in the northeast. Therefore, you, the voters should not simply fall in line with what the voters in another state choose to do, despite how easy it may be to do so.
After the Iowa primary, we were bombed with ideas and predictions from all sorts of media outlets, from pundits to political analysts. They told us all the odds of the new winners taking the whole thing.
They shouted that after a Barack Obama victory and an Edwards follow-up, Hillary is dead in the water. The same was said about McCain from the Republican side after the Huckabee win. The shock waves of those claims reverberate in the minds of many voters.
Even the candidates themselves seem to be doing it. Democratic candidate Dennis Kucinich, sensing a defeat in Iowa, preemptively called for his supporters to lend their caucus votes in Iowa to Obama.
The result of all these early premonitions is a series of bandwagon-jumping rarely seen outside the world of sports. Just as fans of a football team seem to all appear in a winning season, the winners of early primaries and caucuses seem to leap in popularity. The same is seen in reverse, as the losers take a sharp loss.