As an Iowan, I think I owe it to the rest of you to try to give you some idea of what's happening in this state with
everybody and his brother (or sister) trying to become the presidential nominee for their particular party. Let me give you a summary of the situation - IT'S NUTS!!
The caucus is this Thursday night, and after that we can all go back to being normal, boring Iowans, and the national media can forget about us. This morning, our house received no fewer than three phone calls before noon, all from very nice people purporting to be conducting a "survey" for one reason or another. It's gotten to the point where they don't even care whether you're a registered Republican, Democrat or independent. Someone on another phone call (not one of the "survey" calls) just launched into asking me "If the caucus were held today, would you support Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Bill Richardson, Chris Dodd, Joe Biden, or Dennis Kucinich?" without even asking me if I was a Democrat, which I'm not. I had to break it to her that I wasn't very likely going to be supporting any of them, since I wouldn't be at a Democratic caucus. She said thanks and hung up, without even trying to persuade me to go. So what did she glean from that phone call, I wonder?
Chris Dodd's sister came to our door a few days ago, along with some other family members. My wife and I met Mitt Romney and his wife, Ann, at the Des Moines Art Festival this summer; they weren't campaigning, they were browsing. For the past month, every time the phone or the doorbell has rung, I've fully expected it to be a political call.
Wow, I just thought about the mail... that's a whole different story. Every day, five, six, seven pieces of political mail show up in our mailbox. Fourteen medium-sized trees were felled to provide the paper that has been delivered to our house alone during this campaign. (Okay, I made that up, but you get the point.)
So what's the point of this blog? Just this - for those of you who think a national primary might be a better solution than our present system, just be careful what you wish for! Right now, you've managed to dump all of this off onto Iowa, New Hampshire, and a few other "carefully selected" states. A national primary would mean that we'd all be drawn into the madness!
Ken Tharp
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Guess that is why polling does not mean anything. The caller slants the questions as they want the answers. So, when the talking head tell you who is ahead in the polling don't listen. I hope the end of the week will come soon for you.
Renee - They definitely have the slant determined before they ever start asking the questions, in most cases. Thanks for the wishes for the end of the week! (By the way, I looked you up on your AR site - at the bottom, under referrals, your web site has three "e's" in succession, like this: www.reneeestengel.com. Thought you might want to know.)
Ken Tharp, Iowa Equity Exchange
I have the solution!
EVeryone can just do this little online quiz, figure out which candidate they have the most similarirites to, and Voila. Done. Until November.
http://www.wqad.com/Global/link.asp?L=259460
I dare you to make a post of this link and publish your results Heehee
I'm with you Ken. As a fellow Iowan I commiserate with you. Being a business man I hate to miss phone calls, and I'm getting tired of taking the call waiting to here "this is so and so from such and such and we are performing a political poll, are you 18 and registered to vote sir?" You know I think what ticks me off about it is #1 they don't even ask if you'd like to participate, they just jump right in asking questions and #2 they give you NO option to opt out of future calls. Not to mention the Do Not Call list should pertain to them too. We should have the option of opting out of political calls just like sales calls. Pretty funny how that works huh? I have to follow the darn list, it did not bother them to throw a block up in front of sales people (I like the Do Not Call list and agree with its existence) but of course they did make it pertain to them, they barge into your home during the little free time we might have. I work at home as well so I have no free time. Oh you got me going and my response is going to be longer than your post if I don't just shut up now. Hypocrites!
Jason - I like the idea of a no-call list for politicians. The "surveys" have just gotten to be ridiculous lately. And the hang-ups - I don't get that. If you're making a call for your cause, and someone answers, why do you hang up then? Didn't like the sound of my voice?
Sarah - I posted some about my political leanings in the blog itself. If you read all of my blogs, you'll probably get a fair idea of where I stand. I appreciate your challenge, but think I'll keep the specifics to myself!
Slightly more than 24 hours to go....
Ken Tharp, Iowa Equity Exchange
Ken: I took the survey above. Pretty funny, actually! I actually like the calls somehow. One could take the position they give you a chance to fib and skew the results until you actually caucus. The pollsters don't have a clue anyway. Vote for Pedro- wait, Go Mitt!
Brian - I think I've actually taken a survey similar to that one myself. And I agree with you, I think pretty much all Iowans have fibbed at one time or another to a pollster. It keeps 'em guessing! Since you "outed" yourself as a Mitt supporter, I'll do the same... at this point, and it may change, I'm planning to caucus for Mitt. At various points through the past year, I've thought seriously about pretty much all of them!
About five hours to go...
Ken Tharp, Iowa Equity Exchange
Ken, I am sure you are glad that the whole process over. Yet you are luck to be in the middle of it. Make 08 great.
Larry - I agree, we're lucky to have the attention and the opportunity every four years. It seemed like they really went over the top this time, though! For instance, on our local news for the last few nights before the caucus, all four slots in most of the two-minute commercial breaks were filled by political ads. Wow!
Ken Tharp, Iowa Equity Exchange