One should forget about Iowa, I'm told - they're outliers, they usually get it wrong, they vote for reasons that seem to have little or nothing to do with political practicalities - maybe the dubious renown of 'first in the nation' status has swamped their senses with delusions of grandeur - maybe God's to blame - but forget Iowa they say - unless of course Romney wins, and then... well, if these wacky outliers, people addled enough by whatever distemper afflicts them to actually entertain with seeming seriousness the utterly disturbing thought of Ron Paul as president, if such as these are willing to embrace [however awkwardly] a reasonable logic and choose instead Romney, well... sure, then that might mean something. Otherwise, forget Iowa.
But I'm not buying into that necessarily - Iowa may not be a reliable indicator of the eventual nominee, history suggests that's all true - but as a reliable indicator of ideological pathologies currently roiling the right? - different question altogether - especially when national polls or polls from primaries soon to be seem to corroborate what Iowans are thinking. One can be desperately put off by Paul's flirtation with the lead and still fairly easily dismiss it as an aberration [and also draw comfort from fact that polls seem to sugget that ol' Ronny of the nasty newsletters doesn't actually seem to be that popular with republicans - apparently it's end of days independents and mischievous democrats who are driving his numbers]. But aside from that this race seems notable for a very specific reason - ie, Romney is the only legitimate candidate - everyone else is either too deeply damaged and flawed [Gingrich, Cain, Paul and Perry] or too lacking in either substance, credentials, experience or an overall, broad base appeal [Bachman, Santorum and I guess Huntsman, although he by all rights deserves a category all his own] to be taken seriously as a respectable alternative to Obama or of having any chance in hell of beating him regardless - and yet with only one legitimate candidate to choose from huge swaths of the right have with great impetuosity and unabashed ignorance rushed to embrace anyone but that candidate while masking this irrationality in the most superficial and tawdry of rationalizations.
I don't see how one can pretend that doesn't suggest things are bit wrong in the land of the right - and if that's the case, who can tell what monstrosity might crawl out of the misty swamps of Iowa intent on laying waste to common sense everywhere.
