The Circus Is Coming: Who's Cleaning Up After the Elephant?

Hey kids out there in blogland, the GOP will conduct their straw poll in Ames on August 11th. To summarize the importance of the straw poll, if you don't make it there--you ain't going anywhere--at least not as a Republican. The straw poll is a place where about 26,000 Iowans act as an oversized focus group and the candidates are the product in question.

Said differently, the Ames straw poll is like a national car show--wow the crowd and you might have the next Ford Mustang or Dodge Viper. However, let the buyer beware, the Edsel was a big hit on the auto show circuit--and we know what happened to it.

Not archaic enough, this is the Roman Coliseum (Hilton-styled)--thumbs up and you are a somebody, thumbs down and you are a difficult trivia question.

So why am I bringing this up at this early date? It seems like the Iowa Caucuses in January 2008 are just too far away for some. And, if you (yes, you-- state party leaders) don't cull the herd, it makes it darn tough to decide who to cow to.

Perhaps the Dems could take a page out of the GOP playbook and pre-chew the candidates and make them that much more digestible (cud, if you will). After all, why should people actually have to educate themselves about candidate positions, that's for the party to do, isn't it?

Your average party faithful have so much more to do than think for themselves. Straw polls make it easy on those of us who are too busy to be at every candidate event. Here, if you have $35 to spend, you can simplify things for your fellow human being by acting as his/her proxy--that is commitment to service!

Besides, its a great opportunity for the party to raise money and for candidates to shill some t-shirts, bumper stickers, and other "personal-branding" geegaws.

So, act now! Time is a wastin'. If Scott Brennan could get those national Donkey curmudgeons to test market it, I'll bet we could even get the state casinos to take on the action. Since the GOP is doing it in Ames, how about at Carver Hawkeye or, better still, Kinnick Stadium?