Iowa over? (ctd)...  

At the risk of repetition, I will echo some additional remarks about the totally entertaining circus that the Iowa primary has become.

We are forever indebted to the Hawkeye State for the Eskimo Pie (from Christian Nelson, in Onawa) and the largest butter sculpture in the world (at the state fair). But let’s not kid ourselves. There’s nothing representative about Iowa. Whites make up 91.3 percent of the state’s 3 million citizens, compared with 64 percent of the country at large. Hispanics are 5 percent of Iowans, blacks 2.9 percent. Demographics aren’t the only anomaly. Unemployment in Iowa is less than 6 percent, the seventh-lowest rate in the nation.
A record 115,000 Republicans turned out to vote in the 2008 caucuses -- that’s right, less than 4 percent of Iowans makes a record. And since 1976, Iowans have picked the Republican nominee only three times.
...
Paul has many fine qualities as a candidate, which his furious supporters are quick to point out whenever the news media treats his campaign as a sideshow. In a year when voters crave authenticity, Paul exudes it. He eschewed earmarks before it was cool and, according to the Associated Press, as a practicing physician he rejected Medicaid payments, instead taking whatever a patient could afford, including a batch of fresh shrimp once in return for delivering a baby.
Yet Paul is seriously out of step with much of the Republican Party and most of the U.S. He has long championed the gold standard and lenient drug laws while opposing U.S. interventions abroad, the Federal Reserve and the income tax. A unique politician? Yes. The Republican nominee? Never.
Paul’s rise isn’t the only factor hastening Iowa’s irrelevance. Iowa’s stock in trade is retail politics, which enables voters to take the personal measure of a candidate in a way the hurried contests that follow don’t allow. Iowa’s diners used to be so crowded with candidates you could hardly muster a quiet cup of coffee without a glad-handing politician stopping by to curry favor.
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For Romney, who has failed to rise much even as Gingrich falls, it’s tolerable to be beaten by Paul in Iowa provided Romney regroups to win the New Hampshire primary on Jan. 10. Gingrich, too, will live to fight another day should Paul take Iowa. In other words, if Paul wins, everyone wins, because no one really loses. Except for Iowa, which has it coming. [The whole thing]

And you just don't know what will happen next...