Today’s the official opening day of the 2008 election season, with the first game being played in Iowa. I confess to being a political junkie, and I’ll be taking a hit off of the “caucus” tonight. But it really is a silly game that’s being played. First, the “rules” for a caucus are completely different from the “rules” for the rest of the “season”. Second, the “game” will be played in Iowa, which is really a minor league state at best. Third, the “umpires” in the media have already decided what the final score should be, and they will spin the numbers to fit their narrative.
The population of Iowa is a small percentage of the country, and only a small percentage of them go to the caucus. Then, there are the arcane rules which are different for Democrats than they are for Republicans. The Democrats have the equivalent of the “designated hitter” rule, where if your candidate does poorly, you get to substitute a more successful one.
For sheer entertainment value, you can’t beat the “umpires”. Those “unbiased” media pundits who will be keeping score and declaring the “winners”. They’ve already decided who will be the “stars”, and what constitutes a “good game” or “bad game” for those chosen stars. The players who are not chosen “stars” will be ignored, no matter how well they play the game.
Most of the audience will only see the box score and hear the pundits reports of who had a good game. Only the political junkies will dig deeper into the play-by-play. The pundits will do their best to claim that this is “the most meaningful game of the season”, but as I wrote a few days ago in “On A Limb”, I have a feeling that this season could be much longer.
It is a ridiculous system, but as a junkie, I’ll say “play ball.”
Opening Day
