Tonight: the Iowa Caucuses. Also tonight: The Orange Bowl! As the Iowa caucuses require quite a bit more evening activity from participants than simpler primary elections, we can't help but wonder which candidates' supporters are most likely to skip the caucuses to watch a nationally televised, sure-to-be-thrilling bowl game between Kansas and tragedy stricken Virginia Tech. Huckabee, who already earned a bit of ire in the heartland by telling Iowans that the game would be boring, seems an easy bet, as does fellow good ol' boy Fred Thompson. But as the GOP require only a straw poll, unlike the more involved politicking of the Dems, it might be Edwards (who would love nothing more than to appeal to the type of Iowans who love college football) who's hurt most. Of course caucusing is so archaic, annoying, and inconvenient that no one turns up to do it any year regardless of what's on TV. Besides the same couple thousand old white folks who've chosen our terrible leaders and their ineffectual challengers for the last century or so. [KansasCity.com]
Photo: "Iowa Bus Tour: Football Break" by John Edwards 2008