As others have pointed out, the Iowa caucuses are, or should be, a joke. Like the August straw poll, they seem to have a lot more to do with gaming the system (by making sure your supporters are overrepresented – by any means necessary – in the tiny group of people who actually turn up to caucus) than getting any real sense of popular support. Neither Moira nor I have any enthusiasm worked up for any of the candidates, of any party; we haven't been making any plans to go to the caucuses at all. But, what's that poor, bedraggled thing tugging at my coat hem? Ah, it's my emaciated sense of civic duty! Mister Dave, you've got to go and vote! You've just got to! Ahhh, ok. Maybe.
But for whom? As I noted, enthusiasm here in the Casa is lacking. At best, I can muster up "Well, an X presidency probably wouldn't be disastrous..." but that's it. There's no one to caucus for. I tried out this handy-dandy candidate selector, just to see if there was anyone who claimed to represent my views. It's a bunch of multiple-choice questions apparently pulled from candidate position papers, so of course my preferred answer to many of the questions would be "None of the above", as the offered choices aren't what I'd prefer.* Complete alignment with a candidate results in a score of 45, but I never got more than a 9 for any candidate. I tried running through it several times, as Squishy Liberal Dave, as Caveman Conservative Dave, as Aspergery Libertarian Dave. The combined ranking of candidates looks like:
So, position-wise, I guess I kind of agree with Rudy on things, more so than with anybody else. But in terms of personality and temperament, would he make a good president? Reports are mixed on that one. So my enthusiasm, it is blunted. Dulled, No, actually, if my enthusiasm for Mr. G. could be analogized to cutlery, it would be an old butterknife, or maybe one of those plastic jobs.
But maybe I'm looking at this wrong. How about if I caucus against someone? So I could go to the Democratic caucus, and support someone other than John Edwards, probably Obama or Hillary!, just to drain support away from him. There's the ticket! Except that the Democratic caucuses are a procedural nightmare. Just... stupid. There's no other word for it. I am not going to put up with that. The Repubs, on the other hand, have a straight-up, secret ballot. And they're caucusing within walking distance of our house. Hmmm..... a quick party affiliation change may be in order....
Until then, though, time to drink some champagne.