I have watched the movie titled “Groundhog Day” with actor Bill Murray. Looking back, I’m wondering if that movie was about the Iowa Caucus. The caucus just keeps coming back and back and it seems we just can’t escape the Iowa Caucus.
Groundhog Day is coming and the best news about the annual holiday is that the Iowa Caucus will be over! There is a bad rumor though that if the groundhog sees his shadow we will have six more weeks of Iowa!
I know Iowa is a great state with great people but why must our country be pounded with the ongoing onslaught of Iowa, Iowa and more Iowa Caucus? Personally, I’m sick of hearing about the Iowa Caucus. CNN and Fox news started talking about the Iowa Caucus over a year ago and for the last six months it seems Iowa has been mentioned every day.
I get it. Iowa is the first rung on the ladder to the presidency. Candidates who miss this rung have further to step up to New Hampshire and with a little less momentum.
Although it appears Donald Trump could lose both caucuses and still be the Republican nominee, he isn’t taking any chances. Iowa is being treated to about as much Trump as they can probably stand.
Past presidents have gladly taken Iowa and then moved on with the wind behind their march to victory. You remember George W. Bush in 2000 and Barack Obama in 2008. However, winning Iowa has not always been the answer. John Kerry won the Caucus in 2004. Robert Dole won it in 1988. Rick Santorum won Iowa in 2012 and it led to nothing except a life of more campaigning, raising money and speaking to hamburger joint crowds who are killing time before their next doctors’ appointments.
Mike Huckabee won Iowa and had a lot of momentum in 2008. Unfortunately, Iowans hardly knew who is as he moves along in his RV speaking to crowds that he could almost fit in an old fashioned telephone booth, if anybody remembers what those were. I actually thought Huckabee would do a little better than he is doing. He had a national television program on Fox that aired on prime Saturday and Sunday evenings. Iowans and apparently few others were paying attention to his program, or maybe they were.
I started to say I feel sorry for Huckabee, Santorum, Rand Paul, Chris Christie and Martin O’ Malley and others but I don’t. I feel sorry for the people in Iowa. The good people in Iowa can’t go to the local Dairy Queen without having a political candidate staring at them or trying to shake hands. I would say the people of Iowa might be more tired of the Iowa Caucus than most Americans. At least we can turn off the television. They can’t step for politicians and media people.
Groundhog Day is coming Iowa and when the day finally comes they will all be gone. Rest awhile and reclaim your lives because unfortunately in two years we will have to go through the caucus again and then again and then again. Now, I’m starting to understand a little more what Bill Murray’s character was going through in the movie Groundhog Day.
Glenn Mollette is an American Syndicated Columnist and the author of 11 books. His column appears in all 50 states. For more information, visit: www.keepourfreedom.com.