I haven’t yet figured out which candidate I support for president, but I know who I’m pulling for in Iowa: Mike Huckabee and John Edwards. It’s not that I want either to be president. On the contrary, they are among my least preferred candidates in their respective parties. So why root for them in Iowa? Because a victory by either would help discredit that state’s caucuses.

I find it offensive to think that 75,000 Iowans (or whatever the number is), a disproportionate number of whom have nothing to do for several hours on a week night, get to play a major role in the nomination process. Actually, I doubt that they play such a role – in my view the Iowa caucuses are vastly overrated. However, it’s generally thought that the caucuses are important, and that perception alone is enough to distort the process.

In a healthier regime, candidates would follow John McCain’s lead and ignore, or at least refuse to pander to, the Iowa party activists. But this won’t happen as long as the caucuses are seen as a major stepping stone to the nomination. Victories by Mitt Romney and Hillary Clinton, both of whom figure to be around deep into the primaries, would reinforce that view of Iowa. Victories by Huckabee and Edwards, both of whom figure to crash and burn a few states later, might help erase it.

UPDATE: Of course, if Huckabee wins I'll have to root for Romney to get the nomination; otherwise, his loss in Iowa will be viewed as having brought him down, and the myth of the caucuses will live on.

JOHN adds: Amen. We have caucuses in Minnesota too, but hardly anyone knows it because we aren't at the front end of the process. The caucuses are basically an embarrassment, rewarding the extreme, the patient, the infinitely sub-divided sub-caucuses, and, above all, those with nothing else to do on a weeknight. Because the caucus system is superficially "democratic," hardly anyone dares acknowledge how it empowers a few ill-chosen people to distort the electoral process.

Still, though, that isn't enough to make me root for Mike Huckabee in Iowa.

Posted by Paul at 10:33 PM  |    |