Where Have All The Candidates gone?
Donald King
Posted: 03.17.2008 / 12:00 PM EDT
Almost as suddenly as the 2008 Presidential candidates appeared on our campuses and in our cafes and community centers, they vanished on the day following Iowa’s “first-in-the-nation” January caucuses.
“At last, no more negative ads and nightly phone calls interrupting our dinner,” my neighbor remarked, shaking his head. ”Now it is someone else’s turn and we can get back to normal.”
Despite the fatigue that sets in with the intense campaigning, I look forward to our quadrennial winter caucuses when we brave the cold and gather to talk politics. This year, with no incumbent seeking reelection, we saw more candidates invading our communities than we have in twenty years. That was back in ‘88, when a record number of candidates spoke on the campus where I teach, including evangelist Pat Robertson and the leading African-American politician prior to Barack O’Bama, Jesse Jackson, whose poetic rhetoric and celebrity-status drew over a thousand people to our chapel.
While 2008 did not see such throngs to see the candidates stumping our community, the Jan. 3 caucuses turned out the biggest crowds witnessed in years. But despite the long list of contenders, caucus participants zeroed in on fewer candidates. Rev. Huckabee was the clear favorite of the dominant Evangelical voters attending local Republican caucuses, while the vote on the Democratic side was split among John Edwards, 2004’s favorite choice, former first lady Hillary Clinton whose organization turned out the most first-time voters, and neighboring Illinois’ Sen. Barack O’Bama, the charismatic candidate of change.
It was an exciting evening that created the biggest turnout of Democrats I’ve ever seen in my heavily Republican county, especially compared to the Reagan years when the Dems met around a single lunch table in the local school cafeteria. But for most of my friends and neighbors, after the Iowa caucuses, it was back to talk of pork bellies, escalating corn and gasoline prices (do we love ethanol!), the new library going up in town, and the long, cold winter, with snow that just won’t quit.
It’s mid-March now and a few pols and loyal party activists elected as delegates in January, gathered at the county caucuses to regroup around the remaining candidates. The consensus is that the GOP missed its chance to have a man of God in the White House (Huckabee), although as some added, “we can at least count on McCain to protect us from those radical Muslims.” But the Dems, most people will tell you, seem stuck between restoring the Clinton dynasty and putting the first woman up for President, or passing the torch to a new generation led by a candidate of color, who promises an unspecified agenda of change and an improved global image. But news of these caucuses won’t attract CNN or dominate the front page of the local papers.
As the calendar reminds us, the election is still months away, in early November, isn’t it? We are still waiting for the temperatures to rise and the snow to disappear here in Iowa. It will be another month before farmers get anxious to get into the fields to fertilize so they can plant corn and soybeans. We all are feeling housebound and longs to get outside—on the soccer fields and baseball diamonds, and get ready for high school proms, May’s Tulip Festival, and then our kids’ graduations. People haven’t started talking about their summer plans, so there’s plenty of time yet for Presidential politics.
The parties still haven’t even finished counting delegates and deciding on their candidates. Someone told me Nader was running again, and I just shook my head. What’s that all about anyway.
My students are on Spring Break and when they return will be more preoccupied with papers, projects and sports. I will have until fall and a new school year to generate interest in Presidential politics.
But what about the national conventions, I ask. The Democrats counting delegates in Denver to decide betwen Barack or Hillary could be exciting. But they just roll their eyes. Fact is, that most of them have pretty much decided they will cast their first vote for John McCain—promoting victory in Iraq, keeping us secure at home, cutting taxes and government spending to boost the economy, and safeguarding the dignity of human life.
But I’m keeping an eye on things just in case. You just never know what might happen in politics. After all, the nomination wasn’t a slam-dunk for former first-lady Hillary Clinton and septuagenarian John McCain was the comeback kid of 2008. So anything can change in American politics, and, like the weather here, probably will.
