Why the Media Makes Hay Out of Iowa Straw Poll

Collapsing into a soft recliner after having just towed a heavy boat down a rutted, crowded interstate, I clicked on the PBS “NewsHour.” I am a political junkie, after all. And I was immediately reminded why there are so very few of us.

There on my living room TV was Elizabeth Dole patting a pig. Why wasn’t this former transportation secretary talking about fixing our federal highway system? Pat Buchanan then was shown petting a dog. And George W. Bush was flipping flapjacks. Or were they burgers? Whatever. Since when does fast-food dexterity qualify one for a job in the Oval Office?

It’s no wonder only 15% of Americans recently polled by the Pew Research Center said they were paying “very close attention” to the 2000 presidential campaign--and less than half the voting-age population cast ballots in the last presidential election.

The “NewsHour” is the most respected, most substantive TV news program in the nation, and here it was showing presidential candidates stroking livestock and displaying the skills of high school dropouts.

Such corn may be fine for Iowa and its state fair, but why must it lead the national news? Well, we’re told, this really was about the Iowa Republican straw poll. You know, that very meaningful straw poll that never has produced a GOP presidential nominee, let alone a president. Indeed, Ronald Reagan finished fourth there 20 years ago, one year before his electoral landslide.

This time, Bush may well make Iowa history by being elected president despite having won its straw poll. But there will be no correlation. As Times political writers Ronald Brownstein and Mark Z. Barabak wrote, that exercise last Saturday “did more to reaffirm than reshape the GOP presidential race.”

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So why all the hype? Why did 600 members of the news media descend on Ames? Why did their stories lead the national TV news and major papers across the country?

You may have heard and read the official justifications, some of which don’t track:

* The candidates’ organizing skills were on display. What organizing skills? Organizing bus tours? The candidates provided free bus transportation, food, entertainment and $25 voting tickets to Iowa attendees. What does any of that have to do with organizing a presidency?

* This started the winnowing out process. Nonsense. Lamar Alexander already was in the political grave waiting to be buried. If Dan Quayle and Orrin Hatch had any sense, they’d give it up too; nobody needed the Iowa straw poll to tell they’re losers.

* This was the first vote of any kind. All other tests have been polls, endorsements and fund-raising.

Now we’re approaching the real truth.

The seldom-mentioned media fact of life is that every major news organization has committed substantial resources to covering the 2000 presidential campaign. And as any manager in any field knows, committed resources must be used. Or lost.

Reporters, editors, commentators, TV crews--with fat expense accounts; they’re now all in place and eager to be used. And they will be, even if the “vote” being covered essentially is meaningless, except as a state party moneymaker.

Feeding this are the August dog days in Washington, when the town is shut down politically and the news is slow. Something has to fill those time slots and news pages.

For reporters, a commonplace burg like Ames suddenly takes on the exciting aura of a convention city, where war stories are exchanged with friendly rivals and contacts are cultivated among politicos, often over long, relaxing meals.

This is the nature of every election. And it helps explain why we tend to keep a race alive when most people--the public and even the pundits--

figure it’s really over. One way--subconsciously perhaps--is through the expectations game: Sure, he won that skirmish, but not by as much as expected. This is still a fight.

Right!

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California Secretary of State Bill Jones has been pushing a proposal that would stretch out the nominating process and, hopefully, lessen the focus on such non-events as a straw poll. He would hold a rotating series of regional primaries during the spring of the election year. Thus, it would be unlikely that a candidate could sew up the nomination early, as is sure to happen next March with all the front-loaded primaries.

Candidates would be forced to campaign in more states and be specific about issues, national and regional--like rutted interstates.

Jones’ idea has drawn some national support and is being considered for 2004.

“We need to raise the presidential election process to the level it deserves,” he says.

We meaning the politicians and the media alike.