In Defense Of Iowa

I'm with Phil Weiss:

The Iowa process is completely transparent and charming. It is quirky. Again, if you have the gumption, you get to play your part. And the people who take part are highly informed and willing to dig their cars out of the snow, etc. That's the sort of elitism I like: a democratic elite.

Whatever happens this week, the process has done one thing: it really has flushed out a lot about the candidates. If Clinton wins, her opponents will at least be reassured that we were able to put all the bad stuff on the table, prevent an unexamined rush to a coronation, and air the salient issues (with the sole and understandable exception of her husband's potential bimbo eruptions). If Obama wins, the question of his relative newness to national life will have been throughly aired. Even the slick Romney machine has been laid bare - and the real Rudy revealed. These are good things; very few other countries get to do this kind of thing. The current prime minister of Britain, for example, went through no such democratic hazing. I've been particularly impressed by the GOP: they've let it all hang out. And given what has been done to conservatism under Bush, that was more than necessary.