Hawkeye Cauci, <\/a>and it has been fascinating all morning and during the day yesterday to watch the media. My gosh, they are so excited. They are ten times as excited as anybody else is about this. It\u2019s funny to watch. Now, to put this in a little more perspective — and this is not to disparage the Hawkeye Cauci — but there\u2019s not a single delegate chosen tonight. Nothing that happens tonight really leads to votes in terms of delegates at a convention. It\u2019s a glorified straw poll. And I\u2019m not putting it down, don\u2019t misunderstand. I think it\u2019s one of the greatest marketing schemes ever, otherwise who would go to Iowa in January, who would ever do that? But because of this, once every four years, the world goes there in January. That\u2019s a great marketing thing, you have to give \u2019em credit. Since 1979, only three Hawkeye Cauci winners have gone on to win the Republican nomination. <\/line><\/p>\nNow, you would never know this from the breathless coverage out there, ladies and gentlemen, but the Hawkeye Cauci don\u2019t even start until eight o\u2019clock tonight Eastern. That\u2019s seven o\u2019clock Central time. I don\u2019t know what most Iowans do. Do most Iowans go home and have dinner and then head to the caucus location or do they — (interrupion) well, I know most don\u2019t participate, that\u2019s true. But the actual cauci participants, do they go home and have dinner and show up all filled up, waddling in there or they go in empty? (interruption) Well, this is something I would think about if I were gonna go to the caucus, do you eat beforehand or do you eat afterwards. But it runs until about ten o\u2019clock Central time. I don\u2019t think probably too many restaurants are open at ten o\u2019clock, eleven o\u2019clock eastern. Well, you know, in January, Iowa, happy hour before the cauci sounds like a great day to me. What a great Tuesday, happy hour, cauci, go home, see who won. <\/p>\n
By the way, we want to send a shout-out to David Yepsen. This is the one time every four years that he gets his name on TV. He\u2019s a former reporter for the Des Moines Register, who once every four years was on every show every day leading up to the Hawkeye Cauci. Then the other three years and 11 months of the cycle nobody cared, nobody knew what he was doing. He\u2019s moved on now to the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, which is a left-wing think tank, but he\u2019s still the go-to guy in Iowa, David Yepsen. I just saw him, first time I\u2019ve seen him since 2008. He\u2019s an expert. So it\u2019s a big deal for him. But the media, you know they hate this. The media really hate having to pretend to care what people in Iowa think. You know these inside-the-Beltway types, they\u2019re out there, they\u2019re putting on a good face, but there\u2019s a lot of resentment that people in Iowa have anything to say.<\/p>\n
So, as far as the media is concerned, the more kooky or extreme the Republican nominee, the better, because they think they\u2019re in a foreign country today. They have visas. They are ready at checkpoints to show that they are legal entrants into the state of Iowa. Then you got New Hampshire down the pike, and here they are pretending to care about all of this. And that\u2019s why they love the fact that Ron Paul\u2019s doing well in Iowa and Santorum, the kookier — not that Santorum\u2019s kooky, but Paul clearly in their mind is and so the most extreme wacko result in Iowa, the better, as far as the media is concerned. <\/p>\n
Now, something else about this. Again, only three cauci winners have gone on to win the Republican nomination since 1979. So it is not axiomatic. It is not automatic that whoever wins the Hawkeye Cauci is going to be the Republican nominee. <\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
RUSH: The record — the record — for a GOP Hawkeye Cauci is 119,000 (119,000 people turned out). That was in 2008. That was a record, and the party officials expect that that will be broken tonight. The weather is okay in Iowa. It\u2019s chilly. It was 13 degrees this morning, but no precip\u2019 is in the forecast. But still we are talking about fewer than 120,000 people. I don\u2019t know what percentage that is of the entire state population. But it is a relatively small turnout — and, you know, there are people, both parties that run around and say, “Why is it that Iowa and New Hampshire always have such influence over the election of a president? What is it? Why don\u2019t we do this all on the same day?” Every four years, these same complaints surface.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the political system; it\u2019s the way it is. It\u2019s the way it has been, a lot of tradition that is involved here. But you\u2019d have to say since 1979… And, by the way, I don\u2019t want anybody in Iowa to misunderstand. I\u2019m not of the school of thought that says Iowa should not be first. I don\u2019t think that. That\u2019s not my point. I\u2019m not going there. Even if I thought so, it\u2019s about that big a deal. For people who say that Iowa and New Hampshire have way too much influence, how can you when only three Hawkeye Cauci winners since 1979 have actually ended up being the Republican nominee? Just how much influence has there been? How many elections: \u201980, \u201984, \u201988, \u201992. It\u2019s not every year that who wins Hawkeye Cauci gets the Republican nomination. (interruption)<\/p>\n
Well, that\u2019s true, but that\u2019s a large function of money, too. It all works out, you know, people will decide to get out after a poor showing in Iowa. But that wouldn\u2019t matter if it was a poor showing in Wyoming, if Wyoming happened to be first. Whatever is first, whoever doesn\u2019t do well there — and, by the way, you look at Iowa and there\u2019s some interesting things, issue-wise about Iowa. For example, the economy is not the number one issue there. The economy in Iowa is not bad. Unemployment in Iowa is only 5.7%. Agriculture is doing well in Iowa. In fact, CNNMoney.com has a story about this fact: “Iowa\u2019s Economy: Not Issue No. 1? — If there is one state where the economy might not be issue No. 1, it\u2019s Iowa.”<\/p>\n
So you could say, “Well, then why we doing Iowa first?” because the economy clearly is a number one issue. The economy clearly is the number one issue to far more people in this country. But Iowa has, according to CNNMoney.com here, “emerged relatively unscathed from the housing bubble and financial crisis … [U]nemployment is relatively low. Farmland — and its edible bounty — are in high demand. Home prices are stable. … Compared to those other early-voting states, Iowa\u2019s economy is in good shape.” It\u2019s not issue number one, and it hasn\u2019t been. In fact, “Only five states have lower unemployment than Iowa\u2019s 5.7% rate. (New Hampshire … is one of them.)<\/p>\n
New Hampshire is also a state where the economy — and particularly jobs — are not number one at the top of the list. Now, some people might say, “Well, that\u2019s no good! For crying out loud, that is the issue with everybody around the country.” Jobs… There are so many myths: The income gap getting wider? It isn\u2019t. The rich getting richer? They aren\u2019t. You know, people move in and out of all these financial categories constantly. They\u2019re all fluid. But you\u2019ve got the first two states here that do not fit the mold of what the presidential campaign\u2019s gonna focus on, and that\u2019s the economy. So Obamacare is an issue. Government size, government reach, have been issues in Iowa. But the economy isn\u2019t. Well, how relative is that, then, since it is in the rest of the country? It all works out over time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
RUSH: Happy New Year, everyone, from all of us here at the EIB Network. I probably ought to begin by wishing everybody a Happy New Year here in the vast EIB audience. I, of course, El Rushbo, the all-knowing, all-caring, all loved Maha Rushie, most listened to and most talked about. I cannot believe how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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