The national tire kickers of Iowa

Washington Times:

Iowans say they deserve the first presidential nominating contest because they know how to kick the campaigns' tires — but kick the tires of the voters and you find an unlikely cast of voters to have such a disproportionate say in the next president.

They are the dedicated, the angry, the calculating, the reluctant, the enthusiastic and the downright paranoid. They range from the man in Pella who loudly insisted to reporters nobody was talking about his issue — trade with China — to the aspiring strategists who use their moments with the candidates to complain about how they spend their time on the campaign trail.

And then there are the back-seat pundits who want to handicap the field's chances rather than talk about the issues.

"Your numbers nationally have been very good — in the state of Iowa, not so good," one man told Rudolph W. Giuliani on the former New York mayor's visit to Fort Dodge last week. "Where do you need to be in order to be considered a success?"

...

If I were Rudy, I would probably have said, "Some other state."

My friends in Iowa make the case that the states voters are knowledgeable and take their task seriously. It is hard to argue with the latter, but the Democrats nomination of Kerry four years ago, puts the former into question.

An AP poll suggest the rest of America is saying the two states have too much influence over the selection process.