by D. Cupples | In the article "An Odd Couple with Big Influence," the Washington Post's Joel Achenbach makes interesting observations about the two small states basking in big political attention these days: Iowa and New Hampshire. Achenbach writes:
"As is apparent to any candidate or strategist or journalist shuttling from Manchester to Des Moines and back (flying over such temporarily irrelevant places as Ohio and Illinois), the two states are about as similar as ethanol and granola. As dirt and granite. As a John Deere tractor and a moose."
"There is the recurring linear/bent, flat/rugged, dull/eccentric distinction. Iowa is a place where the relatively flat terrain has been graded and plowed and laser-leveled even flatter on behalf of industrial agriculture. From the air it is a checkerboard, defined by "sections" platted long before humans busted the prairie sod. Amid the corn and soybeans, the occasional human structure pokes up like a jimson weed.
"New Hampshire, by contrast, is heavily warped and woofed. It is full of mountain hollows and tumbling streams and roads that refuse to go in a straight line....
"Iowa has monocultures (corn, soybeans, evangelical Christians), while New Hampshire has micro-cultures (dairy farmers, factory workers, college professors, art colony inhabitants, Slow Food advocates, lumberjacks, commuters to Boston).
"Iowa's farmers and evangelicals are potentially huge voting blocs. In New Hampshire there are no voting blocs, and citizens have such an independent streak that a candidate would be lucky to carry all the registered voters in any particular household...."
See the rest of Joel's piece here.
As I discussed a few days ago (in a post linked below), those of you who enjoy betting should not base your wagers on polling data. Among Democratic candidates, for example, a CNN poll of likely Iowa-Caucus goers places Clinton at 33%, Obama at 31%, and Edwards at 22%. Meanwhile, a poll by the Des Moines Register put Obama in the lead at 32%, Clinton at 25% and Edwards at 24%.
Among Republican candidates, the CNN poll puts Romney at 31% and Huckabee at 28%; the Des Moines Register poll puts Huckabee ahead of Romney. 32% to 26%.
Memeorandum has tons of primary coverage.
Other BN-Politics Posts:
* Primary 2008: Polls Don't Mean Much
* Something's Amiss at Gallup: Approval Ratings & Mid-East Peace
* Hitchens On Iowa Caucus: "Undemocratic Processes"
* U.S. Financial Condition "Deteriorated Dramatically since 2000"
* High Cost of Private Contractors
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