We've got caucus fever!

The growing Iowa caucus excitement is officially the most invigorating event to hit Iowa since... the last presidential caucus. January is going to be nuts, people. NUTS. Cornfields will be blazing with enthusiasm.

Seriously though: Why does Iowa matter? DOES caucusing matter?

The first big event of the '08 election, Iowa's January 3rd caucus will spearhead the primary process. BUT it is not a primary. The Iowa caucus is pretty much a bunch of really stuffy and organized jam sessions where Iowans begin the stacking-doll delegate election that chooses county delegates, who will choose district and state delegates, who will choose national delegates, who will choose a candidate in the primaries.

Is your head spinning yet?

Lucky for us, Hillary lays it all out in the glorious "Caucusing is Easy":



(Bill Clinton! -er- His wife! for president. Seriously, you OPEN with Bill? Come on Hill, grow a pair. But I digress.)

So DOES Iowa matter? Some people say no. Its power lies in the fact that it's the first official indication of public opinion in the election (which the news junkies playing Fantasy Election will be drooling over). But Iowa's track record of picking winners isn't stellar. In '88 they paired Gephardt and Dole (good call, kids).

Now I wonder, why is Iowa first, if its weird caucus powwow hangout system is so crazy and doesn't seem to immediately affect, well, anything? Those eggheads over at Stanford explain that it's Iowa's very whacked-out nature that makes it helpful. Even if they're not picking winners, they're at least "weeding out the losers." And Iowans would be experts on losers, right? (still bitter about our football loss...).

So if you've bookmarked "I've got a crush on Obama" since it came out or you're the one whose been taping those Ron Paul posters to the ground all over campus, you'll definitely care. Otherwise... don't get your hopes up until at least the New Hampshire primaries. (And if anything, tune in to Tsunami Tuesday on February 5th, the insane day that 23 states are caucusing. To quote Willem Dafoe, it will be a firefight. And don't worry, Illinois doesn't pull any of that caucus bullshit. We keeps it real.)

Oh, and here's a calendar of the primary/caucus dates coming up. Trust CBS to give us something this awesome. After all, they bring us Bob Schieffer on a regular basis.

xo

As an aside, my plan to read 60 pages of philosophy a day to atone for the fact that I haven't done any reading all quarter has devolved into 10 pages of Atlantic Monthly, 30 pages of Cosmo, a brief obsession with parkour YouTube videos, and about a half hour of watching someone's ribcage get ripped out in Saw III. I am pretty good at college, let me tell ya.