THE KUCINICH FACTOR [View All]

[dweller]

Will Saletan is exactly right to
argue that the criticism directed at Joe Lieberman and Wesley
Clark for deciding to skip the Iowa caucuses is completely
off-base, and mostly the product of ax-grinding by rivals and local
Iowa officials. For example, Iowa Democratic state chairman
Gordon Fischer asserts in today's Times that "hat strategy has
not worked before: Al Gore tried it in 1988 and John McCain
tried in 2000. It didn't work for either of them, and I predict it will
not work again." But, as Saletan points out, surely McCain (and
probably Gore) did better than he would have had he contested
Iowa.

Now, skipping Iowa obviously hurts you somewhat--mostly
because it means you cede exposure during the opening weeks of
the primary campaign, and momentum if you happen to do well
there. But, as the Times article points out, competing there
probably hurts people like Clark and Lieberman a lot more, since
it means spending limited resources in a state you have no chance
of winning (or even doing sufficiently well in to generate
momentum), which by definition diverts resources from states you
have a chance of winning.

But there's an even bigger way in which competing in Iowa could
hurt you, which the Times doesn't get into: losing to Dennis
Kucinich.

http://www.tnr.com/etc.mhtml">a bit more

depends how you read this, i suppose.
dp