The “three tickets out of Iowa” canard

I love listening to pundits pompously tell us there are three tickets of out Iowa or New Hampshire.

Can I suggest a great project for a Paulian computer maven? Start a website that tracks all the past predictions by these jokers.

The “tickets” concept is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you believe it, it’s true. If you do not, it’s not. Its truth rests on the MSM’s ever-decreasing ability to bamboozle the public. Yet, the public is now on the web, perhaps with the TV on across the room for laughs.

That said, there is a kernel of truth here. If you are a candidate lacking masses of people clamoring for you to run, you are a prisoner of this kind of media spin; you need the media’s help to create the illusion of a demand for your candidacy. Add to that two other factors: money and the need for the GOP establishment’s approval. If you need these, then indeed, you must get a “ticket” out of wherever.

Yet, if you have massive grassroots support and a bucket load of money and couldn’t care less about the GOP establishment, then the only ticket you need out of Iowa is a plane ticket.

(Not that such a candidate will not do well there by the way.)

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7:13 am on December 29, 2007