The Iowa Straw Poll: Been There, Done That

This week the mainstream media's primary focus has been on the Iowa Straw Poll which will be conducted in Ames, Iowa tomorrow, so as one who attended the last straw poll during the last presidential election cycle, let me just say that this Republican Party fundraiser is nothing more than that...

A fundraiser.

Not at all an indication of just where and what level of support most of those "candidates" for the Republican nomination lies.

First of all, during the one I attended four years ago, the cost to attend and cast your "vote" was $75 per person, or $150 per couple, and all the proceeds were earmarked for the corporate Republican Party's benefit. Most all of the candidates advertise in the local Iowa papers attempting to trump up attendance and support for this nonevent.

And last election cycle, Mr. Romney was the most well organized of all, even paying the cost of those tickets for those who committed to attend in advance, providing them with "Romney" tee-shirts and a free western style barbeque prior to the speechifying, and during the voting and subsequent ballot count. He even provided buses to and from the campus for those that wished to reserve a seat.

Upon arrival, the Romney contingent in their campaign provided golf carts which raced enmass to the buses as they arrived in order to escort them to Romney Central, and past any and all of those "other" Republican candidates, or their supporters.

In fact, the eventual winner of the nomination didn't even attend this event, and as has been suspected by most former Republicans cum Independents, the actual serious candidate that has the corporate support of the movers and shakers within that party, and their campaign backers, has already been selected, to be announced after Super Tuesday.

The "dark horse" candidate which will enter late, in order to "save the day" for the party and the nation running his campaign on a shoestring budget, or the Evangelical vote.

In other words, with Rick Perry's noncandidacy at this point, while being heralded as the write in candidate, look forward to another candidate from the erstwhile "Republican" Party to rerun the Bush years from the Bush state, with the Bush agenda and Bush constituents.

And don't look for "change" once again to be a campaign slogan for either Mr. Obama, or Bush III.

Rather, more of the same.

Or, "second verse, same as the first" only much, much worse.

After all, hitting bottom only applies to "people" not "governmental special interest corporations."

No matter how Mr. Romney or the Republican Party or Democratic Party (those labor unions, and THEIR other "corporate" backers) defines "people."