Plunderbund

Ted Strickland’s comments about the presidential nominating process in Iowa, published in the Dispatch on Sunday, have made national news.

Ted called the process “hugely undemocratic” because it “excludes so many people” - adding “Anyone who happens to be working or is sick or too old to get out for a few hours Thursday night won’t be able to participate.”

The Clinton folks, of course, immediately issued a statement saying they disagree with Strickland on this issue. And Wolf Blitzer and the rest of CNN’s ‘Best Political Team On Television’ debated over whether Clinton’s people knew- or even approved of Ted’s message.

But no one seemed to be asking the more obvious question: is Ted right?

Well today the Dispatch published another article on the subject of Iowa- and this one seems to clearly address that question.

The article describes the caucus process in detail and provides interesting examples of how precinct captains try to win over participants to their candidate through promises of free food or services- or even through intimidation.

But more importantly it contains a relevant quote from Larry Sabato that seems to show Ted isn’t alone in his opinion.

Speaking about the Iowa process, Larry Sabato (aka “the best-known political analysts in the country”) said: “It is undemocratic.”

You can’t ask for a more direct answer than that.