Courting Iowa

By David Von Drehle

The Iowa caucus, the first stop on the road to a presidential nomination, says a lot about America. What it says, though, is not necessarily the first message that comes through.

That's because campaigning in the state is surrounded by such a delicious coating of Americana. Candidates speechify in town squares as skeptical grandparents listen intently and clear-eyed children squirm. Farmers sip coffee in diners as would-be Presidents just happen to amble in. It's all square dancers and hay bales and long, straight roads through amber waves of grain.

But if the backdrops are colored by Norman Rockwell, the soul of the Iowa caucus belongs to the heirs of Saul Alinsky and Phyllis Schlafly--the committed political organizers who have meant more to democracy than a hundred miles of red-white-and-blue bunting. Iowa is all about the power of small, highly motivated groups to influence politics beyond their raw numbers. And that's an American story as eternal as the Boston Tea Party, the abolitionists and the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott.

The countdown to Jan. 14 begins this week with the GOP straw poll in Ames, which coincides with the state fair in Des Moines. Journalists will describe the luscious pork chops and the cow sculpted from butter. Meanwhile, the Iowa GOP will pocket about $1 million for party-building expenses. The straw poll is Frank Capra only on the surface. At heart, it's the party's No.1 fund raiser.