Silly season in Ames

One of the drawbacks to Iowa's prominent position in the national political process is that an abnormally large percentage of the folks in both parties are, to use Alan Simpson's phrase, "a couple of tacos short of a combination platter." Mitt Romney got a good sample of the result last Friday at the Iowa State Fair, when he strove in vain to convince a gaggle of rabid Democrats that it's stockholders- many of them ordinary people, who rely on corporate profits to fund their 401k's- rather than CEO's who own corporations (that's the context of the quotation I predict you'll hear out of context through the whole campaign next year, if Romney is the nominee: "My friend, corporations are people."). "No!," the crowd kept shouting. "They (the corporations) keep it all (the profits) for themselves!"

In Ames on Saturday, their Republican counterparts had their day. The two crackpots in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul, finished first and second. The only electable candidate in the running at Ames, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, got less than half the votes of either. On Sunday, Pawlenty quit the race.

Paul is merely a distraction. His followers, while few in number, are very, very loyal- and very, very vocal. They are also often- like their candidate- quite eccentric. At my precinct caucus in 2008 they harangued us at length on the imminent threat of national ID cards, which they said were predicted in the Book of Revelation, and the acceptance of which would entail eternal damnation. Paul- an old-style Republican isolationist and a somewhat selective libertarian (he's strongly pro-life)- has some rather unique ideas concerning economics as well. He may very well make another impressive showing in the Iowa Caucuses next year, before repeating his 2008 pattern and quickly fading from view once the race moves to less balmy (in the English sense of the word) climes.

Bachmann, on the other hand, is a real threat. While she would have absolutely no chance of defeating President Obama even in very bad economic times (she would simply scare off the independents and centrists with her extremism), she is quickly establishing herself as the Mad Hatter of the Tea Party movement, and it's not impossible to imagine her riding that role to the nomination.

Gov. Rick Perry of Texas also got into the race Saturday. He'll compete with Bachmann for the social conservative vote. He, too, is a small-government economic conservative, although less strident than Bachmann. He has been an outspoken critic of Arizona's immigration law, and is on record as being pro-amnesty and as recognizing the impracticality of deporting all the illegal immigrants currently in the United States. This bit of realism will probably hurt him as much with Republican true believers as it has helped him to make Bush-style inroads in to the Hispanic vote in Texas.

Perry may possibly be too... well, Texan for the nation as a while. He's a big gun fan, and is on record as being one of the many Texans taken in by the urban legend that the treaty by which the Republic of Texas agreed to annexation by the United States guaranteed it a right to seceed if it chose at some time in the future. I don't know if anybody has set him straight on this point, but expect the Democrats and their allies in the media to talk about it a lot if the Perry candidacy prospers.

Perry might be electable. Or he might not. The jury is out. It will be interesting seeing how he handles himself in coming months. If he can position himself as a somewhat more experienced and less wild-eyed alternative to Bachmann, he could well be the nominee. He's especially well-positioned to be the alternative if Bachmann and front-runner Mitt Romney deadlock.

But with Pawlenty out, other than (possibly) Perry the only electable candidates are the two Mormons in the race, Romney and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman. Huntsman stands to inherit Romney's mantle as the candidate of the "establishment" wing of the Republican party if Romney stumbles. But he's in favor of civil unions (NOT "marriage") for same-sex couples, a position which will make him a hard-sell to social conservatives despite a very strong pro-life record. And he figures to remain in Romney's shadow until and unless the former Massachusetts governor somehow falls be the wayside; despite a resume that is probably better than any presidential candidate of either party since George H.W. Bush (Huntsman has been a White House staff assistant to President Ronald Reagan, Assistant Secretary of Commerce,  U.S. Ambassador to Singapore ,U.S. Trade Representative, and U.S. Ambassador to China as well as govenor of Utah), Huntsman lacks Romney's name recognition.

If Republicans want to win, it will have to be Perry (maybe) or one of the Mormons. In any case, the silly season known as the Ames Straw Poll is now history. More silliness is yet ahead, and we will probably hear at least a little more from Ron Paul when the Iowa Caucuses come.

But as of now, the 2012 presidential race has begun in earnest, too. Bachmann- unelectable though she is- is a formidable candidate for the nomination. And Romney and Perry seem, at the moment, to be the alternatives.