Professor Bainbridge: "I Was Just Being Sarcastic" When I Called Iowans A Bunch Of Yahoo-Infested Pissants

Bainbridge has a followup post on his own site ("I was just being sarcastic!") and then repeats himself:

Yet, neither Iowa, New Hampshire, nor South Carolina is particularly representative of the country as a whole. We need a meaningful reexamination of the Presidential process in which the parochial interests of three otherwise rather unimportant states are not allowed to preempt what is in the national interest.

Prof Bainbridge, what do you mean by "representative of the country as a whole"?

Which state is representative of the country as a whole? I mean that as a serious question... I don't think that question can be answered without lots of people poking holes into whatever state you bring forth as an example (race, median age, educational makeup, commerce, population, number of metropolitan areas, topography, political affiliation, past history, et al)

I've already demonstrated that Iowans generally vote in similar numbers as the overall national electorate. People in California don't, especially for the 2000 and 2004 elections.

Now I'm not defending Iowa's first-in-the-nation status, I never have, but where do you think candidates would visit if California had the first primary? That's right, only the major metro areas. Do you think for a second that they would appear in some small town to meet with 30 or 40 locals and talk the issues? No, they wouldn't. Only the richest, most capitalized candidates would be able to compete. You'd see rallies only at major arenas. Everything would be scripted and bland.

This is also the same end-result you'd see if the Electoral College was abolished and only the popular vote was used to elect a president. You'd never see anybody campaigning in Burlington or Storm Lake or Shenandoah or even Ottumwa. They'd all be in Chicago or St Louis or Mpls or Kansas City. They might make a stop in Des Moines, but only on their way to Omaha.

By the way, Iowa is not infested with Yahoos. Iowa is infested with politicians who gave a rich company like Google a bunch of breaks so they didn't have to pay their fair share of property or energy taxes.

With all that said, I must say that I enjoyed Lileks' comparison, too.