You have to love this headline from the Concord Monitor:
Frontloaded primary takes stuffing out of Iowa’s straw poll
And the lede:
So far, the New Hampshire primary doesn’t seem to be suffering from the front-loading of the presidential nominating calendar. For some candidates, the New Hampshire events may be bigger than normal. But they’re still coming, and voters are still turning out to see them.
Is the same true in Iowa? News that Republican presidential candidates John McCain and Rudy Giuliani were skipping an Iowa straw poll – conceding the event to Mitt Romney – made headlines last week. And last month, the New York Times reported that Hillary Clinton’s campaign staff had considered whether Clinton should stop competing in Iowa (they ultimately rejected that plan).
In other words, according to the monitor, NH is important. Iowa isn’t. I am not sure I agree, but … this a news story. What boosterism!
