Being in politics, said Minnesota Democrat Sen. Eugene McCarthy, is like coaching football: You have to be smart enough to understand the game and dumb enough to think it is important. The game of presidential politics is especially arcane in the cunning weirdness of the Ames straw poll, a quadrennial fundraising event for Iowa's Republican Party.
Republicans praise entrepreneurship, and in Iowa they practice what they preach. The poll, first staged in 1979, occurs Saturday. It will record the presidential preferences of persons transported to Ames by competing candidates, who will also buy their supporters' $30 tickets. It would be naughty to compare this to a poll tax, but it does purchase the right to vote. Supporters will be fed, flattered and entertained in spaces the candidates rent for that purpose, this year paying a minimum of $15,000, and up to $31,000 for the best one.
Ron Paul paid $31,000, which is good news about inflation: In 1999, George W. Bush paid $43,500. Paul wins many straw polls because his intense supporters nurse an implacable grudge against the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. The New York Times says Paul's online fundraising event "Ready, Ames, Fire" added $550,000 to the $4.5 million he collected in the second quarter. Also, events seem to be validating his message, which is that the country's financial condition is awful.