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DEFERRING TO OUR BETTERS

August 13, 2007

I'll be the last person to defend Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses as being somehow sacred, or even helpful to the selection of a president. After all, it's how we got Jimmy Carter; it's amazing that Iowa wasn't disbanded and split among its neighbors after that fiasco.

Still, my self-esteem was crushed by the rapier-like wit of California's Professor Bainbridge. Referring to Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, he asks:

How is it that we persist in allowing these unrepresentative, yahoo infested, pissant states decide who gets to run for President?

He seems a bit defensive about this today, saying he "was mostly being sarcastic." Mostly? Very subtle, Dr. Bainbridge's sarcasm. I guess that's why so many of us yahoos missed it.

The nation surely could use more of the savoir-faire and sophistication that California brings to the national debate. Like this:

Not to mention the intellectual firepower that California brings to the table. Some examples:

Charles Manson

O.J.

Nancy Pelosi

And, of course, the Professor himself, from the land where "We produce cutting edge technology, world class wine, and much of the nation's food crop," of which evidently the good Professor claims his fair share.