As Monday's Democratic caucuses in Iowa drifted into Tuesday's long search for a winner, the unfolding debacle evoked miserable memories.
Ah yes, the 2000 presidential election, with Florida officials looking as flummoxed as Democratic Party officials did Monday night in Des Moines. The quest to identify a Florida victor--eventually Republican George W. Bush, by 537 voters--added the phrase "hanging chads" to the political lexicon.
What went wrong with the counting? We can't yet explain. Neither can officials of the Iowa Democratic Party. Phrases such as "technical problems," "malfunctioning app" and "quality checks" won't suffice.
Keep in mind that caucuses are party-run events, not state-run primary elections. So Republicans are crowing about Democratic incompetence. What will sting Democrats more than this embarrassment, though, is the image of a party in search of voter-validated front-runners, yet unable to parade Monday's winner(s) before national TV audiences Monday night and Tuesday morning.
That challenge only grew stiffer with the Fox News report that the Trump administration's Department of Homeland Security had offered to test the app for hacking before the caucuses, but the Democratic Party declined. Party officials retorted to that revelation with a statement that "in preparation for the caucuses, our systems were tested by independent cybersecurity consultants." So much for blaming President Trump.
Iowans are likely to continue caucusing. After Monday night's humiliation of the Democratic candidates, will the rest of us continue to care about future outcomes? To be determined.
Call this episode a debacle or a fiasco, but Iowa Dems hope you won't call it a circus. Four of the seven Ringling brothers were born in the Mississippi River town of McGregor, Iowa, north of Dubuque. What little remains of the brothers' empire is headquartered today in, yes, Florida.
That's yet another bad Florida association for Iowa Democrats. Neither they nor the Ringlings' descendants can boast of conducting The Greatest Show on Earth.
Editorial on 02/05/2020