She the People: our predictions for Iowa

The Washington Post's She the People Blog ^ | January 2, 2012 | Melinda Henneberger

[2ndDivisionVet]

Welcome to the Post’s new politics and culture blog, “She the People: The World as Women See It.” Though dedicated to the proposition that politics properly understood encompasses just about everything, I thought we’d start with some predictions about Tuesday’s caucuses in Iowa, where a bunch of our writers rang in the new year with Republicans.

My own bet is that Rick Santorum will indeed score the surprise of the night, just as he told me he would . Yet even if he wins outright, four years from now in Iowa, I further predict that we in the media will keep right on badgering all candidates who aren’t leading the pack at that moment with question after question about why they haven’t wised up and dropped out already. I mean, once is fine, but beyond that, what’s the point? Are we hoping they’ll burst into tears? Is there nothing else we’d like to hear from them? For readers and particularly viewers, these harangues are an utterly uninformative waste of time.

(Case in point? By the time Christiane Amanpour asked Jon Huntsman for the fourth time what the heck he thought he was doing running for president, I might have been shouting a little. Question five was legit: Did you flipflop on climate change? Then, the final query: If Newt Gingrich is the nominee, hint hint, will you support him? A couple of days later, ABC announced Amanpour had been reassigned, and I felt kind of bad, as if I thought maybe her bosses had heard me carrying on.) Yet though this line of questioning has yet to yield a single interesting reply, we seem quite committed to it...

[CainConservative]

Washington Compost Toilet = Obama’s Media Wing

[SunkenCiv]

Melinda Henneberger’s “She the People Blog” for the Washington Post. Thanks 2ndDivisionVet.

[Talisker]

Welcome to the Post’s new politics and culture blog, “She the People: The World as Women See It.”

Hillary's running.