>Now, if I’ve understood this correctly, the votes of around 9% of Iowans (that would be 0.008% of the entire US population…) serve as an early indication of which candidates for President might win the nomination of their party.

That’s what Tim Russert said on NBC on New Year’s Day, anyway.

And he reckons that the vote in Iowa (traditionally and this year especially) will give HUGE momentum to the candidates winning there going into the New Hampshire primary and from there onto the other primaries to be held in the next few weeks.
(If you’re expected to win but don’t, you’d appear to be pretty much stuffed, according to Tim)

So if I’ve got this right (and you have to believe me that I’ve researched this – I’m not making it up – honest), a tiny, non-representative group of voters (those with both time on their hands – you have to physically turn up and spend a couple of hours in discussions – and an interest in party politics – you have to be registered with a party, but you CAN switch on the day…) decide in a non-secret ballot, the votes of which don’t necessarily carry the same sway due to the weighting process based on the precinct’s previous voting record, on who’s going to possibly be the party’s candidate for the presidential election?

Okaaay……