The Republican caucuses in Iowa will soon be history, not a moment too soon for most of us but especially for Iowans themselves. For months, they have been bombarded with TV ads and swarmed by plagues of politicians. Even worse, they have been diced, sliced, anatomized, psychoanalyzed and socially parsed by teams of visiting journalists and even some local writers, all straining on slow news days to explain to readers and viewers what makes this bellwether state tick, anyway.
As a native Iowan, gone since youth but a frequent visitor in recent years, I may be permitted a voice in this debate, both on the state itself and on how it's being presented, before the spotlight shifts to New Hampshire and leaves Iowa in grateful obscurity for another four years.