AppId is over the quota
To try to understand why so many voters are uncommitted, this reporter talked to some Iowa Republicans as they made their choices — if, indeed, they have made choices.
TWICE BROKEN-HEARTED
In the summer days leading up to the Ames Straw Poll, that early, informal contest for presidential contenders, Jason Anderson was “totally pumped up,” as he put it, for Tim Pawlenty, a former governor of Minnesota who seemed to be a promising candidate for the Republican nomination.
“He gave me such a good feeling that six or seven of my buddies, all Tim fans, we drove out to the poll to root for him,” said Mr. Anderson, 35, right, a father of two from Ankeny, a small town north of Des Moines. “It was like a rock concert, we were so excited.”
Mr. Anderson’s emotions were different the next day, when Mr. Pawlenty, finishing in a disappointing third place, dropped out of the race.
“I felt it in a big way,” Mr. Anderson said.
His mood brightened again only when Herman Cain’s candidacy took off two months later. In Mr. Cain’s business-minded philosophies, Mr. Anderson, who works in the auto insurance industry, thought he had found another good match. But when Mr. Cain suspended his campaign in the face of escalating accusations of sexual misconduct in early December, Mr. Anderson felt that sinking feeling again. Frustration ensued.
In an interview in mid-December, Mr. Anderson vented: “I hate wavering back and forth. It’s been like a rollercoaster.”
But what was he to do? Mr. Anderson said he found Mitt Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, “too fake.” Gov. Rick Perry of Texas was “without a clue.” Representative Michele Bachmann did not seem to know her facts, he said, and Newt Gingrich, a former House speaker, smacked of old news.
It was not until Christmas, when a guest at a family gathering asked, “Have you looked at Ron Paul?” that Mr. Anderson realized he had not.
“I can’t explain why it hadn’t occurred to me, but the more I learned about him, the more I liked Ron Paul,” he said. “Not everything, of course, but you’re never going to find the perfect candidate. And this is not just about jumping on a bandwagon, although I do want to back someone who has a chance to win on Tuesday.”
“My wife and I are for small government and less spending, and he’s all about that,” Mr. Anderson said, dismissing some of Mr. Paul’s more controversial positions, like his goal of eliminating the Federal Reserve, as “obviously highly unlikely.”
“I’ll be voting for him, and I don’t see anything changing,” Mr. Anderson said. “Two weeks ago, I was confused and distraught about the whole thing. Now I’m happy.”
SUPPORTERS? SURE. FANS? THAT’S A BIT MUCH.
When Arthur and Norma Doenecke went into semiretirement, leaving their busy lives on the East Coast behind almost 10 years ago and moving to rural Iowa, one perk of their new life was the ability to indulge in a close-up look at national politics, a favorite pastime. And last year, they were almost everywhere the candidates were: at picnics and rallies, dinners and forums and debates. Open the March 21 issue of Time magazine and see them in a photograph paying rapt attention to Newt Gingrich at a campaign stop.
“I was standing behind him but, as I told my friends, that didn’t mean I was standing for him,” Dr. Doenecke, a family physician, was careful to note with a sly smile. A moderate Republican, he takes his responsibility as a caucusgoer in the democratic process so seriously that the founding fathers would swoon.
Mrs. Doenecke, a former advertising executive, is no different. “We believe that if you aren’t informed and if you don’t vote, you really don’t have a right to criticize your country or your government,” she said.
Yet for most of this political season, the couple, below, has been undecided about whom to support, finding more faults with the Republican contenders than anything that would spark excitement. Their decision-making boiled down to a rather crude process of elimination, and in the end, there was one man standing. But barely.
That man is Mitt Romney.
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