If you're from anywhere else, Iowa might be a fascinating place to be about once every four years. Our fifteen minutes of fame is called the Iowa Caucuses, the next episode of which is slated for January, 2008. The ramp-up has already begun, however, as most purported Presidential candidates have already come to visit at least once, trying to remember what one-on-one retail politics looks like and wishing they didn't have to bother.

Surrogates for former Iowa Governor/Democratic Presidential Candidate and current Hillary Clinton National Campaign Co-Chair Tom Vilsack have already called me several times to get me to commit for Hillary. A little early, fellas, don't you think? They call Democrats "yaller dogs" for a reason. It takes a lot of tail-sniffing to figure out who are friends are.

For those unfamiliar with the caucus process, this would entail meeting with between two and two hundred of my neighbors some night next January, and, when instructed to, moving to a corner of the room designated for Hillary supporters, who count each other and report the total to the precinct chairman.

From there, it's pretty much a game of "Red Rover". At the end of the night, whichever candidate's group has talked more people into coming over to their corner wins.

And what do they win? Why, delegates, of course. Delegates who move on to the county caucuses and do it all over again. THOSE winning delegates move on to district caucuses, then to state and finally the national party conventions. Incidentally, we also pick our electors to the Electoral College somewhere in the process, but that is merely a side-issue.

There are those who feel the Iowa Caucuses swing too much weight in Presidential elections and they may be right. What we're good at, though, is throwing out the outliers – those candidates who don't have a straw's chance in an Iowa windstorm, but who might look attractive until they get here. Howard Dean met his Waterloo in Des Moines, for example, even as John Kerry came up out of the pack here to win the Democratic nomination. He nearly won against a sitting president, too.

Hey, we already threw our own former Governor under the bus, we have to be good for something.