Easedropping in Iowa

As an Iowan for over 20 years, I am well aware that the 2016 presidential campaign is well underway.  The fact that Ted Cruz has formally announced his candidacy is almost a technicality rather than an event.  Soon there will be an uncountable number of visits from politicians who would in the absence of otherwise never set foot in the state.  It is an interesting phenomenon.  Iowans really are middle America.  The state is neither securely Republican nor is it Democratic.  A truly purple state.

So what were people saying this week?  I was at my dentist's office and overheard a conversation between a number of Republican farmers.  I know they are farmers because that is where the conversation started, and since they did not discuss one Democratic potential candidate, I am assuming they were Republicans.  They started with Cruz.  One thought he was impossibly stupid, the other two were convinced he was smart (they probably missed his performance at his filibuster, where his intelligence was certainly in question), but none of them liked him.  At all.  They did not warm to Scott walker either.  His foreign policy faux pas didn't sit right with them.  They all agreed that Jeb Bush is the best of the Bush's, but he was just to repetitious.  I think I might have to spend some time in downtown diners in small towns because I enjoyed hearing them talk.  But I do fear 2016.