Opinion : Where are all the presidential candidates?

Is it something we said?

Over the six to eight months of the multi-facited battle that has become the race for the 2012 Republican nomination for President of the United States, something has struck me as odd. And what is funny about it is that it is exactly the same thing that happened four years ago.

Think back a bit to 2007. Think back to a year when both the Democratic and Republican parties had multiple candidates for their parties' nomination and with Iowa being the first-in-the-nation litness test with the Caucuses, we were, literally, the center of the political universe.

But as we reflect back on 2007, let's look at something very carefully. We had a ton of candidate visits right here in Vinton from the end of May right up until the days before the caucus. Obama, Clinton, Biden, Edwards, Dodd, and Richardson all made at least one visit to town; most made at least two. Datelines of Vinton appeared on the three major networks, CNN, Fox and even the BBC. Heck, as the publisher of the first paper in the state to endorse a candidate, I even ended up on a national radio show! Of course, three months later I got deposed as publisher for those comments, but I digress.

You'll notice a recurring theme in the list I just made. The theme is that they were all Democrats. Only two Republicans ever came to Vinton: Sam Brownback and Mike Huckabee. Brownback's visit was in June or July and he dropped out of the race shortly thereafter. Huckabee went on to win the Iowa Caucuses (for all of the good it did him). (There was, although, an urban legend that Fred Thompson was in town but I never saw him; Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson visited Shellsburg before dropping out of the race before the Iowa Caucus.)

But John McCain, Mitt Romney, Rudy Gulliani, and the rest of the GOP field was no where to be found. They all made trips to the bigger cities, but small towns like Vinton, nope.

Near as I can see is that, so far, we've had Ron Paul in town and Rick Santorum in the county and that's about it.

Am I missing something? Was it something we said? Or is it simply that the Republican candidates for President simply don't care about rural Iowa? Once again, the candidates have hit college campuses, the big cities and that's about it.

How is it that four years ago Vinton and Benton County were seemingly one of the vortexes in the storm that was the race for the Democratic nomination for President (which the Democrats ultimately won), but for the GOP (both four years ago and today), we are a fly-over or drive-through?

What is even stranger is the fact that the chairman of the Iowa Republican Party is a Benton County native. Matt Strawn, the honor student, four-sport superstar for the Benton Community Bobcats of the early 1990s and one-time aide to Newt Gingrich was born and raised here. Matt, old buddy? Where's the love? You can't steer Mitt or Newt or someone else into town? Heck, we'd settle for your alma mater.

Whatever it is, show rural Iowans -- the people you grew up with -- that we matter. Don't make the young kids and elderly, whose lives hinge so tightly to the outcome of the 2012 election have to drive an hour in December weather to ask a candidate a question. How can we decide if one of these candidates is someone worth supporting if all we see about them are TV sound bites and canned debate responses?

There is a reason that Iowa has been given the honor of being first in the nation in the nomination process for President. But if the candidates aren't going to come and talk to us, why should we support them?

Was it something we said?