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Monday's caucuses represent the first important step in choosing a Democrat to challenge President Bush on security, the economy and other vital issues.
To the great relief of Iowans, their state's first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses will finally be held Monday evening. They will bring to an end the most intense, inescapable politicking Iowa has ever seen. Because this year's Democratic contest is unusually competitive and the delegate-selection schedule has been front-loaded, Iowans have been subjected to an unprecedented barrage of campaign ads, town square rallies, unwanted phone calls and startling knocks on the door. And because the candidates have been so ubiquitous, and so similar in their bashing of the Bush administration, many voters have been tempted to blur their images or tune them out altogether.
But beneath all the overheated rhetoric, flapjack-flipping and baby-kissing, the leading Democratic candidates have revealed important differences in philosophy and personality. Iowans have plenty to choose from - if they've been paying attention to the substance instead of the schtick.
Polls show that four candidates - former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts and Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina - are leading the pack in Iowa.
For much of the campaign, Dean has stood out by distinguishing himself from his three closest challengers in Iowa on the war in Iraq. Dean has been harshly critical of the Bush administration's war policy from the start.
Gephardt, Kerry and Edwards all supported the congressional resolution granting the president authority to go to war. Since then, they have all found fault with the White House's conduct of the war and its aftermath. They have well-rehearsed responses to those who suggest that their reversals smack of inconsistency or hypocrisy. But their complicated explanations, unlike Dean's clear antiwar views, don't fit into digestible sound bites.
The major candidates in Iowa also differ on the issue that will loom over all other discussions of domestic policy in the 2004 campaign and beyond: How can the country recover from the enormous long-term deficits created by the Bush administration's tax and spending policies?
Dean and Gephardt would repeal President Bush's tax cuts, including those that reduced taxes for the middle class. Kerry and Edwards (along with Wesley Clark and Joseph Lieberman, who are skipping the Iowa caucuses) would repeal cuts for the wealthiest taxpayers while maintaining or increasing tax breaks for low- and middle-income earners.
All of the candidates - including the president - owe voters an honest assessment of how their tax and spending policies would affect future deficits. Our system can't afford another election cycle of pandering on these issues.
Yet the president just engineered an expensive new prescription drug benefit for seniors and is proposing an ambitious expansion of the space program. Meanwhile, all of the major Democratic candidates deserve credit for introducing plans to cover some or all of the 43-million Americans who lack health insurance - but none of them have been clear about how they would pay for their programs without adding to the deficits.
Beyond the issues, the Democratic candidates offer a striking array of personalities and personal histories.
Gephardt, the son of a milk truck driver, and Edwards, the son of a textile mill worker, are powerful critics of Bush administration economic policies that benefit the very rich at the expense of the working class. Kerry and Clark are decorated war veterans who can speak with special authority on military and security issues. Dean, who grew up in privileged circumstances similar to President Bush's, gave up a lucrative Wall Street career to start a medical practice with his wife, serving families in rural Vermont.
The distinctions among the Democratic candidates, at least those who survive Iowa, will become sharper as the campaign moves to New Hampshire and beyond. Iowans play a special role in our nominating process, and they appear to be taking it seriously.
Even if President Bush maintains his large lead in the polls between now and November, the country deserves to hear a thorough and honest debate on national security, the economy and the other issues that will shape our nation's future.
Those Iowans willing to spend a few hours on Monday evening in the cramped company of their neighbors will have the first important voice in determining which Democrat is best prepared to engage in that debate with President Bush this fall.