Iowa and New Hampshire, small population states that they are, are legends of importance only in their own minds.
Hi. I'm an Iowan. I'd like to point out that we're not the ones who are telling CNN to keep our caucuses in the 24/7 news cycle. That's the rest of the United States. We just want to hold our caucus and be done with it. The unrelenting campaigning is something that pretty much every Iowan finds quite distasteful. Our own electoral campaigns tend to be much nicer by comparison. When Jim Leach, representing eastern Iowa's interests to the House of Representatives, lost to Jim Loebsack, the two of them parted with a handshake, as friends, and with mutual respect. When was the last time you saw a race for national office end that way? True, by Iowa standards the Leach-Loebsack race was quite a nice and pleasant one, but it wasn't unusually so or without precedent. Compare that to how the current crop of GOP candidates is going after each other, and ... well. You might begin to get an idea of why so many Iowans are so looking forward to these caucuses being over. And that's just the half of it, really. What's as bad as the very un-Iowan nature of presidential campaigns is the two-faced condescension we face every four years from people who come into the state to butter us up to our faces just to tear us down in private.
I grew up in a town of 1500 people. My high school graduating class had fifty people. And every four years, like clockwork, a whole lot of people from out East and out West would converge on our small towns, filling up small motels that sat mostly-vacant all other times, and they'd converge on our diners and try to strike up conversations with people. Then, as soon as they thought we weren't listening, we'd hear them snigger about how uncultured we are, or grouse about how impossible it was to find good sushi or Ethiopian or what-have-you, or mock our religious beliefs. When they think nobody's listening they tell their friends back Somewhere Else about how they're "lost in flyover country" and how backwards it is.
And yet, while the rest of the country is arguing about gay marriage, Iowa is actually doing it, having decided that it is required by our State constitution. (Sure, there's been political fallout over that. But that doesn't change the fact it's what we decided.) While the rest of the country is lamenting the collapse of education, Iowa quietly continues its tradition of excellence. While the rest of the country is fearful of crime, we don't bother locking our doors at night. While children nationwide are being overprotected by parents terrified of stranger danger, we let elementary-age kids walk half-a-mile or more to school, alone and unattended.
You say we're "legends of importance only in our own minds." That's exactly the sort of thing I've heard from a lot of other people. Heard it before, and I've heard it again. I don't expect anything I've said to convince you that you want to live in Iowa. You probably don't, and I understand that. But if you want to know what I think Iowa deserves to be legendary for, it's those things. The caucuses are honestly a sideshow that's a lot more trouble than they're worth, and bring a whole lot of people into the state that I'm quite comfortable them staying away from the state.