Pundit Says Iowa's Power To Pick The President May Be Over

St. Louis, MO (AHN) - This year's Iowa caucus may be the last time the largely rural, sparsely populated and predominately white conservative Midwestern state exerts a huge influence on the U.S. presidential nomination process, a political expert predicted.

"The major parties would be far better off if the presidential nominees were chosen much later in the process," said Steven S. Smith, the Kate M. Gregg Professor of Social Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. "I wouldn't be surprised if both parties begin pushing for major reforms in the nomination processes shortly after the 2008 elections."

Saying he has nothing personal against Iowa or New Hampshire, Smith still has serious misgivings about their unique and powerful role as the first in the nation to select nominees, adding that Iowans are far from representative of the entire nation.

"Its population is too rural and too white to play such a critical role in choosing the nominee. It's a lousy way to elect a president," Smith said. "Iowa's special role as the first state to cast votes is of recent vintage" and "it's difficult to say whether that tradition will be preserved in 2012."