ARIZONA (By Jon Garrido, Hispanic News, July 4, 2004) — An imaginary crowd of 75,000 supporters jam into Arizona State University's Sun Devil Stadium to hear Jon Garrido announce he is a candidate for President of the United States.

Following prepared remarks, MSNBC Hardball's Chris Matthews asks Jon Garrido if he plans on entering the Iowa Caucuses?

Jon Garrido responds: "Our campaign looks forward to the Iowa Caucuses and as soon as we find state wide Iowa support for a 4th generation American with an ancestral line of Hispanic descent, we will proceed to set up our Iowa campaign headquarters.

Within hours of this statement by Garrido, national staff determines Iowa support for a 4th generation American with an ancestral line of Hispanic descent will be hard to come by, consequently, just before the evening news deadlines, Jon Garrido announces his one day candidacy to become President of the United states has come to an end.

Tom Brokaw (NBC Evening News), "Within hours of announcing his bid to become President of the United states, Jon Garrido withdrew from the 2008 campaign acknowledging his campaign could not find state wide support in Iowa. Garrido, the national leader of 50,000,000 American Hispanics, about 20% of the US population, noted Iowa voters were supporting "Hog" Smith, owner of Iowa's biggest hog farm with 5,000 hogs and one of the regulars of Uncle Nancy's coffee shop."

Pause

Tom Brokaw adds, "It appears in Iowa, hogs are more important than people. Only in Iowa do hogs trump 50,000,000 persons."

Pause

Brokaw continues....... "Today in Iraq........

• The Time is Long Over Due to Do Away with Iowa's Franchise

• Beginning 2008, Hold All State Democratic Primaries on One Day

• On Another Day, Hold All State Republican Primaries

Phoenix, Arizona, January 19, 2004 - I think I am a pretty savvy voter. I am a 4th generation Arizonan skilled in political acumen that is used as an advocate for Hispanic national and local issues as evidenced by the articles and editorials I have written in Hispanic News. I have even participated in a few presidential campaigns and I even have my favorite hang outs in Washington.

From this perspective, I have determined if we ever want to elect an American Hispanic as President of the United States of America, change in the state by state primary process is mandatory.

With the Democratic presidential candidates campaigning in Iowa, the prominence given Iowa as self appointed guardian and gate keeper to the national nomination primary process that begins in Iowa must come to an end.

Iowa voters will take part in a 32-year-old tradition, gathering in their village-square caucuses to choose among the Democratic presidential candidates.

These last few days, Democratic presidential candidates campaign furiously across Iowa as they approached the conclusion of a competitive and complicated fight party officials say will set the tone for the rest of the nomination battle.

Translation: Iowa will be political death to any presidential aspirant Iowa so chooses to annihilate.

120,000 Iowans will vote on Monday. 120,000 white faces with white and gray hair. If you don't believe me, just turn on any television channel. It does not matter which one. All programming of the Iowa Caucuses shows the same video of a sea of white older American faces.  

120,000 white faces with white and gray hair will be driven to caucus meetings, fed and cajoled to support the candidate who best flipped pancakes with an Iowa flair at Uncle Nancy's Coffee Shop. Uncle Nancy's? Thank God, only in Iowa.

If it is not who flipped pancakes the highest, then it is USDA farm policy and promises of pork in the Agriculture Department crop subsidies.

The origin of the "pork" label must come from the promises and commitments all presidential candidates make in Iowa in exchange for caucus votes. Pork futures are made possible from the 15 minutes of fame that comes every four years to Iowa farmers in the back rooms of coffee shops across the state where in desperation presidential candidates trade pork futures for votes.

The Iowa caucuses are all about turn out of 120,000 white faces with white and gray hair.

With 120,000 white faces with white and gray hair holding court does any one believe an American Hispanic candidate running for president of the United States of America will ever be allowed to pass through the Iowa gate? Only a fool would take this bet.

This is analogous to a campaign for mayor of a city where all the city's residents are white with white or gray hair and an American Hispanic candidate for mayor is running against a White mayoral candidate in this city. Only a fool would bet on the Hispanic.

This is exactly why Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton were never considered serious candidates by the 120,000 white faces with white and gray hair. 

If the Iowa primary had been held in a state with an all African American population then one of them would have easily won the state's caucuses.

The arguments against having Iowa and New Hampshire lead off the presidential nominating process are not new, and even ardent advocates of the current system acknowledge that they are compelling.

New Hampshire is 96 percent white, according to the 2000 Census, while Iowa is 94 percent white. Someone could drive through hundreds of miles of farmland and small towns without seeing a single African-American much less an American Hispanic.

Will 2008 be any different? Not unless we begin planning for a national primary.

Iowa's first-in-the-nation vote will be the first milestone in a campaign that has been shaped from the start by an overriding dynamic among Democratic voters: a search for a candidate who, more than almost anything else, can defeat Mr. Bush.

In campaign headquarters across Iowa, senior advisers struggle to figure who is up and who is down, directing ever-changing strategic attacks for a win.

One way or another, the results in Iowa will provide the framework for the rest of the campaign for the final Iowa results will go a long way toward determining how long it will be before the Democratic Party knows who its nominee will be.

If Howard Dean wins the Iowa caucuses and follows that with a victory in New Hampshire - the one-two punch strategy that he is looking for - he will be on his way to becoming his party's nominee. And if he wins the presidency, "the Iowa caucuses are guaranteed for another four years,'' said Jenny Backus, a Democratic consultant.

Senator Tom Harkin, the popular Iowa Democrat, said that before he gave his endorsement to Dr. Dean, he received a promise from the former Vermont governor that he would leave the system alone should he be elected president.

"I just couldn't endorse someone who did not want to keep the Iowa caucus system,'' Mr. Harkin said. "I feel too strongly about it."

But if Dr. Dean does not defeat Mr. Bush - a prospect that many Democrats view as a distinct possibility - it could lend force to the argument that the process produces candidates who run to the left and thus have trouble winning general elections.

Mr. Gephardt said in Cedar Rapids on Saturday, "In the end, it's also my experience that people are voting for. They want somebody who can actually get these things done. And they want to know who can beat George Bush. And I really believe that when they bear down on that issue, they'll see that I have the best chance to beat Bush. And when we do, we're going to have people who come out to vote."

Yes, they may come out to vote in Iowa but with this process of white haired farmers deciding who would best represent 14% of the population, an American Hispanic will never carry the day, much less become president of the United States of America. And this is today. In 2008, the Hispanic population of the United States will approach 20% of the entire US population.

The Iowa farm field will never provide a level playing field. After listening to the presidential candidates state their views, I think many a Hispanic would win hands down against a Joe Lieberman any day of the week even if he was smart enough not to play out his hand in Iowa.

And if people of either party are serious about change, they better act fast. The caucuses are today and next week, Rudolph W. Giuliani - who many Republicans think might run for president in 2008 - is coming to town to address the Chamber of Commerce.

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