Iowa's field of mediocrities

By: John F. Harris and Alexander Burns
Politico.com
January 3, 2012 04:57 AM EST

The candidates say it on debate stages. Voters say it at campaign rallies. It is a staple of Republican rhetoric that 2012 is the most fateful election in decades — a big and perilous moment around which national destiny will hinge.

Here’s what does not get said as often: This big moment on history’s stage is being filled by politicians who so far have looked way too small for the occasion.

Bad manners, to be sure, to state it quite like that on Iowa caucus day. This is supposed to be an uplifting exercise, when discerning Midwestern voters inspect their choices and command the rest of the country to see new dimensions of leadership in candidates who previously seemed like ordinary pols.

But the official start of Republican voting — arriving at last after long months of speculation about who’s running and who’s not, of debates, of wild gyrations in the polls — is framed by some unmistakable paradoxes:

(More here.)