Iowa Pin Up: Parting Shots

What Christopher Morris nail here, with a perfect absurdity, is how a nonsensical process involving a relatively miniscule number of participants could managed to dominate the political world for months.

Every shot of Fred I've seen in the past week-and-a-half has looked like death warmed over.  From The Politico:

Recently, his stump speeches have dripped with contempt for the press and the campaign process, and this week he even joked about napping.

We gotta get this thing over with already.  In this shot illustrating an article on, yes, campaign fatigue, I looked beyond Huck to those suspended beams, and thought I saw a cross!

Iowa 101 (Eric Black)
Countdown to Iowa (TIME slideshow)
Fatigue Factor Gives Equal Time to Candidates (NYT)
The Final Stretch in Iowa (NYT Slideshow)
Fred Thompson may drop out (Politico)

(image 1: Christopher Morris/VII for TIME.  Ames, Iowa.  2007. caption: The city of Ames, with a population of just over 50,000, has twenty caucus sites.  time.com. image 2:  Evan Vucci/Associated Press.  Elks Club. Mason City, Iowa.  December 2007.  nytimes.com.  image 3: Todd Heisler/The New York Times. December 29, 2007.  Peary, Iowa. nytimes.com)

Comments

[Aunt Deb]

Fred Thompson has non-Hodgkin's of some sort, doesn't he? I'm sure he is tired. Yes, it was foolish of him to allow himself to be talked into running. But it seems no more self-deluding than the egotism that persuaded most of the contenders. He's simply not in good enough condition. And given the self-absorption that got him into this situation, you can see how he wouldn't want to drop out too quickly and would need to display contempt at some fools other than himself.

[Taleswapper]

I thought the Huckabee pic looked like a measuring stick. You have to be this tall to ride this ride.

[Cactus]

Did anyone see "Law & Order" last night? As new detective walks into new DA's office (Sam Waterston replacing Fred Thompson), he quips "What happened to all the trophies?" to which Waterston replies, "Well, this is a working office now."