2/4/2020 Opinion | Goodbye, Iowa - The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/04/opinion/iowa-caucuses-democrats.html 1/2 https://nyti.ms/2UoGDV3 Goodbye, Iowa The special treatment must end. By David Leonhardt Opinion Columnist Feb. 4, 2020, 9:28 a.m. ET This article is part of David Leonhardt’s newsletter. You can sign up here to receive it each weekday. Iowa should never go first again. It should never go first again because it is an overwhelmingly white, disproportionately older state that distorts the presidential nominating process. In the 2020 campaign, Iowa’s outsize role has already helped doom two black candidates (Cory Booker and Kamala Harris) and given a boost to candidates whose main appeal has been among white voters (like Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar). Iowa’s Democrats look nothing like the nation’s Democrats, as Michael Tomasky explained in a Times Op-Ed. Iowa should never go first again because its caucus excludes even some of its own citizens from voting. Absentee voting is not allowed. Thousands of people with disabilities can’t participate, as Ari Berman (a native Iowan) of Mother Jones noted. Neither can many people who work at night or need to take care of children, as Judd Legum wrote in his newsletter. And the votes from Iowa’s metropolitan areas don’t count as much as votes from rural areas. Iowa should never go first again because the caucus is rife with strange, complicated rules. One example: Somebody’s vote — even for one of the leading candidates — typically does not count if it comes in a place where that candidate doesn’t get at least 15 percent of the local vote. “These rules are complicated,” The Times’s Nate Cohn noted. “There are ordinary people out there trying to make sense of these rules in running these caucuses.” Many of them struggled. Iowa should never go first again because last night it botched its caucus when the entire nation was watching, giving the lie to the state’s longtime claim that it is better at conducting democracy than the rest of us. Last night, The Times’s Sydney Ember and Reid Epstein wrote, was “an epic collapse of the rickety system Iowa has relied on for decades.” The Democratic Party can easily fix this situation, as Tomasky (who’s the editor of the journal, Democracy) laid out. Iowa has enjoyed a half-century of an outsize role in presidential campaigns, with all of the extra influence and economic activity that has come with that role. It’s time for the special treatment to end. As soon as the 2020 campaign is over, the Democratic Party (and ideally the Republicans too — although Democrats shouldn’t wait) should begin creating a fairer, more inclusive, more competent process. Iowa will no doubt object and try to protect its status, as it has long done. The Democratic Party shouldn’t back down. And when Iowa finally does report its 2020 results, don’t give them too much attention. If there is one silver lining to last night’s mess, it’s that Iowa has ...

1. 2/4/2020 Opinion | Goodbye, Iowa - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/04/opinion/iowa-caucuses-
democrats.html 1/2
https://nyti.ms/2UoGDV3
Goodbye, Iowa
The special treatment must end.
By David Leonhardt
Opinion Columnist
Feb. 4, 2020, 9:28 a.m. ET
This article is part of David Leonhardt’s newsletter. You can
sign up here to receive it each weekday.
Iowa should never go first again.
It should never go first again because it is an overwhelmingly
white, disproportionately older state that distorts the
presidential nominating process. In the 2020 campaign, Iowa’s
outsize role has already helped doom two black candidates
(Cory Booker and Kamala Harris) and given a boost to
candidates whose main appeal has been among white voters
(like
Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar). Iowa’s Democrats look
nothing like the nation’s Democrats, as Michael Tomasky
explained in a Times Op-Ed.
Iowa should never go first again because its caucus excludes

2. even some of its own citizens from voting. Absentee voting is
not allowed. Thousands of people with disabilities can’t
participate, as Ari Berman (a native Iowan) of Mother Jones
noted. Neither can many people who work at night or need to
take care of children, as Judd Legum wrote in his newsletter.
And the votes from Iowa’s metropolitan areas don’t count as
much as votes from rural areas.
Iowa should never go first again because the caucus is rife with
strange, complicated rules. One example: Somebody’s
vote — even for one of the leading candidates — typically does
not count if it comes in a place where that candidate doesn’t
get at least 15 percent of the local vote. “These rules are
complicated,” The Times’s Nate Cohn noted. “There are
ordinary
people out there trying to make sense of these rules in running
these caucuses.” Many of them struggled.
Iowa should never go first again because last night it botched
its caucus when the entire nation was watching, giving the
lie to the state’s longtime claim that it is better at conducting
democracy than the rest of us. Last night, The Times’s
Sydney Ember and Reid Epstein wrote, was “an epic collapse of
the rickety system Iowa has relied on for decades.”
The Democratic Party can easily fix this situation, as Tomasky
(who’s the editor of the journal, Democracy) laid out. Iowa
has enjoyed a half-century of an outsize role in presidential
campaigns, with all of the extra influence and economic
activity that has come with that role. It’s time for the special
treatment to end.
As soon as the 2020 campaign is over, the Democratic Party
(and ideally the Republicans too — although Democrats
shouldn’t wait) should begin creating a fairer, more inclusive,
more competent process. Iowa will no doubt object and try to

3. protect its status, as it has long done. The Democratic Party
shouldn’t back down.
And when Iowa finally does report its 2020 results, don’t give
them too much attention. If there is one silver lining to last
night’s mess, it’s that Iowa has undermined its own influence.
For more …
Amy Walter, The Cook Political Report: “Every four years I
say: ʻThese Caucuses are a mess. No way can they survive.’
And, every 4 years, here we are again.”
My colleague Frank Bruni, about last night: “Hours after the
actual, physical caucusing at hundreds of locations across
the state had finished, there were no official results, just reports
that a newly intricate manner of counting was
laborious, that a newly developed app for it wasn’t working as
planned, that a backup phone line was jammed and that
the campaigns had been asked to join in on a pair of emergency
conference calls with state Democratic officials.”
Dave Wasserman, an election analyst for NBC News and The
Cook Political Report, said the partial results reported
made him think either Bernie Sanders or Pete Buttigieg won.
Elizabeth Warren likely finished second or third, and Joe
Biden probably finished fourth or fifth, Wasserman said.
If so, that’s a good encapsulation of the trouble with Iowa.
Biden has led in almost every national poll of Democrats,
largely on his strength among African-American and Latino
voters — who, of course, are largely irrelevant in Iowa.
That doesn’t mean Biden will hold his lead as voters pay more
attention. He may not. But it does mean that a nearly all-
white caucus is a poor guide to public opinion.

4. Politico’s Tim Alberta, who moderated a recent Democratic
debate, pointed out that New Hampshire, which votes next
week, has similar problems: “You know how, in pro sports, a
series doesn’t start until the home team loses? Well, a
Democratic primary doesn’t start until blacks and Hispanics
vote.”
If you are not a subscriber to this newsletter, you can subscribe
here. You can also join me on Twitter (@DLeonhardt) and
Facebook.
Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook,
Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/26/opinion/iowa-new-
hampshire-primary.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/02/opinion/iowa-new-
hampshire-primary.html
https://twitter.com/AriBerman/status/1224499120586612736
https://popular.info/
https://twitter.com/Nate_Cohn/status/1224533312745672705
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/04/us/politics/iowa-caucus-
problems.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homep
age
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/02/opinion/iowa-new-
hampshire-primary.html
https://twitter.com/amyewalter/status/1224550882454507520
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/04/opinion/iowa-caucus-
2020.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
https://twitter.com/Redistrict/status/1224650173739040768
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/us/2020

5. _democratic_presidential_nomination-6730.html
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2/4/2020 Opinion | Goodbye, Iowa - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/04/opinion/iowa-caucuses-
democrats.html 2/2
David Leonhardt, a former Washington bureau chief for The
Times, was the founding editor of The Upshot and the head of
The 2020 Project, on the future
of the Times newsroom. He won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for
commentary, for columns on the financial crisis. @DLeonhardt
• Facebook
https://www.nytimes.com/projects/2020-report/index.html
https://twitter.com/DLeonhardt
https://www.facebook.com/DavidRLeonhardt
1. The North American Personal Motorsports Marketing
Association (NAPMMA) is an organization committed to
helping our members, dealers of motorcycles, all-terrain
vehicles, snowmobiles, and personal watercraft, to achieve their
business objectives. Specifically, NAPMMA communicates with
local, state, and national governmental agencies and leaders on
issues of importance to their members. We also educate the
current and prospective owners on the safe and enjoyable
operation of their motorsports vehicles.
2. Major league baseball is America’s favorite pastime sport.

6. However, more people are attending minor league baseball
games because of less cost. Connecticut, for example, the New
Haven Ravens, the Norwich Navigators, and the New Britain
Rock Cats affiliated respectively with the St. Louis Cardinals,
the Yankees, and the Minnesota Twins. These teams play in
relatively small stadiums, so fans are close enough to see and
hear everything. Best of all, the cost of a family outing to see
rising stars play in a local minor league game is just a fraction
of what the family would spend to attend a major league game
in a much larger, more crowded stadium.
3.
1 The next time you write something, make sure you check the
sentence length in a 100-word passage. If your sentences
average more than 16-20 words, try to break them down into
smaller sentences.
2 Don’t do as the village blacksmith did when he told his
apprentice “When I take the shoe out of the fire, I’ll lay it on
the anvil, and when I nod my head, you hit it with the hammer.”
The apprentice did just as he was told and became the village
blacksmith.
3 Unfortunately, no gadget will produce excellent writing. But
using a yardstick like the Fog Index gives us some guideposts to
follow for making writing easier to read. Its two factors remind
us to use short sentences and simple words.
4.
1 Several examples show that Elaine can’t hold a position very
long.
2 A generous contribution to Mildred Cook’s retirement party
would be appreciated.
3 Generally, reliable sources in Washington report today that
the White House will soon make an important announcement.

7. 5.
1 Long time
2 The pay increases must be stopped before an unusual debt
amount.
3 They did not find sufficient evidence.
4 There may be a price increase.
5 The union’s proposals were inflationary, demanding, and
bold.
6 A resignation letter means you might be leaving us.
6.
1 Our final company orientation of the year will be held on Dec.
20. In preparation for this session, please order 20 copies of the
Policy handbook, the confidentiality agreement, and the
employee benefits Manual. Please let me know if you anticipate
any delays in obtaining these materials.
Business Writing Assignment #1 (Chapters 4 to 6)
1. Complete this assignment on blank sheet of paper
2. Use Microsoft Word, Times New Roman and 12-Pitch
3. Print completed document and hand in at beginning of class
on Tuesday, February 11, 2020
4. Is worth 5% towards final grade
Note: Pay attention to details:
a) assignment instructions
b) good appearance
c) correct grammar, punctuation and use of English
language
Question No. 1: Rewrite the following using the guidelines
in Chapter 4 through Chapter 6: (50%)
NOTE: 1) Revise using three-paragraph strategy (See Session 5

8. Powerpoint Chart 14), proper flow to ensure that your messages
are clear, concise and with good you-attitude and proper
English.
As an organization, the North American Personal Motorsports
Marketing Association has committed ourselves to helping our
members—a diverse group comprising of dealers of
motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles, Snowmobiles, and personal
watercraft—achieve their business objectives. Consequently,
our organization, which usually goes under the initials
NAPMMA, has the following aims, goals, and objectives.
Firstly, we endeavor to aid or assist our members in reaching
their business objectives. Second, NAPMMA communicates
(“lobbying” in slang terms) with local, state, and national
governmental agencies and leaders on issues of importance to
our members. And lastly, we educate the motorsports public,
that being current motorsports vehicle owners, and prospective
owners of said vehicles, on the safe and enjoyable operation of
they’re vehicles.
The north American Personal Motorsports Marketing
Association(NAPMMA) is an organization committed to helping
dealers of motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles, snowmobiles, and
personal watercraft, to achieve their business objectives.
Consequently, it has the following aims and goals.
Firstly, they endeavor to aid or assist their members in reaching
their business objectives. Second, they communicates with
local, state and national governmental agencies and leaders on
issues of importance to their members. lastly, they educate the
motorsports public which includes currentmotorsports vehicle
owners, and prospective owners of saidvehicles, on the safe and
enjoyable operation of their vehicles.
Question No. 2: Revise for Readability (Sentence and
Paragraph Length). Re-write the following paragraph to vary

9. the length of the sentences and to shorten the paragraph so it
looks more inviting to readers: (15%)
Although major league baseball remains popular, more people
are attending minor league baseball games because they can
spend less on admission, snacks, and parking and still enjoy the
excitement of America’s pastime. Connecticut, for example, has
three AA minor league teams, including the New Haven Ravens,
who are affiliated with the St. Louis Cardinals; the Norwich
Navigators, who are affiliated with the New York Yankees; and
the New Britain Rock Cats, who are affiliated with the
Minnesota Twins. These teams play in relatively small
stadiums, so fans are close enough to see and hear everything,
from the swing of the bat connecting with the ball to the thud of
the ball landing in the outfielder’s glove. Best of all, the cost of
a family outing to see rising stars play in a local minor league
game is just a fraction of what the family would spend to attend
a major league game in a much larger, more crowded stadium.
Question No. 3: Revise for Readability (Sentence Length).
Break the following sentences into shorter ones by adding more
periods and revise as needed for smooth flow.
Type your answer below each of the three sentences. (10%)
a. The next time you write something, check your average
sentence length in a 100-word passage, and if your sentences
average more than 16 to 20 words, see whether you can break
up some of the sentences.
b. Don’t do what the village blacksmith did when he instructed
his apprentice as follows: “When I take the shoe out of the fire,
I’ll lay it on the anvil, and when I nod my head, you hit it with
the hammer.” The apprentice did just as he was told, and now
he’s the village blacksmith.
c. Unfortunately, no gadget will produce excellent writing, but
using a yardstick like the Fog Index gives us some guideposts to

10. follow for making writing easier to read because its two factors
remind us to use short sentences and simple words.
Question No. 4: Edit for Clarity (Indefinite Starters). Rewrite
these sentences to eliminate the indefinite starters: (10%)
a. There are several examples here to show that Elaine can’t
hold a position very long.
b. It would be greatly appreciated if every employee would
make a generous contribution to Draymond Cook’s retirement
party.
c. It has been learned in Washington today from generally
reliable sources that an important announcement will be made
shortly by the White House.
Question No. 5: Edit for conciseness and clarity. Revise the
following with better words or phrases. (10%)
A. Long period of time –
B. It is imperative that the pay increments be terminated before
an inordinate deficit is accumulated.
C. They did not find sufficient evidence for believing in the
future.

11. D. In all probability, we’re likely to have a price increase.
E. The union’s proposals were highly inflationary, extremely
demanding, and exceptionally bold.
F. It seems as if this letter of resignation means you might be
leaving us.
Question No. 6: Proofreading: Proofread the following email
message and revise it to correct any problems you find: (5%)
1. Our final company orrientation of the year will be held on
Dec. 20. In preparation for this sesssion, please order 20 copies
of the Policy handbook, the confindentiality agreenemt, the
employee benefits Manual, please let me know if you anticipate
any delays in obtaining these materials.
2/4/2020 Opinion | Goodbye, Iowa - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/04/opinion/iowa-caucuses-
democrats.html 1/2
https://nyti.ms/2UoGDV3
Goodbye, Iowa
The special treatment must end.

12. By David Leonhardt
Opinion Columnist
Feb. 4, 2020, 9:28 a.m. ET
This article is part of David Leonhardt’s newsletter. You can
sign up here to receive it each weekday.
Iowa should never go first again.
It should never go first again because it is an overwhelmingly
white, disproportionately older state that distorts the
presidential nominating process. In the 2020 campaign, Iowa’s
outsize role has already helped doom two black candidates
(Cory Booker and Kamala Harris) and given a boost to
candidates whose main appeal has been among white voters
(like
Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar). Iowa’s Democrats look
nothing like the nation’s Democrats, as Michael Tomasky
explained in a Times Op-Ed.
Iowa should never go first again because its caucus excludes
even some of its own citizens from voting. Absentee voting is
not allowed. Thousands of people with disabilities can’t
participate, as Ari Berman (a native Iowan) of Mother Jones
noted. Neither can many people who work at night or need to
take care of children, as Judd Legum wrote in his newsletter.
And the votes from Iowa’s metropolitan areas don’t count as
much as votes from rural areas.
Iowa should never go first again because the caucus is rife with
strange, complicated rules. One example: Somebody’s
vote — even for one of the leading candidates — typically does
not count if it comes in a place where that candidate doesn’t
get at least 15 percent of the local vote. “These rules are

13. complicated,” The Times’s Nate Cohn noted. “There are
ordinary
people out there trying to make sense of these rules in running
these caucuses.” Many of them struggled.
Iowa should never go first again because last night it botched
its caucus when the entire nation was watching, giving the
lie to the state’s longtime claim that it is better at conducting
democracy than the rest of us. Last night, The Times’s
Sydney Ember and Reid Epstein wrote, was “an epic collapse of
the rickety system Iowa has relied on for decades.”
The Democratic Party can easily fix this situation, as Tomasky
(who’s the editor of the journal, Democracy) laid out. Iowa
has enjoyed a half-century of an outsize role in presidential
campaigns, with all of the extra influence and economic
activity that has come with that role. It’s time for the special
treatment to end.
As soon as the 2020 campaign is over, the Democratic Party
(and ideally the Republicans too — although Democrats
shouldn’t wait) should begin creating a fairer, more inclusive,
more competent process. Iowa will no doubt object and try to
protect its status, as it has long done. The Democratic Party
shouldn’t back down.
And when Iowa finally does report its 2020 results, don’t give
them too much attention. If there is one silver lining to last
night’s mess, it’s that Iowa has undermined its own influence.
For more …
Amy Walter, The Cook Political Report: “Every four years I
say: ʻThese Caucuses are a mess. No way can they survive.’
And, every 4 years, here we are again.”

14. My colleague Frank Bruni, about last night: “Hours after the
actual, physical caucusing at hundreds of locations across
the state had finished, there were no official results, just reports
that a newly intricate manner of counting was
laborious, that a newly developed app for it wasn’t working as
planned, that a backup phone line was jammed and that
the campaigns had been asked to join in on a pair of emergency
conference calls with state Democratic officials.”
Dave Wasserman, an election analyst for NBC News and The
Cook Political Report, said the partial results reported
made him think either Bernie Sanders or Pete Buttigieg won.
Elizabeth Warren likely finished second or third, and Joe
Biden probably finished fourth or fifth, Wasserman said.
If so, that’s a good encapsulation of the trouble with Iowa.
Biden has led in almost every national poll of Democrats,
largely on his strength among African-American and Latino
voters — who, of course, are largely irrelevant in Iowa.
That doesn’t mean Biden will hold his lead as voters pay more
attention. He may not. But it does mean that a nearly all-
white caucus is a poor guide to public opinion.
Politico’s Tim Alberta, who moderated a recent Democratic
debate, pointed out that New Hampshire, which votes next
week, has similar problems: “You know how, in pro sports, a
series doesn’t start until the home team loses? Well, a
Democratic primary doesn’t start until blacks and Hispanics
vote.”
If you are not a subscriber to this newsletter, you can subscribe
here. You can also join me on Twitter (@DLeonhardt) and
Facebook.
Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook,
Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram.

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2/4/2020 Opinion | Goodbye, Iowa - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/04/opinion/iowa-caucuses-

16. democrats.html 2/2
David Leonhardt, a former Washington bureau chief for The
Times, was the founding editor of The Upshot and the head of
The 2020 Project, on the future
of the Times newsroom. He won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for
commentary, for columns on the financial crisis. @DLeonhardt
• Facebook
https://www.nytimes.com/projects/2020-report/index.html
https://twitter.com/DLeonhardt
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