By Christi Parsons
Lots of people have an Everyman Standard for judging political candidates. Do they know the cost of a gallon of milk? Who would you sit down with for a beer? Which would be the best guest at book club?
Now here’s a new one, from a perennial Iowa caucus-goer and itinerant writer. Call it the Naugahyde Question.
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Writes essayist Kurt Ullrich, of Maquoketa, Iowa:
Last week on my way into town I was thinking about two things: how bad I felt about a poor bull snake I accidentally chopped up with my tractor mower the night before and, oddly, presidential politics. I’ve encountered six of the contenders thus far this year, so I think of politics often, maybe too often.
As I drove I tried to imagine which presidential aspirant would be most comfortable riding alongside me in my truck, riding the highway ridge between my house and town, belting out Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run” over the roar of the unbreakable straight-six under the hood.
Who among the throng would feel at ease lounging on brown Naugahyde, arm out the window, singing along with me in full voice, “In the day we sweat it out on the streets of a runaway American dream”? And perhaps more important to me, as an Iowan who votes: Who among the candidates brings with them a sense of familiarity and an ability to be a part of a scene without stealing it? Which candidate can smile when we pass my neighbor’s horses and goats, knowing that the quadrupeds neither know nor care who we are?
Read the whole thing here to see how the various candidates might measure up.