ABSTRACT
Reminiscing about the importance of the Iowa caucuses often leads to quotations of R. W. Apple's front page New York Times report on the outcome in Iowa in 1976. Apple is said to have made Jimmy Carter the front runner, thus producing the enormous leap in visibility that led to his showing in New Hampshire and thence to the White House. "Contest" is the common synonym for "election." The most salient thing about a contest usually is the identity of the winner, and upsets are always particularly newsworthy. Journalists generally are not in business to unearth complications. It is neither shameful nor surprising that journalists of all sorts concluded that the lead story from Iowa in 1976 was the identity of the candidate who had received the greatest amount of support. In 1960, the Democratic primary in Wisconsin had the effect of eliminating Hubert Humphrey as a realistic contender. Humphrey was, in any event, a longshot.
