Silly me. I have to kick the Iowa Caucus can down the road one more time.
Did you know Mitt Romney's eight-vote victory over Rick Santorum is the third-closest outcome of a major election in modern American history?
This, according to The Washington Post, which tracks this sort of thing.
Here's the order of political photo finishes - with some of the outcomes truly bizarre.
1. 1974 New Hampshire Senate race. With more than 223,000 votes cast, Republican Louis Wyman appeared to have won election to the Senate by 355 votes, but a recount found that his Democratic opponent, John A. Durkin, had won by 10 votes. Wyman appealed that decision to a state commission which ruled Wyman won by two votes - the closest Senate race in history.
But the Senate refused to seat Wyman and called for a new election which Durkin won handily.
2. 1984 Indiana House race. Democrat incumbent Frank McCloskey defeated his Republican opponent Rick McIntyre by four votes in an election marred by votes not being counted the first time around and other irregularities. When McCloskey was declared the winner, Republican House members walked out in protest but the election result stood.
3. Iowa caucus 2012. The Romney-Santorum eight-vote finish was scandal-free.
4. 1994 Connecticut House race. After two recounts, Democrat Sam Gejdenson won by 21 votes out of 186,000 cast. In 1986, Republican Rob Simmons lost the same seat by 83 votes, the only time in history the same House seat has been lost twice by less than 100 votes.
5. 1948 Texas Senate runoff. This one might have changed the course of American history. Texas Congressman Lyndon Johnson defeated Coke Stevenson by 87 votes in a runoff election for the Senate seat amid charges of vote stealing on both sides. The election allegedly turned on the discovery of 200 missing votes from one county where it was alleged voters amazingly cast their ballots in alphabetical order.
Johnson gained the nickname of "Landslide Lyndon." Had he lost, his political fortunes would have slipped so that he probably wouldn't have become Senate majority leader, vice president and president.
There have been some nasty things written about Iowa recently by people who profit from writing such things.
But we don't have two former governors in jail, like a neighboring state does, and while our caucus system is unique and sometimes exciting, it is also honest.
Reach John Skipper at 421-0537 or john.skipper@globegazette.com.
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