Christopher Rants premature to count Bernie Sanders out

James Hufferd, Adel | Letter to the Editor

I wonder if Christopher Rants, Iowa's Republican resident expert on the Democratic Party's nomination process, [Why calendar, Paris doom Sanders, Nov. 22], would have advised Barack Obama to fold up his tent in Iowa at this point in the Iowa caucus campaign in 2007 because he was then well behind Hillary Clinton in the polls. I wonder also if he would advise the rest of the assortment of GOP candidates to take down their tents and quietly leave because they are all well behind Donald Trump at this point.

Events have happened to put the current Democratic and Republican races where they stand in Iowa at this point in their respective campaigns, just as in 2007. And more events will happen, as they did then, including two more Democratic debates, before the caucuses on Feb. 1 — just as in 2007-2008. More events may even happen in the usually turbulent life of Hillary Clinton before then.

Minds will be changed, one way or another, and who can say with any certainty what the actual results will be? Isn't that, Mr. Disinterested Advisor, why Iowa's caucuses are on the calendar for Feb. 1, 2016, and not November 2015?

— James Hufferd, Adel