Jon Ralston has a message for Iowa and New Hampshire - our time is now

Friday, Feb. 9, 2007 | 7:10 a.m.

Memo to the haughty Hampshirites and inane Iowans:

Whine away about tradition, but you shall give way, like Tevye, to the inexorable supremacy of Nevada. As the presidential race continues to get distended, Nevada is where it all begins Feb. 21 and where it will be focused less than a year from now.

You can either be as stubborn as granite or be less than hawk-eyed - or you could face reality. You are the past, and we are the future of the Democratic presidential nominating process.

Just look at what has been happening here in Nevada, where people are neither freezing nor bored out of their skulls.

First, in less than two weeks, we will have a presidential candidates forum (don't call it a debate!) in our quaint state capital (you folks get quaint, right?) of Carson City. And almost all of the contenders - viable and not - are coming. They can't wait to come to Northern Nevada - and you don't hear that too often.

I know what you are thinking, in that "You rubes have no idea what you are doing" kind of way. You are thinking that it's not a real debate and that the front-runners (that is, Hillary Clinton) will not allow this to be anything more than serial news conferences without any real hard questions or candidate-to-candidate interaction.

So we neutered the format to make Hillary happy? So we won't provide an event where she has to take pot shots from the others? We plead guilty.

But your envy is showing, my fellow would-be pivotal nominee-deciders. The point is: They will be here. Here. Not there. Not New Hampshire. Not Iowa. For an event that will get national attention.

But what about Barack Obama? You wonder how important we can be if the rock star du jour is ignoring us?

Before you get too gleeful, try to understand: Obama already was committed to be in a second-tier state on the 21st (Iowa, I believe). But he was so desperate to please us or to genuflect to his majority leader, Harry Reid (I'm not sure which), that he agreed to come to Nevada three days before the forum. Message: He cares. About us.

If you want more evidence of how they are all coming around, consider the change in New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. Last August, before Nevada had received approval from the Democratic National Committee for the early caucus, Richardson was in New Hampshire telling the locals he had "been by New Hampshire's side all along" and against Nevada's attempt to move before New Hampshire. He was all for blocking our little upstart entry into the nominating process.

But not now. Nothing like an election result to change perspective. Suddenly Richardson can't get enough of us and is here seemingly every other weekend, even in places no Democrat dare travel to. (Douglas County!) Now he sees Nevada as his one shot to gain some momentum going into ... New Hampshire. Now Richardson is a fellow Westerner who loves us, who cares about us. Sorry, governor, we are not that easy. We are not Iowa or New Hampshire. Go sell your one-caucus stands somewhere else, sir!

Yes, they all just adore us now and no doubt are boning up on gaming and Yucca Mountain. John Edwards confirmed for the forum - tardily but he's coming, probably also emboldened to know he won't have to take guff from the second-tier contenders. And the former North Carolina senator no doubt knows that after he wins that quaint little Iowa caucus, he will need to show real momentum in a place where real people live - especially real union workers who love him.

And so it goes, you sad Iowans and Hampshirites. I feel for you. But this is what the world will look like during the next year as these candidates flock here. And on Nov. 4, exactly one year before the election, CNN will televise a real debate from right here in Las Vegas.

Sure we have a few kinks to iron out - the Sun's Patrick Coolican reported this week that the candidates are getting packets from the local party that look like they were prepared by fifth graders. But even that I understand.

By being so quaint and simple, we are just trying to be more like New Hampshire and Iowa.