Prime-time CBS drama “The Good Wife” focused Sunday’s episode on fictional presidential candidate/Illinois Gov. Peter Florrick running against the actual candidates for the 2016 Democratic nomination. In the end, the Iowan who got shown in the best light might have been Chuck Grassley, as the hook of the episode was about visiting all 99 counties, and “the full Grassley” was name-checked early and often.
The portrayal of Iowa and Iowans was not especially flattering. There was a visual gag of sorts of the candidate’s bus going to “Rock Valley”, “Merrill”, and “Anthon” — all real towns in different but adjoining counties in northwest Iowa — but the downtown city block was literally the same one in each establishing shot. Presumably this was a commentary on how all the towns blur together/are indistinguishable. Aside from the start of the episode with farmscapes and a campaign bus driving on the wrong side of the road, the only piece of Iowa culture besides the caucuses themselves that figured in any way was the “loose-meat sandwich” (Maid-Rite is a brand name). Florrick’s wife — the title character, Julianna Margulies — was overheard called traveling in Iowa “a nightmare” on the campaign bus and Florrick spat out his sandwich on camera, and supposedly these were the last straws for voters. (It lost a little bit of the punch because the reporter was portrayed by comedian Mo Rocca.)
BUT…if this was how a candidate was really running a campaign, to literally take a fork in the road for a stop that day, with no advance team…then it’s no surprise that he ended up fourth of four. Literally the absolute last thing a low-polling Democratic candidate should do the day before the Iowa caucuses is visit the counties containing Rock Valley, Merrill, and Anthon!
Despite the accuracy the show strove for to get three towns in a day’s bus ride and say the campaign manager graduated from Des Moines Roosevelt, it stumbled by having the “bellwether precinct” at fictional “Foothills High School” and screwing up the map at the finish.
News personality Chris Matthews — playing news personality Chris Matthews, naturally — called out the Democratic results with an on-screen map. However, the map did not match what actually happened. Matthews said Florrick won Polk County “and the three he visited yesterday” but the map showed Allamakee, Marion, and Van Buren — three very far apart in real life, and not the ones he visited. (FWIW, the results were Hillary Clinton 51, Bernie Sanders 27, Martin O’Malley 17, and Peter Florrick 4. This episode gave O’Malley more attention than real-life voters are.)
But what the candidate’s mother said at the end may be what the writers really wanted to say: “Do you know what was invented in Iowa? (No.) Neither do I, because Iowa has contributed nothing to our union and I don’t understand why a state so insignificant gets the right to kick off a presidential primary.” Character motivation aside, ouch.
Among the things invented in Iowa were the tractor, the electronic digital computer and the loose-meat sandwich. Kisses, Hollywood! 🙂
(P.S. Don’t think I didn’t notice that your gung-ho Florrick supporter drove a car with an Illinois license plate.)