Does any state have a better understanding of the real intersection of money and politics than Iowa, the land of corn, soybeans and caucuses? If so, it's hard to imagine: though its caucuses are still 29 months away, the Hawkeye State is already renting cars, booking hotel rooms and serving up platefuls of pork chops to White House hopefuls and the reporters who follow them.
It amounts to more than a cottage industry. The state is likely to take in tens of millions over the next 2½ years even as Iowa's first-in-the-nation contests become less of a predictor (remember, Rick Santorum...