A friend who is in Iowa this week was struck by two things:

• “How seriously the Iowans we’ve met take their politics and with what discipline they entertain each candidate’s view”

• “The Obama headquarters was full of energy and not a person over 30.”

News reports suggest that maybe 100,000 of Iowa’s two million voters will go to a Democratic caucus Thursday night.

Mr. Conventional Wisdom says the results, like every year, will be decided by people who are older than most and whiter than snow. And they’re not likely to be parents with kids at home.

So here – from a distance – is what the campaigns’ strategies seem to be:

• Obama apparently is hoping for an unprecedented turnout of young people.

• Hillary is hoping that women brave the cold – that older woman find the roads and walks ice-free and that the younger ones either take the kids or trust them home alone.

• Edwards is counting on past caucus-goers and hoping unions turn out their members.

Try this exercise: Set aside which candidate you like. Instead, ask which strategy you want to win.

My hope is that the entire Iowa farce settles nothing. A lot of sound and fury signifying nothing. Let’s move on and let a different set of Americans – maybe even younger people with school-age children – decide the future of our country.

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