Mr Gore was right the first time: it is ridiculous that these two states get to vote for the party nominees before anywhere

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Mr Gore was right the first time: it is ridiculous that these two states get to vote for the party nominees before anywhere else, and set the tone for what is to come.There have long been misgivings about the pre-eminence of these two states in the selection process, because they are so untypical of the US. Now VicePresident of the United States and favourite for the Democratic Party's nomination, Mr Gore has the might of the party machine behind him and claims to have learnt his lesson."You gotta come here and campaign here, you gotta work hard here," he says in the southern demotic he adopts when he wants to present himself as a man of the people.Lavishing time, money and attention on this small, sparsely populated state may be the way to win in Iowa, and in New Hampshire, too, and everywhere else. Just 12 years ago, a certain US senator by the name of Al Gore dismissed the presidential selection process that is reenacted in the Midwestern state of Iowa tonight as "an arcane procedure that produces crazy results". The small local gatherings known as the Iowa caucuses were, he said, "a ridiculous test" and he ignored them, proceeding directly to what he then saw as the sane and sensible primary election in the north-east state of New Hampshire.Today Mr Gore has rethought his view of the Iowa caucuses, the first formal leg of the four-yearly race for the White House. Just 12 years ago, a certain US senator by the name of Al Gore dismissed the presidential selection process that is reenacted in the Midwestern state of Iowa tonight as "an arcane procedure that produces crazy results". Loads of cookies are stacked in paper plates under tin foil in the kitchen. Today they will move back the solid wooden furniture in the front room, and extend the dining room table. There will be coffee, though Mr Parsons doesn't drink it himself He will eat the cookies, though..

Only a hundred or so of the caucuses out of 2,100 are still held in homes. The rest are in schools, churches, community centres, American Legion halls and fire stations, the infrastructure of civil society that is spread across this large, flat state.Once, Iowa was mainly agricultural; now, the small farmers are in retreat, and from Ankeny and Bondurante and a hundred other towns, suburbs are sprouting into the cornfields speckled with snow.Half of those gathered around the tables at the Parsons' will be farmers; the rest are in business, commuting into Des Moines or Newton, where there is a big Maytag factory making dishwashers.Mrs Parsons is still at church, but much of the work has already been done. It is a world away from Washington DC, and the popular image of power in America, propelled by television adverts, thousand-dollar lunches and corporate jets.But the solid heritage of rural democracy is fading. Asked if it makes any sense, he says simply: "Somebody's got to be first."He is backing Al Gore, the front-runner for the Democrats and likely victor.

"He's always been a strong supporter of the environment," he says.Mr Parsons, a wiry man with a grizzled beard and a ready laugh, is the park ranger here at the Ashton Wildwood nature reserve, a hundred hilly acres of woods thick with deer and wild turkey.Outside the window, purple finches, goldfinches and bright red cardinals peck at the seed he has set out. "I don't know how Iowa ever got to be first," says Mr Parsons with a grin. Like a hundred or so others across Iowa, they will be holding a caucus to decide who they think should be the candidate, in their case for the Democratic Party."This is the grassroots level," he says. "This is the bottom of the ladder." What will be going on tonight, on this bottom rung, will be the first stage in the process of choosing representatives who will finally, at the party's convention in August, choose the Democrats' man.It is a peculiarity of the US system that Iowa gets to choose first, ahead of far larger states. It is a perfect winter's morning - the sun sparkling off the snowfields, the sky a perfect blue with just a brush stroke of cloud across the horizon. Out in the woods, the deer are scudding through the snow, and two red-tailed hawks are circling lazily through the oak and hickory trees. But John Parsons has no time to watch the wildlife today. He is clearing the snow from his drive in his bright green John Deere tractor.