Iowan king makers

Just because Iowa chooses to have its straw poll a full 15 months ahead of presidential elections and they host their caucus before anybody else is even really paying attention, they have been anointed by the media as presidential king makers. How many people live in Iowa anyway? Like about 300?

Iowa has 5 congressional seats. Who cares who wins their poll? Why does the outcome of Iowa voting have so much national weight? Self-centered Iowans get upset if candidates, like Mitt Romney will do this year, skip their stupid straw poll the year before the election, and the media paint the snub as if its a critical, missed spring-board headed to New Hampshire, another state by the way, whose poll nobody should care who wins.

I resent all the front loading that takes place when it comes to presidential elections, and especially the enormous importance placed by the media on the outcomes of states who represent the hillbilly vote and the quirky, New Englander vote respectively.