Take a deep breath, Iowa! Breathe that beautiful clean air and breathe as much of it as you can, because its rarefied purity is about to be destroyed.

Every four years this happens: an invasion, not of industrial pollution, but of dirty mud-slinging politics.

That’s right. In a little more than two years, Iowa will once again host the ‘first in the nation’ presidential caucuses. Iowa, the forgotten state in the middle of the country, will be suddenly remembered and become the center of national political activity.

There will be pandering, party bashing, name calling and empty promises. For approximately two years, Iowa will experience a gradual influx of politicians of every caliber.

Campaign headquarters will temporarily be leased in Des Moines. Leaflets will be published in tremendous numbers. Billboards will sell a different kind of lie than usual and every baby in the state will seen as yet another political Kodak moment. Our healthy environment will be polluted as it falls briefly into the spotlight of big-time heavy hitting national politics.

True to form, this political cycle has already begun. This weekend two major political players visited Iowa: Vice President Al Gore (D) and former congressman Jack Kemp (R).

Each is a major mover within his respective party, and each stands as a presidential hopeful for the year 2000. So, with a little over two years before the Iowa caucuses, these two politicians came to Iowa to show us how much they care.

Both ostensibly came to Iowa for reasons other than their presidential aspirations. There can be no doubt, however, that presidential politicking was the name of the game.

Neither was able to refrain from attacking the opposing party. Neither was able to truly focus on the reasons for being in Iowa. Yes, the tide of political pollution is on the rise in Iowa. Ironically, the two Iowa cities with the worst industrial pollution, Waterloo and Cedar Rapids, played initial host to the rising tide.

Al Gore began his brief visit to Iowa in Waterloo, where he attended a “town hall” meeting. The pet program of the Democratic Party, these meetings are ideally an intimate forum in which politicians can meet their constituents and hear their voices. Realistically, “town hall” meetings are merely another tool in the campaign process.

The Vice President used the Waterloo forum to tout Clinton’s anti-smoking campaign. Ostensibly a non-partisan event with both political parties represented, the “town hall” meeting was used by Gore to express the effectiveness of the Democrats’ campaign against smoking.

In the tradition of Vice Presidents before him, Gore has already begun to rely on Clinton policies as the foundation for his own presidential policies.

In classic Al Gore style, he spoke to his audience with super-slick condescension, referring more than once to teenage smokers as “these young people.”

Later, Gore spoke at a Democratic Party dinner in Des Moines, using it as a pulpit from which to praise Clinton foreign trade policy. Meanwhile, outside the dinner, United Autoworkers who traditionally are strong supporters of the Democratic Party were protesting the very policies Gore was touting.

Without ever directly addressing the concerns of the union, Gore attempted to drum up support by pointing to Republican policy which goes against Clinton’s trade policy. For a politician clearly trying to gain Iowa support, his disregard for our union members is unsettling.

In an attempt to endear himself to Iowans, Gore did mention the Iowa Hawkeye’s unremarkable football victory, while failing to note Iowa State’s first football victory of the season.

Republican Jack Kemp took a different approach. Kemp’s Cedar Rapids visit centered around an endorsement of Republican governor hopeful Jim Ross Lightfoot. When asked about his own presidential aspirations, Kemp said “right now I am going to keep the focus of attention on electing a [Republican] governor in Iowa.”

With this selfless and Iowa-oriented statement, Kemp proceeded to use the Lightfoot fund-raising dinner as an opportunity to delineate his personal tax reform platform while directly attacking both Al Gore and the Democratic Party.

Yes, Iowa, the seasons have changed. I am not talking about this weekend’s snow heralding the coming winter. I refer to the season of mud-slinging politics. The year 2000 might seem distant and vague, but in politics two years is very little time and campaigning must soon begin in earnest.

Iowans are fortunate. We get to see some of the most intense campaigning in the country. Not only will we see party vs. party, but we will see intraparty rivalry as well.

Politicians come here to get down and dirty. Iowa is where the direct personal attacks begin.

It is where the defamation of character is most bitter. Truly, party level politics is where the true nature of the politician is revealed as each tries to rise to the surface of the cesspool to lead their party to the White House.

Iowans have the tremendous responsibility to rise above political pollution and breathe the rarefied air of integrity. We must watch and listen carefully in the next two years in order to make Iowa’s impact a positive one in the political process. Breathe deeply Iowa, politicians are coming to town.

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Michael T. Gardner is a senior in history from Annapolis, Maryland.