U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann on the 94th stop of her 99-county tour in the run up to the 2012 Iowa Caucuses. (Photo by WEBN-TV via Flickr/CC BY-ND 2.0 >>)

NEVADA, Iowa — It’s hard to talk about small-town Iowa without getting into some of the would-be presidential candidates that spend a considerable amount of time — and money! — across the state in pursuit of a crucial win in the first-in-the-nation Iowa Caucus.

And in this crossroads town, just east of Ames and the giant Barilla America pasta manufacturing plant, nailing the proper pronunciation is important.

Don’t confuse it with the state of Nevada. (I’ll be there soon enough.)

Iowa’s Nevada is “NEE-Vay-da.” When presidential candidates, their campaign operations, reporters, television crews parachute into Iowa every four years, there are renewed reminders about how to say it properly.

Nevada is where Minnesota Republican Michele Bachmann ended her 10-day bus tour of all of Iowa’s 99 counties in her ultimately unsuccessful quest for a big Republican presidential caucus win in Iowa. She had won the Ames Straw Poll that August and wanted to be “America’s Iron Lady.”

But her presidential campaign was falling apart in dramatic fashion and remains a subject of lingering intrigue.  Continue reading →