But will it play Council Bluffs?

Iowa, of course, is considered a political bellwether because its caucuses occur early in each primary season.

It's also known for cornfields and a pace of life better described as rural than urban.  However, it's far from predictably conservative.  It's home to some of the most out-there-lefty colleges and universities anywhere.   And consider Tom Harkin.

But what will Iowans make of NYC mayor Bill De Blasio's visit?  He was there to try to steer the state's conversations with presidential hopefuls toward a radical framework.

And he  hit on at least three of the major tenets of that framework:

De Blasio couldn’t very well start off his Iowa speech bashing small businesses, but he’s no friend to them, as his mayoralty is showing back in New York. When the uber-progressive New York City Council held hearings on a law to expand mandatory sick leave, for instance, the council chambers overflowed as de Blasio administration representatives testified in favor of the idea. After they finished, the de Blasio team as well as most city council members walked out—before small-business groups, including several minority business associations, could share their thoughts on the matter. So a nearly empty chamber didn’t hear the head of a 200-member Hispanic supermarket association testify that the legislation—which not only required mandatory sick leave but also necessitated a significant increase in paperwork for businesses—“could create havoc with small independent supermarkets,” especially as “this burden falls on supermarkets just as they face other burdens, like the Affordable Care Act.”

While in the Hawkeye State, de Blasio also felt compelled to explain how he would spend the proceeds from all the new tax money he covets. One of his big agenda items is universal pre-K across America—a prime example of how New York’s mayor is a “spend first, worry about results later” politician. Pre-K is not a new idea—it’s been around for decades and academics have studied it extensively. The singular result of these studies is that pre-K demonstrates little lasting educational value for most kids, with the sole exception being some small, well-run programs for poor children, who seem to benefit from a head start on schooling. But even that small advantage almost always vanishes by third grade. Universal pre-K’s real appeal is as a tool for teachers’ unions to boost membership, one reason why the issue has such passionate advocates.

The mayor’s other big-spending idea is to pour more money into infrastructure. But the rest of the nation might pause before taking advice from a New Yorker on the subject. As City Journal’s Aaron Renn noted recently, the city wastes billions of dollars on poorly conceived and poorly executed infrastructure projects, thanks to conscious decisions to overspend by ignoring union featherbedding, mandating “buy American” programs for materials, and requiring protracted environmental reviews. 

We midwesterners tend to get saddled with Freedom-Hater politicians all too often because they aren't as recognizable as the coastal variety, which tends to be more out-front about it.  Flyover radicals tend to come clothed in more pragmatic trappings and only become recognizable after they are in positions to craft and implement policy.  In this sense, a speech from a flagrant coastal FHer like De Blasio is useful.  Fellow breadbasket citizens, peruse stories about your city-council, state-legislature, mayoral and gubernatorial candidates for little hints that they go in for the likes of the above.  It's a pretty clear indication that their just-folks drop-ins at the local coffee shop aren't demonstrations of admirable sincerity about their entire agendas.