As a political junkie, I’m excited about tonight’s Iowa caucuses. But it’s a totally ridiculous system. As Gail Collins writes, “the sturdy Iowa voters will pull on their parkas and go out to fulfill their historic destiny. Perhaps as many as 15 percent of them!” Even David Broder, who is increasingly senescent, is on target here.

Not only will an incredibly small percentage of voters be choosing delegates in a process that doesn’t even allow a secret ballot; they’re not even choosing that many delegates. For instance, on the Democratic side, of the more than 4,000 delegates who will attend the Democratic Convention in August, how many delegates are Iowa Democrats choosing?

Fifty-six [whoops] Forty-five.

Yeah, 56 45 out of more than 4,000. That’s less than 2 percent of all delegates.

And yet the media will be hysterical and breathless tonight and tomorrow, and candidates will drop out either after Iowa or after New Hampshire next week.

It’s ridiculous.

I suggest a compromise. Let Iowa and New Hampshire be the first states to elect delegates (if they must), but make the results secret. No state should reveal the results of its primary or caucus until all 50 states have voted. That way, Iowa and New Hampshire can still go first, but they won’t have undue influence over any other state.

It’ll never happen, of course. Congress can’t make rules for state-by-state elections, let alone intra-party elections. And media companies will never forego their exit polls. And in our hypersaturated media age, the results would inevitably leak out somehow.

Our system sucks.