FARM POLICY usually peaks as an issue in the presidential campaign a year before the election, in the run-up to the Iowa caucuses. But with Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Ohio among the most fiercely contested of the battleground states, this year could be an exception.

John Kerry has been stumping across the heartland all summer, offering broad proposals to give “rural Americans the chance to build a better life for themselves and their children.” A curious thing has happened, however. The more Kerry has talked about rural policy and federal farm programs, the more support Bush has gained from the sector. And this trend started a good two months before Bush’s GOP convention bounce.

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