Going to a foreign country can help you appreciate odd things about America -- even trial lawyers. Or even a long, odd political race.

My wife and I vacationed in Mexico with my in-laws, our two daughters and four of their friends. This includes Adam, the boyfriend of my younger daughter.

One night we were walking back from a restaurant in the main part of Puerto Escondido. The younger people were in the lead. They crossed a busy street and in the rather dim light Adam appeared to walk onto a patch of earth.

Then he disappeared, as through a trap door. We ran up, and he climbed up out of the ditch he had fallen into. He was unharmed, but that made us appreciate the U.S., where such a hole would be filled in faster, or would be surrounded by lights, signs, sawhorses, warning tape, and more. Partly that's because we Americans are terrified of being sued, and whatever problems that causes it at least makes us alert passers-by to the dangers of a hole in the ground.

Now consider politics -- the primaries and caucuses. Viewed from afar, and a few days removed from most news, the early campaign seemed even odder than it does at home. For example, part of it consists of the opinions of a small segment of voters from a relatively small state. The American colonies did not base their decision about independence in the 1770s based on what a small percentage of people in Rhode Island happened to think on one cold winter night.

Yet the process, seen from outside, does provide moments of focus, however random they might seem.

More and more, Mike Huckabee looks like a archetypal figure -- the gittar-pickin', wisecracking, poor boy who speaks for the people. There is no sense denying the power this image lends. But this is the kind of figure friends of democracy have always feared: The man of the people who knows just how to manipulate the people.

His skill is scary good. Look how Huckabee used one line about how the voters want a candidate who looks like someone they work with, not like someone who laid them off.

Makes no difference whether the joke is fair or accurate. That quip cut. It also exposed a strength that could become a weakness for Romney -- he is a very successful businessman. Many voters are ambivalent about the corporate world, or they actively dislike what they see as executive excess.

This sort of parsing, however, is exactly why the American political process is good. It brings out subcurrents of political emotion early.

Voters have some time to evaluate how Huckabee or Barack Obama or the others use their gifts. Do they rouse the people to pursue their highest aspirations? Or do they merely feed their resentments?

In Iowa, Huckabee dared to do something few politicians have dared to do in America: appeal overtly to religious passions. Yes, politicians are regularly photographed in church, Bibles tucked under arms. But Huckabee, a former televangelist, has exploited religious feeling as a key campaign strategy. Are we seeing the real man, or just and example of showmanship? Either way, it's best to understand Huckabee early.

The same fireworks that accompanied the Huckabee-Romney clash shed light on other candidates. Obama is perceived as a gifted communicator. If he gets a chance to actually lead the people, what will he do? Where will he lead them. Likewise, John Edwards seeks to stir the fears and resentments of the voters. As president, how would he direct the powers he has unleashed? Will the emotion Hillary Clinton showed in a New Hampshire coffee shop on Monday reach the masses? Will it draw her to the people or push her away? Only time will tell.

Let us be grateful for the opportunity to examine the candidates closely in January, rather than October. The American political process may be flawed. At times it seems interminable. But it's doing its job of exposing who the candidates really are.

• Jim Tynen is editor of the Daily Herald's editorial page.

Do you agree?