Is Iowa's role too influencial in being the first to hold the Caucus?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/us/politics/economy-rules-gop-message-but-iowa-differs.html?pagewanted=all
According to this article from the New York Times, Iowa as the first state to hold a caucus is an inaccurate representation of the state the nation is in overall. This the author claims is a major factor since the Iowa usually plays a major role in defining the campaigns of many of the candidates.Even when these candidates address the most important factor such as the economy, it fails to clearly portray the current state of the nation as a whole since the unemployment rate there is relatively small compared to most of the country. This in some way pushes the candidate to discuss topics that will push them to be more conservative such as immigration and abortions right.Well with this being said, one must question how accurately Iowa's caucus reflect the nation's view of  the GOP candidate?