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still, ME, why Iowa stead of SC or NH??
But here are some things I learned as soon as I landed on the ground in Iowa.
* Former Sen. John Edwards is very, very well known here. Afterall, he has been campaigning in Iowa since before 2004. His organization is very strong, and he always is mentioned when you ask average Iowans who they're considering. But a relatively small story, the case of his $400 haircuts, has gotten more attention here than I would have expected, and even some of his supporters I've talked to say they worry that it has legs.
* Sen. Hillary Clinton is starting to spend more time here on her "four corners of Iowa" tour. Her events are interesting in that, at least at one I attended in Marshalltown, she enters the stage with NO introduction. She's so well known here that she just walks out, audience members applaud, and she starts talking.
* Sen. Barack Obama draws monster-sized rallies, populated by a mix of young backers (a lot of first-time voters) and people who are curious about anyone who draws a monster-sized crowd.
* Those three "rock stars" lead, but after last week's debate the influential Iowa columnist David Yepsen said that the other Democrats actually gained more stature -- especially, he figured, Sen. Chris Dodd, whose local office is just down the street from my home/bureau.
As I've written in the Rocky Mountain News, the Republican side has three front-runners that make some constervatives suspicious. So, as I said, it's the biggest fight to become the "fourth-man" since Ringo Starr beat out Pete Best and became drummer for the beatles.
On both sides, I'd be cautious placing bets on anyone nine months from the caucuses. Remember names like Howard Dean, Phil Gramm, etc.
Please explain the reasoning for allowing Wadhams to talk about negative campaigning, for example, without questioning him about his own history of negative campaign tactics in South Dakota, Colorado, etc. Or tell us why the local media allow Wadhams to characterize various elements of the Democratic Party (the presidential candidates as "far-left" or the state party as being "in flux") without including comment from Dems allowing them to characterize themselves.
Bill Menezes
Editorial Director
Colorado Media Matters
Any inkling whether the Obama campaign is working on addressing that issue, knowing that Clinton and Edwards could lock up wins based on their previous experience of caucus night horse-trading at the local YMCA?
Edwards leads (barely) on the Democratic side, and Giuliani leads on the Republican side.
I wouldn't bet on Edwards or Giuliani or any of the other candidates at this point.
It's too early, and there's a whole lot of shakin' going on.
As everyone says, "winning" Iowa is about beating perceptions, so Edwards has the most at stake on the Democratic side here. And the real "winner" in Iowa on the Republican side could be the Republican not named Giuliani, McCain or Romney who cracks into the top three or four in the caucuses.
(Don't forget the crucial Iowa GOP straw polls in August, which will weed the field on that side.)
Are those excluded candidates actively campaigning in Iowa?
Is FOX violating the first commandment of journalism -- don't become the story?
I chatted with most of them, at least briefly. I'm proud to say I made one of them double over in laughter. John Edwards was annoyed by one of my questions and he had a stunned reply when I said I was from the Des Moines bureau of the Rocky Mountain News. Talked to McCain last week. Stood a couple of feet away from Clinton when she talked in Newton last Saturday. Got to talk to Obama before his big rally in Iowa City.
For now, there are five intrepid Iowa reporters who cover every move of every candidate here. The national media sends people to follow the big-name candidates. That means terrific access for LOCAL reporters. And that's how they're treating me so far.
Dick Wadhams is a major figure in Colorado politics, and he can't be ignored. In a recent story about nasty blogs, I quoted him and took a lot of heat because I didn't say enough about the South Dakota controversies involving his campaign's use of paid bloggers. (He called them paid "researchers," but critics have used far more harsh terms. The controversy is easy to find on the web.) I could have included more detail in the story, but the story (with limited space) was more general in nature and focused more on the overall tone that the Colorado blogosphere was taking at the time.
That said, I think any and all criticism is welcomed. Reporters need to be kept on their toes -- from all sides -- and I certainly remember the things that you and others were saying at the time.
Certain well-financed front-runners could conceivably keep their momentum by finishing in the top two or three in Iowa, doing the same in New Hampshire, then holding on until the mega-expensive nationalized primary on Feb. 5.
For others, Iowa represents a place to get onto the radar -- or else.
Edwards has the most at stake on the Democratic side, since he leads the Iowa polls for now, and a lower showing here would put his campaign on thinner ice.
Iowa still is remembered as the place that helped turn "Jimmy Who?" into President Jimmy Carter in 1976. So even now, with a condensed primary/caucus schedule, "second-tier" candidates hope to beat expectations, vault onto the national radar, and stay on that radar for the few weeks between Jan. 14, 2008, and Super-Duper Tuesday, Feb. 5.
In the past, people with surprising showings in Iowa could try to build more momentum (and campaign warchests) more gradually. That's not an option this year. It remains to be seen whether someone might win a surprising victory in Iowa and New Hampshire and then have time to capitalize on free-media publicity going into Feb. 5.
Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada are all the candidates' favorite states right now.
There's an organic, yuppie food mart 1 1/2 blocks from here.
And everyone tells me that those muddy fields I see everywhere will be filled with corn by this summer.
Early on, people pointed to New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson who hoped to score a big win in Nevada as a way to vault him onto the national scene. But where was Richardson last week: Denison, Pella, Cedar Rapids, Cedar Falls and Des Moines, IOWA.
I reckon Richardson knows he can't wait until Nevada to make his big, western break-out. So last week he became the first Democrat to put television ads on the Iowa and New Hampshire airwaves.
When I recall the name, I'll send it along to you. It's gonna be tough sledding for a vegetarian out in the Iowa boondocks.
Hope you like corn.
Good luck on the campaign trail. Don't let the national gaggle get in your way of covering stories for the Rocky. That's why God gave you elbows!
At my blog last week, I wrote about one of the little-known hurdles Obama faces.
Here, he's building a potent youth movement. But not only are many of the college students in his camp first-time voters, the ones from heavily-Democratic Johnson County (home to the University of Iowa) will be on winter break during the Jan. 14, 2008, caucuses. (See the posting "Vacation vs. victory, dude).
He has more than young people in his camp here, but it's always tricky for any candidate building a movement based on people who might not be the usual party regulars. I'm sure they'll be training their folks for the complicated caucus process, and we'll see how far it gets them here.
Meanwhile, while they decide whom to include in the debate...I report while they decide.
Part of this is nostalgia for me.
In 1988, I talked my college newspaper into sending me to cover the Iowa caucuses, and it was one of the most amusing experiences of my life.
I got up-close to "future presidents" like Bruce Babbitt, Bob Dole, Pat Robertson, Paul Simon, etc., and saw how Iowa is a one-of-a-kind place where voters DEMAND to meet the candidates before they'll offer their support.
It's not just a cliche. It's real. The people in Iowa feel a certain, dare I say, entitlement to meet the candidates for themselves. (Some don't like it when I use that term, but it came from an Iowan, not me.)
With Super-Duper Tuesday on Feb. 5, when California, Texas and all the other states create a sort of "nationalized" primary, Iowa could be MORE IMPORTANT than ever -- at least for some candidates. Or it could fizzle.
All I know is that 16 candidates were here during my first two weeks in Iowa. So they must think this is the place to be.
Good luck with the rest of the campaign!