Obama in The Scrum.
So today was the 29th Annual Harkin Steak Fry, long enough that Harkin joked bout the years. He’s also gearing up for the re-elect and has been doing some nice blogger outreach, and thus, there I was invited and press-credentialed. It was my first time on a press platform in about 14 years, since my lifetime ago career as a local NPR reporter, and I marveled at my ability to have it both ways as a citizen journalist who still gets to have bumper stickers on my car. I was next to Fox News, which I delighted in.
They were without wifi though I’ll bet they shoot for it next year with al 372 Democratic presidential candidates likely to attend. I heard a rumor that there was a hotspot at the CNN bus but I’d already committed to a plan: pen and paper, written up after the fact, which I’m now executing.
Roadtripped up on back roads through town full of grand old buildings that were outsized for what little town was left. One town billed itself as “quietly progressive” (with a couple letters missing and I thought the day was likely to be progressive, but certainly not quiet.
The morning Register greeted us with a dead heat 44-44 governor poll but surprisingly I never heard that mentioned the entire day. First friendly faces I recognized were a couple Linn County folks I’ve been on a bazillion campaigns with – Rep. Todd Taylor and labor star Norm Sterzenbach – both think the legislative seat outlook in Linn is good, look for gains there.
Strolled the midway of campaign tables - “midway” seems like the right word. The atmosphere at the Harkin Steak Fry is old-timey, harkening (ha) back to a bygone era where political matters were a major source of public entertainment and social life. The music was mostly of the oompah-band variety playing hot hits like the Marine Corps theme. When they took breaks we got Mellencamp. Lots and lots of John Mellencamp.
Had a nice chat with Susan Radke of Nevada, running for a suddenly open House seat. She sounds sharp and has a good human services type background, and we compared notes on trying to doorknock on football game days. Sometimes dodging the issues is a good thing – if the issue is Hawks vs. Clones.
The Evan Bayh table made the case with maps: Bayh making Indiana blue county by county and winning by about 20 in `04 while W was likewise winning by 20. Chris Hayler took some time to talk and just barely added the obligatory “if,” I’d be surprised if he even leaves the state for Thanksgiving. Notes that his cell phone number spells out BAYH even though he got it 4 years ago – must be destiny.
Holy Shiite, I was so anxious to write that I just started and forgot to plug in; started getting the Dying Battery Beep.
Mike Mauro works the crowd before the speeches.
Mike Mauro spotted me and grabbed me for a moment; I asked about his missing in action opponent and he says he hasn’t seen or heard much; very quickly turned my attention back to how his own side of things is going. Later Mike made a speech that seemed to hold the audience more than most of the downballot folks.
The Denise O’Brien campaign was also on the midway. Their opponent seems to be working western Iowa which indicates a play to the base strategy. Meanwhile Denise and the green bus are covering the state; I later inadvertently cut the green bus off trying to get out of the fairgrounds. Oops…
After rain on the way it turned into one of those nice fall days – a little warm, a little cool, all at once. Leonard Boswell walked by and I had to do a double take because I barely recognized him; he really has dropped the weight. Also walking by was a stunning redhead waaay below my age line who appeared to be with some sort of Nebraska young Dems bunch, and she seemed to keep popping up wherever I went. Or maybe I just noticed her more because of my personal tastes. I’m sure paid journalists think like that too but they don’t get to write about it.
Also on the midway are the 21st Century Forums, aimed at young folks. I joke that I no longer qualify; the staffer responds that while voting membership is limited to under 40, we (ahem) older folks are still welcome. I note that’s a better option than Logan’s Run. In any case it was a good hit on a day that saw more young folks at a political event than usual.
The crowd started to get tighter a bit before 2 which was also my first Yepsen sighting; he spent the speeches hanging behind the press riser. He caught sight of me and I hope my laptop bad which I’d festooned with sever stickers in open contempt of objectivity.
Shortly after 2 the downballot and congressional folks started speaking, but the crowd’s attention was still all over the place – food, conversations, logistics. Ran into an Iowa City friend who’d been at the “heavy hitter” event with Obama and was giving rave reviews; no one was able to speak after Obama as he was mobbed by folks wantiong to meet him.
Caught a couple riff of Selden Spencer’s speech: he noted that as a neurologist, people say that most of the people who see him have something wrong with their brain. He set it up better in a self deprecating way that I failed to record; anyway he turned it into “under Bush and the GOP there’s something wrong with the country.”
Right around this time Obama arrived and he was easy to spot: follow the rugby scrum of TV cameras and folks wanting their Moment. (I no longer seek The Moment; I had my share of Moments long ago and prefer to step back and defer to other folks to whom a Moment would mean more.
I’ve decided to chunk this up and post part 1. As they say in Old Journalism:
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