Sunday, January 28, 2007

Iowa Against The Grain, Post-Hillary Notes

Iowa Against The Grain, Post-Hillary Notes

A Kos post notes that Iowa isn't polling like other states:

For the moment at least, Iowa isn't following the national trend. Instead, Iowa is more in agreement with... DailyKos. The straw poll taken here earlier this month put neither Hillary nor Barack Obama at the top of the heap. Instead, honors went to the man who hasn't been getting as much attention in the press of late -- John Edwards.

Senators Obama and Clinton may be absorbing most of the national news, and may suck the air out of pundit conversations from now till the opening of the polls, but if the past is any evidence, that may only cause Iowans to look elsewhere.


We could be a giant killer. Will be interesting to see the poll after this weekend's Hillary visit.

Speaking of which, the Gazette appears to have been at Marcia Rogers' house in Cedar Rapids even though I was told "no press or bloggers" by HRC staff. Doesn't look like the pool report I was offered; there's an in-the-house photo with a Gazette photographer credit. Sharp contrast to last weekend's blogger sit-down with Edwards and Edwards...

Meanwhile, Roger Simon at The Politico pulls this lead out of Des Moines:

A man, who identified himself as a Gulf War vet, asked the New York senator at a town meeting in a high school gym here Saturday if the surge of new troops to Iraq “was going to be enough?”

Instead of answering, Hillary (as she is officially called by her campaign) said, “Thanks so much for your service” and then talked about how she visits military hospitals and believes America needs to provide good medical care for its veterans.

In the one-hour town meeting, Hillary did not mention Iraq a single time. She mentioned ethanol twice.


This goes for all the candidates, especially the top tier: here's hoping we Iowans let the star-struck novelty wear off and keep asking the tough questions till they get answered.

And O. Kay has a colorful write up of Des Moines. including the music review I usually provide.

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