With University of Iowa finals starting this week, it doesn't seem like students in Iowa City will get a face to face chance to ask Hillary Clinton about her campaign's contention that maybe they shouldn't be caucusing if their parents live in Schaumburg. But the lack of a campus event seems to fit a Clinton campaign pattern for the People's Republic of Johnson County.
Saturday, the Clinton campaign announced their first Johnson County visit in two months: a 7:30 p.m. Monday stop in Coralville. That's the Monday night of finals week. Last weekend, she held events in two neighboring small counties, Iowa and Washington... without an Iowa City event.
Clinton's last Johnson County appearance was as the closing act at the Johnson County Democrats' fall barbecue on Oct. 6. None of the five candidates at the event took questions from the stage. Clinton, who appeared with 1972 Democratic nominee George McGovern, was the last speaker and spent close to 45 minutes greeting the crowd afterward.
Iowa City caucus goers expect to ask the candidate a question, and usually not a soft one. Clinton has sent top-level surrogates to campus to take questions, including her husband Monday and former Secretary of State Madeline Albright. But those are very different experiences than asking the candidate herself a question.
Senator Clinton's only University of Iowa stop was in July, with the former president. The event was attended by thousands, but she did not take questions.
This is only one campus, and we Iowans may set high expectations. But compare this to the other leading candidates. Virtually every John Edwards event, including several on campus, includes questions and answers. He most recently spoke in Iowa City on Wednesday, at the close to campus public library. And, while there was some grumbling from backers of other candidates that he hadn't done it earlier, Barack Obama did a Q & A on the U of I campus on Oct. 3. Obama also visited campus at a student-oriented Dec. 4 rally, bud did not take questions. Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, and Bill Richardson have also, with varying frequency, done events with questions on campus or in downtown Iowa City at student-friendly times.
The last Iowa City event at which Hillary Clinton took a public question was on April 3, at a mid-day event at a hotel on the edge of town, attended largely by people who already supported her.
Perhaps students don't fit the working mom and senior women target groups the Clinton campaign seems to be aiming for. Or perhaps there's another concern.
“If the most important thing to any of you is choosing someone who did not cast that vote or has said his vote was a mistake, then there are others to choose from." -- Hillary Clinton, February 17, 2007
That's a general election statement, meant to make Clinton look tough like a Commander in Chief. The vision of a woman taking the salute as she gets off the Marine One chopper is not yet battle-tested at the ballot box. But the statement is classic Clinton 42 triangulation, and positions her between the Peace Freaks and Bush.
The University of Iowa is well-known as a peace-movement stronghold, and among the Democratic candidates, Clinton has drawn particular vitriol from the peace movement. The Des Moines-based "Seasons of our Discontent: a Presidential Occupation Project" (SODaPOP) group, with only enough willing to get arrested bodies to occupy two presidential campaign offices, chose Clinton and Rudy Giuliani. Clinton might argue, as she has in debates, that she's attacked because she's ahead, at least nationally. But a look at the schedule begs the question: is Hillary avoiding the bleeding heart of the People's Republic of Johnson County? Does she want to steer clear of a confrontational question or a raucous student protest?
Probably. And from her campaign's perspective, that's not dumb. Witness the robot who's still mad about Sister Souljah who bothered Bill last week. But the difference from other campaigns, and from John Edwards' apology for his war vote, certainly needs to be pointed out. The anti-war left, already mad that Congress hasn't shut off war funding and started impeachment hearings, is not a sure thing for the "any Democrat is better than any Republican" argument. Observers will note Green Candidate Cynthia McKinney making the rounds, and stopping where else but Iowa City. Democrats needs a two to one win out of Johnson County to win statewide, and a few thousand peace protest votes could swing the state, and the nation.
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