After putting 10 months of tears and toil into the presidential race for their respective candidates, campaign staffers and volunteers from around Iowa and the rest of the country saw their efforts in the state com to an end for better or worse when voters voiced their opinions and possibly dictated the futures of people around the world in a scattered, grass-roots process known as the Iowa caucus.
Republicans and Democrats told the world that the men they wanted to run our country were presidential hopefuls Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama respectively.
The Democratic caucus process is much more complex and confusing than the Republican one. People from around each precinct in the state gather in a school hall, church or volunteered house and sit at a table that is designated for their candidate.
At 6 last night, precinct Director Angela Connelly was running around Hoover High School’s kitchen, where Des Moines precinct Webster 1 held it’s caucus, shuffling papers, barking orders and joking with her staffers and representatives from each campaign who sat at their folding lunch tables. Obama staffers served cookies, Hillary Clinton representatives made sure everyone there was registered to vote, and John Edwards advocates debating politics with the other tables.
By 7, 58 voters had shown up, the majority of them sitting at the Edwards and Obama tables and the rest showed their support for Hillary Clinton. But the weaker showing from Clinton supporters caused Webster 1, which is only allowed two delegates, to be divided between Edwards and Obama.
After intense debate and juggling of voters by both tables, the two candidates tied. The final head count was 29-29.
When all was said and done, Connelly called the results in to the Polk County Convention Center, where the results from each Polk County precinct were compiled and sent to the Iowa Democratic Party.
But it could have gone much different. Had over 85 percent of the 58 voters at the caucus been sitting at Edwards’ table, Obama would have been declared not viable and Edwards would have received both delegates from that precinct. Larger precincts are allowed more delegates. In the room across from the kitchen, Precinct 9 voters gave a delegate a piece to Clinton, Obama and Edwards.
Three doors down the hall in the school’s auditorium a quarter after 6, Republican Precinct 12 was filling up and Director Lawrence Cooper running back and forth across the room, printing more copies for the waning stack of registration forms, trying to make sure the room had an American Flag for when the voters would sing the Star Spangled Banner just before casting their vote and greeting right wingers as they entered the room.
The Republican process is much simpler – the voters wrote the name of their
candidate on a three-by-five note card and tossed it into a hat after listening to representatives from each campaign office give their spiel as to why their candidate is better.
Lawrence then took the results back to his house, called the Polk County GOP and told them that 67 people voted for Huckabee, 26 for Mitt Romney, 16 for Ron Paul, 16 for Fred Thompson, four for Duncan Hunter and two for Rudy Giuliani.
And just like that, what has been hailed for 36 years as the premier political event in the country and possibly the world was over.
This is democracy at it’s most visceral stage. “They came, they debated, they cajoled, they decided,” said an ABC reporter to the camera. This is where the most important political decision in the world starts every four years – in an old fire hall with ten people arguing their positions or in a big-city convention center where one representative from each candidate gives their leader’s final push in Iowa to 500 people.
There nothing more for Iowans to do now but wait until November, when they will cast their votes for Democrat or Republican.
-Hedgefund
Friday, January 4, 2008
Democracy survives in Iowa
Now that the dust from the Iowa caucuses is settling and the winners have been selected, the media has already turned to the speculation about the New Hampshire primaries.
Unfortunately, in the pursuit of the getting the scoop on the winners, another, more important, story is often left by the wayside – what actually happens within a given precinct on caucus night.
To get to the bottom of this mysterious system, the Collegian crew set out last night to Hoover high school, which hosted the caucuses for multiple Des Moines electoral districts for both the Democrats and Republicans.
After arriving more than an hour early, we decided to meet with some of the precinct captains to see just how things were scheduled to go down.
To get the scoop on the Democratic side, I eavesdropped a conversation between News Editor Aaron Hedge and Weber One Precinct Captain Angela Connelly as she laid out the process for the Dems.
The doors were to open at 6:30 p.m., at which time all voters needed to check in and then sit with their difference preference groups. And if a caucus-goer has not yet decided, that is perfectly acceptable, too.
At about 7 p.m., the doors would be locked and the number of members needed to meet the 15 percent requirement for a candidate's viability is announced. At that point, members of the different preference groups, especially those struggling for viability, can travel to other groups and try to convince their members to change their minds.
After 30 minutes, the process ends and delegates are divvied out according to the candidates with the highest number of supporters. In addition, if an undecided group is large enough, they, too can have a delegate.
The twist for Weber One, though, is that they only get two delegates, so all attendees could only pick a maximum of two candidates.
When we rolled over to the Republican precinct for District 12, their captain Lawrence Cooper explained the Republican system, which was almost identical to that of the Democrats, except that under their system, the selections were made by a show of hands or secret ballot, as determined by the respective precincts.
Here, rather than giving delegates proportionally, though, all delegates go toward the candidate with the most supporters, which, for District 12, ended up being Mike Huckabee.
Finding my interest more drawn towards the Democrats and finding that, in general, my presence was far less welcome in the Republican precincts, I returned to Weber One, armed with the knowledge of how the process was supposed to occur in theory, to see how it all played out in practice.
At first, it looked as though the whole process was a joke.
The preference groups – the largest for Obama and Hillary – didn't move, even though there were two smaller preference groups that needed convincing – the inviable Bill Richardson and barely viable John Edwards group.
After a couple of uncomfortable minutes, though, people left their seats and started communicating peacefully with each other about why they should change their vote. And slowly but surely, people began to move.
Soon, there were no Richardson supporters left.
For a few minutes, it looked as though all supporters were flooding to the Obama and Clinton tables. Then, something unexpected happened.
As Edward's supporters like CSU Alumnus Robert Johnson began chatting with the Clinton folks, they began to defect.
Before my very eyes, I saw the population of the Clinton table dwindle and then die.
This particularly interested me, as neither Edward's supporters nor the man himself seemed to particularly active in the state, so I turned to Johnson to find out how this was happening. He pointed me to Edward's record with helping the middle class.
“I think he has an understanding of poverty and the needs of the middle class,” he said.
A few holdouts for the Hillary campaign, including resident Gary Carr, who supported Hillary because of her more extensive experience as a “great first lady” and senator, held on almost until the end, but by the end of the night, the precinct was divided into two camps – Obama and Edwards.
The delegates were then selected from each camp, each given healthy applause, and the citizens were dismissed.
I was floored by how smoothly the whole process ran.
Not once during the evening were their shouts or heated arguments. Instead, there was civil debate and compromise between people with a common goal – selecting the best presidential candidate to represent the interests of not just themselves, but their neighbors, too.
What happened in Iowa tonight was democracy at its purest. One can only hope the Colorado caucus on Feb. 5 is equally civil and productive.
-S.R.
Unfortunately, in the pursuit of the getting the scoop on the winners, another, more important, story is often left by the wayside – what actually happens within a given precinct on caucus night.
To get to the bottom of this mysterious system, the Collegian crew set out last night to Hoover high school, which hosted the caucuses for multiple Des Moines electoral districts for both the Democrats and Republicans.
After arriving more than an hour early, we decided to meet with some of the precinct captains to see just how things were scheduled to go down.
To get the scoop on the Democratic side, I eavesdropped a conversation between News Editor Aaron Hedge and Weber One Precinct Captain Angela Connelly as she laid out the process for the Dems.
The doors were to open at 6:30 p.m., at which time all voters needed to check in and then sit with their difference preference groups. And if a caucus-goer has not yet decided, that is perfectly acceptable, too.
At about 7 p.m., the doors would be locked and the number of members needed to meet the 15 percent requirement for a candidate's viability is announced. At that point, members of the different preference groups, especially those struggling for viability, can travel to other groups and try to convince their members to change their minds.
After 30 minutes, the process ends and delegates are divvied out according to the candidates with the highest number of supporters. In addition, if an undecided group is large enough, they, too can have a delegate.
The twist for Weber One, though, is that they only get two delegates, so all attendees could only pick a maximum of two candidates.
When we rolled over to the Republican precinct for District 12, their captain Lawrence Cooper explained the Republican system, which was almost identical to that of the Democrats, except that under their system, the selections were made by a show of hands or secret ballot, as determined by the respective precincts.
Here, rather than giving delegates proportionally, though, all delegates go toward the candidate with the most supporters, which, for District 12, ended up being Mike Huckabee.
Finding my interest more drawn towards the Democrats and finding that, in general, my presence was far less welcome in the Republican precincts, I returned to Weber One, armed with the knowledge of how the process was supposed to occur in theory, to see how it all played out in practice.
At first, it looked as though the whole process was a joke.
The preference groups – the largest for Obama and Hillary – didn't move, even though there were two smaller preference groups that needed convincing – the inviable Bill Richardson and barely viable John Edwards group.
After a couple of uncomfortable minutes, though, people left their seats and started communicating peacefully with each other about why they should change their vote. And slowly but surely, people began to move.
Soon, there were no Richardson supporters left.
For a few minutes, it looked as though all supporters were flooding to the Obama and Clinton tables. Then, something unexpected happened.
As Edward's supporters like CSU Alumnus Robert Johnson began chatting with the Clinton folks, they began to defect.
Before my very eyes, I saw the population of the Clinton table dwindle and then die.
This particularly interested me, as neither Edward's supporters nor the man himself seemed to particularly active in the state, so I turned to Johnson to find out how this was happening. He pointed me to Edward's record with helping the middle class.
“I think he has an understanding of poverty and the needs of the middle class,” he said.
A few holdouts for the Hillary campaign, including resident Gary Carr, who supported Hillary because of her more extensive experience as a “great first lady” and senator, held on almost until the end, but by the end of the night, the precinct was divided into two camps – Obama and Edwards.
The delegates were then selected from each camp, each given healthy applause, and the citizens were dismissed.
I was floored by how smoothly the whole process ran.
Not once during the evening were their shouts or heated arguments. Instead, there was civil debate and compromise between people with a common goal – selecting the best presidential candidate to represent the interests of not just themselves, but their neighbors, too.
What happened in Iowa tonight was democracy at its purest. One can only hope the Colorado caucus on Feb. 5 is equally civil and productive.
-S.R.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
In nick of time, GOP faith established, Democrats back idealism
The political climate is heating up in a race that began at boiling point 10 months ago. James Lynch, a political reporter with the Cedar Rapids Gazette said the 2007 competition for the White House began with as much intensity as it had ended with in 2004.
Republicans
When it comes to the public opinion in Iowa on presidential viability, the Republicans have had a much more confusing race than the Democrats – at least up until a couple of months ago when Iowa’s Republicans realized that Mike Huckabee represents everything for which the neoconservatives stand.
With his charismatic stage presence (unless he is playing the bass guitar), attractive mind set on the issues that matter to the religious right and his new secret weapon, Chuck Norris, the Huckster has taken the state by storm and surprised the nation with his climb from mediocrity to superstar status.
In the first 10 months of what is to be the longest, most crowded presidential race in the history of America, Republicans didn’t know where to turn. Their party was in shambles after further reports of failure in Iraq and failed foreign, education and security policy caused the Bush administration’s popularity to fall to dismal depths. This was not helped by a series of GOP sex scandals which destroyed their only good card, that moral values.
Mitt Romney was Mormon and a little fake; Rudy Giuliani was a cross-dressing, pro-choice, anti-gun, border security conundrum who ran his entire campaign off of fuel from his performance after the 9/11 attacks; and John McCain was more polarizing than Hillary Clinton. The rest of the candidates, including Huckabee, were no-name representatives, governors and actors with little to no political experience or bad track records.
But when Huckabee employed Chuck Norris as a volunteer campaign tool and started pandering to the right wing as a former Baptist pastor who knows what Christian values mean, he saturated the trail with what Norris calls “Chuck Norris facts” and religious candor.
The Republicans had found their candidate. Giuliani, who was the most viable option at the beginning of the race, kept making an ass of himself by mentioning 9/11 in his answers to every question and Romney began his smear campaign on Huckabee, leaving a bad taste in the mouths of many Republican voters.
“I don’t want to hear what one candidate is doing wrong, I want to hear what Romney’s going to do as president,” said one zealous Huckabee supporter plastered in stickers, holding a “Faith, family, and freedom” sign at a Des Moines ballroom after Norris spoke on behalf of Huckabee.
Meanwhile, Ron Paul and other marginalized candidates have been exposed to de facto exclusion from the race by FOX News when the conservative media outlet decided to host several Republican debates in New Hampshire and not invite the fringe candidates. Supporters of Paul say the GOP doesn’t want him to get the ticket because of his unconventional policies.
But each candidate has his merit and a large support base. Even Paul returned from the campaign trail in Florida to hold a Des Moines rally Wednesday night to which more than 600 people showed up.
Huckabee told reporters that the polls don’t necessarily reflect the public opinion. A state poll on Friday had Romney ahead by a big lead. Two days later, a Des Moines Register poll showed Huckabee nine percentage points ahead of Romney.
So with polls showing Huckabee in lead; Romney, McCain and Giuliani losing favor from Iowa voters; and Fred Thompson and Ron Paul fighting for fourth place, Iowa will have never been louder than they will be tonight.
Democrats
The Democratic presidential race was much easier to predict than that of the GOP.
The trend throughout the 10 months leading up to tonight has been clear. Hillary Clinton was ahead for most of the race, keeping her percentage in the polls hovering around 25 percent. The same happened with the John Edwards campaign. But as underdogs Dennis Kucinich, Chris Dodd, Joe Biden, Bill Richardson and Mike Gravel became increasingly unpopular, Barack Obama gained the majority of the state’s youth favor, constantly playing his “Change we can believe in” card.
In November, that card put him ahead of everyone else in the minds of Iowans for the first time on the campaign trail, according to polls, and he has widened his lead ever since.
At a rally Wednesday night at Hoover High School in West Des Moines, Obama spoke to a crowd of over 2,000 students, community members and the press. Sure at this point that he will gain the Iowa vote as he is ahead of Clinton and Edwards by six percent and eight percent, respectively, Obama’s message was one of pending change.
He has scheduled a post-caucus event in what sounds like anticipation of a win.
But as he counts on the idealistic youth vote to push him over the hump of his inexperience, there is one problem, the 18- to 24-year-old demographic is the least likely to show up on caucus night. So banking on a maybe is certainly a gamble, but is one that must be taken by Obama, who has been criticized for not being able to gather large support from anyone but nation’s youth, including the black community.
And Clinton has garnered a handsome amount of approval from older female voters by playing to their emotions on issues like health care and advocating her Iraq withdrawal plan, which many voters view as the most sensible.
Historically, middle-aged white women show up in greater numbers than any other demographic on caucus night, which is why former President Bill Clinton stumped for his wife in a frigid cold, corrugated tin storage building outside of the Amana Colonies to crowd of several hundred rural Iowans New Year’s Day, saying that Hillary has the right mix of experience and ideology to fix the health care crisis, our failing energy policy and the U.S.’s spider web of education problems.
With Bill's record and respect in his party, Democratic voters not lured by Obama see a two-for-one when caucusing for Hillary.
But Hillary’s deepest criticism among voters is that she is polarizing and cold. She is largely viewed as too driven to pay attention to the human interest.
One Hillary supporter, however, is quick tell people that she is just opposite.
“She is extremely warm and welcoming,” said lawyer Karen Lines of San Francisco, Calif., who came to Iowa to campaign for Hillary. Lines and her friend Colleen Wilcox, who tagged along on Lines’ trip said the public opinion on Hillary is a byproduct of sexism and circumstance.
“It has to do with being a woman and being Bill Clinton’s wife,” Wilcox said. “People are resistant to change.”
And the sleeper, John Edwards, is banking on support from Iowa voters that he gained as Sen. John Kerry’s running mate in 2004. One end-of-the-year poll actually had him pegged as the front runner in Iowa after the Clinton-Obama mudslinging battle became a hot topic last month.
His appeal to the Iowa farming communities as a candidate who will keep their interests at the top of his priority list consistently puts him in third place in the polls.
How it will end in Iowa for the Democrats looks much clearer than for the Republicans, but only tonight will tell what Iowans really think. Then, Iowans, at the forefront of the 2008 election, will send a message to states like Colorado.
-Hedgefund
Republicans
When it comes to the public opinion in Iowa on presidential viability, the Republicans have had a much more confusing race than the Democrats – at least up until a couple of months ago when Iowa’s Republicans realized that Mike Huckabee represents everything for which the neoconservatives stand.
With his charismatic stage presence (unless he is playing the bass guitar), attractive mind set on the issues that matter to the religious right and his new secret weapon, Chuck Norris, the Huckster has taken the state by storm and surprised the nation with his climb from mediocrity to superstar status.
In the first 10 months of what is to be the longest, most crowded presidential race in the history of America, Republicans didn’t know where to turn. Their party was in shambles after further reports of failure in Iraq and failed foreign, education and security policy caused the Bush administration’s popularity to fall to dismal depths. This was not helped by a series of GOP sex scandals which destroyed their only good card, that moral values.
Mitt Romney was Mormon and a little fake; Rudy Giuliani was a cross-dressing, pro-choice, anti-gun, border security conundrum who ran his entire campaign off of fuel from his performance after the 9/11 attacks; and John McCain was more polarizing than Hillary Clinton. The rest of the candidates, including Huckabee, were no-name representatives, governors and actors with little to no political experience or bad track records.
But when Huckabee employed Chuck Norris as a volunteer campaign tool and started pandering to the right wing as a former Baptist pastor who knows what Christian values mean, he saturated the trail with what Norris calls “Chuck Norris facts” and religious candor.
The Republicans had found their candidate. Giuliani, who was the most viable option at the beginning of the race, kept making an ass of himself by mentioning 9/11 in his answers to every question and Romney began his smear campaign on Huckabee, leaving a bad taste in the mouths of many Republican voters.
“I don’t want to hear what one candidate is doing wrong, I want to hear what Romney’s going to do as president,” said one zealous Huckabee supporter plastered in stickers, holding a “Faith, family, and freedom” sign at a Des Moines ballroom after Norris spoke on behalf of Huckabee.
Meanwhile, Ron Paul and other marginalized candidates have been exposed to de facto exclusion from the race by FOX News when the conservative media outlet decided to host several Republican debates in New Hampshire and not invite the fringe candidates. Supporters of Paul say the GOP doesn’t want him to get the ticket because of his unconventional policies.
But each candidate has his merit and a large support base. Even Paul returned from the campaign trail in Florida to hold a Des Moines rally Wednesday night to which more than 600 people showed up.
Huckabee told reporters that the polls don’t necessarily reflect the public opinion. A state poll on Friday had Romney ahead by a big lead. Two days later, a Des Moines Register poll showed Huckabee nine percentage points ahead of Romney.
So with polls showing Huckabee in lead; Romney, McCain and Giuliani losing favor from Iowa voters; and Fred Thompson and Ron Paul fighting for fourth place, Iowa will have never been louder than they will be tonight.
Democrats
The Democratic presidential race was much easier to predict than that of the GOP.
The trend throughout the 10 months leading up to tonight has been clear. Hillary Clinton was ahead for most of the race, keeping her percentage in the polls hovering around 25 percent. The same happened with the John Edwards campaign. But as underdogs Dennis Kucinich, Chris Dodd, Joe Biden, Bill Richardson and Mike Gravel became increasingly unpopular, Barack Obama gained the majority of the state’s youth favor, constantly playing his “Change we can believe in” card.
In November, that card put him ahead of everyone else in the minds of Iowans for the first time on the campaign trail, according to polls, and he has widened his lead ever since.
At a rally Wednesday night at Hoover High School in West Des Moines, Obama spoke to a crowd of over 2,000 students, community members and the press. Sure at this point that he will gain the Iowa vote as he is ahead of Clinton and Edwards by six percent and eight percent, respectively, Obama’s message was one of pending change.
He has scheduled a post-caucus event in what sounds like anticipation of a win.
But as he counts on the idealistic youth vote to push him over the hump of his inexperience, there is one problem, the 18- to 24-year-old demographic is the least likely to show up on caucus night. So banking on a maybe is certainly a gamble, but is one that must be taken by Obama, who has been criticized for not being able to gather large support from anyone but nation’s youth, including the black community.
And Clinton has garnered a handsome amount of approval from older female voters by playing to their emotions on issues like health care and advocating her Iraq withdrawal plan, which many voters view as the most sensible.
Historically, middle-aged white women show up in greater numbers than any other demographic on caucus night, which is why former President Bill Clinton stumped for his wife in a frigid cold, corrugated tin storage building outside of the Amana Colonies to crowd of several hundred rural Iowans New Year’s Day, saying that Hillary has the right mix of experience and ideology to fix the health care crisis, our failing energy policy and the U.S.’s spider web of education problems.
With Bill's record and respect in his party, Democratic voters not lured by Obama see a two-for-one when caucusing for Hillary.
But Hillary’s deepest criticism among voters is that she is polarizing and cold. She is largely viewed as too driven to pay attention to the human interest.
One Hillary supporter, however, is quick tell people that she is just opposite.
“She is extremely warm and welcoming,” said lawyer Karen Lines of San Francisco, Calif., who came to Iowa to campaign for Hillary. Lines and her friend Colleen Wilcox, who tagged along on Lines’ trip said the public opinion on Hillary is a byproduct of sexism and circumstance.
“It has to do with being a woman and being Bill Clinton’s wife,” Wilcox said. “People are resistant to change.”
And the sleeper, John Edwards, is banking on support from Iowa voters that he gained as Sen. John Kerry’s running mate in 2004. One end-of-the-year poll actually had him pegged as the front runner in Iowa after the Clinton-Obama mudslinging battle became a hot topic last month.
His appeal to the Iowa farming communities as a candidate who will keep their interests at the top of his priority list consistently puts him in third place in the polls.
How it will end in Iowa for the Democrats looks much clearer than for the Republicans, but only tonight will tell what Iowans really think. Then, Iowans, at the forefront of the 2008 election, will send a message to states like Colorado.
-Hedgefund
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Some of us heart Huckabee
Mike Huckabee jumped on his New Year’s Day stage, fresh through the doors of his tour "Huckabus" and the Cedar Rapids Elks Lodge at 12:30 p.m.and established his presence by immediately by strapping on the bass guitar and playing renditions of old blues songs like "Mustang Sally" and "Blue Suede Shoes" with an international blues band.
The two-member band is made up of a long-haired lead guitarist wearing a brown corduroy blazer and stoner glasses and a bald, goateed biker-looking drummer in blue jeans and a Larry the Cable Guy shirt.
After changing the line in "Mustang Sally" line that goes "you better slow your Mustang down" to "you better start following Mike Huckabee around," Craig Erickson, the Cedar Rapids-born guitarist who has played with Bob Marley and Jimi Hendrix gave the stage up to Huckabee’s wife, Janet, who introduced her husband to the crowd of 200 plus northern Iowans in the lodge as the next president of the United States.
The majority of supporters at the Huckabee stump had never heard of him until the past few months, when he quickly ascended in the polls and finally overtook Mitt Romney this month.
Mark and Marie Scherbaum, of Marion, Iowa, have been taking their five home-schooled children around to as many Huckabee events as possible after they took their support away from Sam Brownback.
They said they realized Huck was the only candidate to support their traditional family values, much like many conservative religious groups who have backed the candidate in light of his recent surge in Iowa.
His ascent is largely fueled by his days as a Baptist minister, giving him favor in the religious
community.
"His whole train is pro-life from birth ‘til death," Marie said, illustrating the cycle of life with elaborate hand gestures.
"He has everyday values," Mark said.
The family also said Huck was the only truly comprehensive candidate who doesn’t give his ear to any special interests.
Indeed, the Huckster knows how to play on the emotions of his neoconservative base who want to see the GOP return to it’s core traditional values of small government and an expressed willingness to work with both ends of the political spectrum on any issue
But in a ballroom that could easily be converted to a sleezy strip club in west Des Moines seven hours after the Cedar Rapids event, he strengthened his newly-acquired lead in the polls with a special message from Chuck Norris while one of the only representatives of Iowa’s black community at the event slumped behind his complex switchboard and shook his head over Huckabee policy.
The sound technician who didn’t give me his name was probably the only person in the building who would say "He’s really not my type of guy" beside his workmate who was the spitting image a conscientious objector during the Vietnam war. He was too drunk to talk.
"Politics is more commons," the black man said, asserting that a representative of the country’s working class should not be elite.
"I’m not a fat cat," he said. "I don’t have money."
The skinny black man, who appeared to be in his late 50s, bared his gnarled teeth in a sarcastic snarl while he talked about how Huckabee’s proposed energy independence plan would be counterproductive for the country.
He asked if foreign oil reserves were not needed, why would we be buying from foreign sources?
He said substantial U.S. oil reserves didn’t exist.
"If that was the truth, we’d be using it right fuckin’ now," he said.
The governor wants to exempt the U.S. from deals made in the 1960s with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries that bound the U.S. to Middle Eastern oil exports. The plan Huckabee wants to implement would utilize untapped domestic oil reserves, alternative energy sources like biodiesel and wind energy, and get rid of what Huckabee’s Web site calls OPEC’s "energy embargo against us."
Sounds slick, but Democrats don’t buy it.
"(Huckabee) sounds charismatic and good, if you don’t pay attention to what he’s saying," said Colleen Wilcox, a recently retired school superintendent who came to Iowa Friday to advocate for the Hillary Clinton campaign after Bill Clinton stumped for his wife in Amana, Iowa.
While polls show that Huckabee will probably win the Republican nomination in Iowa and ultimately the country, he will still have to run the gauntlet of a more diverse society and play on the emotions of people across the country who aren’t as stuck to tradition and deregulation as conservative Americans.
Looking up at the "Chuck and Huck" event like he was forced to experience Alex DeLarge’s horrific cleansing in "A Clockwork Orange," the sound technician illustrated his disdain for Huckabee’s pander to his new base.
"Don’t piss on me and tell me it’s raining," he said.
-Hedgefund
The two-member band is made up of a long-haired lead guitarist wearing a brown corduroy blazer and stoner glasses and a bald, goateed biker-looking drummer in blue jeans and a Larry the Cable Guy shirt.
After changing the line in "Mustang Sally" line that goes "you better slow your Mustang down" to "you better start following Mike Huckabee around," Craig Erickson, the Cedar Rapids-born guitarist who has played with Bob Marley and Jimi Hendrix gave the stage up to Huckabee’s wife, Janet, who introduced her husband to the crowd of 200 plus northern Iowans in the lodge as the next president of the United States.
The majority of supporters at the Huckabee stump had never heard of him until the past few months, when he quickly ascended in the polls and finally overtook Mitt Romney this month.
Mark and Marie Scherbaum, of Marion, Iowa, have been taking their five home-schooled children around to as many Huckabee events as possible after they took their support away from Sam Brownback.
They said they realized Huck was the only candidate to support their traditional family values, much like many conservative religious groups who have backed the candidate in light of his recent surge in Iowa.
His ascent is largely fueled by his days as a Baptist minister, giving him favor in the religious
community.
"His whole train is pro-life from birth ‘til death," Marie said, illustrating the cycle of life with elaborate hand gestures.
"He has everyday values," Mark said.
The family also said Huck was the only truly comprehensive candidate who doesn’t give his ear to any special interests.
Indeed, the Huckster knows how to play on the emotions of his neoconservative base who want to see the GOP return to it’s core traditional values of small government and an expressed willingness to work with both ends of the political spectrum on any issue
But in a ballroom that could easily be converted to a sleezy strip club in west Des Moines seven hours after the Cedar Rapids event, he strengthened his newly-acquired lead in the polls with a special message from Chuck Norris while one of the only representatives of Iowa’s black community at the event slumped behind his complex switchboard and shook his head over Huckabee policy.
The sound technician who didn’t give me his name was probably the only person in the building who would say "He’s really not my type of guy" beside his workmate who was the spitting image a conscientious objector during the Vietnam war. He was too drunk to talk.
"Politics is more commons," the black man said, asserting that a representative of the country’s working class should not be elite.
"I’m not a fat cat," he said. "I don’t have money."
The skinny black man, who appeared to be in his late 50s, bared his gnarled teeth in a sarcastic snarl while he talked about how Huckabee’s proposed energy independence plan would be counterproductive for the country.
He asked if foreign oil reserves were not needed, why would we be buying from foreign sources?
He said substantial U.S. oil reserves didn’t exist.
"If that was the truth, we’d be using it right fuckin’ now," he said.
The governor wants to exempt the U.S. from deals made in the 1960s with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries that bound the U.S. to Middle Eastern oil exports. The plan Huckabee wants to implement would utilize untapped domestic oil reserves, alternative energy sources like biodiesel and wind energy, and get rid of what Huckabee’s Web site calls OPEC’s "energy embargo against us."
Sounds slick, but Democrats don’t buy it.
"(Huckabee) sounds charismatic and good, if you don’t pay attention to what he’s saying," said Colleen Wilcox, a recently retired school superintendent who came to Iowa Friday to advocate for the Hillary Clinton campaign after Bill Clinton stumped for his wife in Amana, Iowa.
While polls show that Huckabee will probably win the Republican nomination in Iowa and ultimately the country, he will still have to run the gauntlet of a more diverse society and play on the emotions of people across the country who aren’t as stuck to tradition and deregulation as conservative Americans.
Looking up at the "Chuck and Huck" event like he was forced to experience Alex DeLarge’s horrific cleansing in "A Clockwork Orange," the sound technician illustrated his disdain for Huckabee’s pander to his new base.
"Don’t piss on me and tell me it’s raining," he said.
-Hedgefund
Monday, December 31, 2007
One Dem against withdrawal
Stopping in Iowa City in hopes of giving the Republican frontrunners some exposure after covering a Democratic event in Council Bluffs was probably a bad idea.
The socially conservative Republicans have pretty much abandoned the biggest college town in Iowa. Rudy Giuliani was the only hopeful with any noticeable effort – or even an office here.
Mitt Romney, John McCain, Mike Huckabee and Fred Thompson don’t seem interested in the college-age group. And even Rudy has abandoned the state in hopes of greener pastures closer to his New York base in New Hampshire.
So when we saw a small military surplus store on the outskirts of the city, we couldn’t help but stop in to find out what the proprietors of what might be presumed a traditionally conservative establishment might think. Interestingly enough, we found two pro-war liberal-leaning single mothers.
Brenda Roe, who works the register at CC Military Surplus, has an interesting view on foreign policy for a Democrat.
While she is not sure which Democrat she supports right now, she says Hillary has the most practical outline for withdrawal from Iraq and the best health care plan out of any of the candidates she has heard from. Like many other Iowans, however, she will walk in to her caucus on Thursday night on the fence between a decision on one of the big gun lefties.
Brenda described people in the Iowa City area as either conservative and elite or liberal and poor or not strongly tied to the city.
“It’s conservative for the doctors and attorneys and people who own stuff, but the college is all liberal,” she said.
But her situation on the margins is a little different.
While selling Editor-in-Chief David McSwane a paratrooper knife, Brenda explained that, though she has never caucused before, she is considering it this year because of the complicated issues at stake.
Moving her short, stocky figure around the shop, she helped us with notes and told us about the store’s inventory with help from her boss, the store manager Missy Michel-Daugherty.
Neither of the women, who are also sisters, have caucused before. Brenda hasn’t because she used to work as a legal secretary for a very politically active law firm and didn’t want to deal with political bullshit on her time off. Missy never caucused because she has always been too busy working nearly 100 hours a week to keep surplus moving through her store. Still, she can’t afford to supply her employees with health care because of the small-business nature of the surplus industry.
Roe had worked for a trucking company the year before, but quit this year to work for Missy. After leaving her comprehensive health care plan along with her trucking job, Brenda now has to worry about her 14-year-old’s well-being, despite working as hard as she ever had.
“It’s not because we’re not doing our job,” she said. “It’s because (health care’s) not available.”
Clinton’s plan would mandate continued health care, when a consumer switches job.
The surplus store, located in a shopping center on the frigid plains east of town, is filled with Airsoft and Paintballing supplies, pro-war bumper stickers that say things like “Got Freedom? (Iraqis don’t),” olive green anglehead flashlights and American flags.
Roe’s views on the war reflected the ambience in the shop. She wants the war in Iraq to continue until the country is established as a sovereign entity in order to ensure a stable environment in the Middle East.
While most Democratic candidates are one way or the other on Iraq, Hillary is the only candidate with a health care plan that Roe likes and wants to keep U.S. military presence in Iraq until the civil unrest ends.
And the GOP doesn’t offer her solace either.
With the Republican candidates focusing their attention on the conservative, rural western half of Iowa and the New Hampshire primaries, Roe finds some of their policies hard to swallow. Mitt and Mike don’t strike her fancy because of their hollow talk, she said.
“Lots of pretty words and nothing behind it,” she said of the Huckabee campaign.
But with the frontrunners stoking pissing matches in the tense days leading up to the premier presidential event in the country, Brenda and Missy keep paying attention to the lighter aspects of life, encouraging a young group of college reporters to spend New Year’s Eve taking advantage the biggest hot female contingent in the state courtesy of the University of Iowa.
“It’s New Year’s,” Brenda said. “You’ll like the way the ladies are dressed.”
Hoping for some fun tonight and a more promising conservative base awaiting us in Cedar Rapids and Des Moines tomorrow, my colleagues and I keep bringing you coverage as the race unravels.
-Hedgefund
The socially conservative Republicans have pretty much abandoned the biggest college town in Iowa. Rudy Giuliani was the only hopeful with any noticeable effort – or even an office here.
Mitt Romney, John McCain, Mike Huckabee and Fred Thompson don’t seem interested in the college-age group. And even Rudy has abandoned the state in hopes of greener pastures closer to his New York base in New Hampshire.
So when we saw a small military surplus store on the outskirts of the city, we couldn’t help but stop in to find out what the proprietors of what might be presumed a traditionally conservative establishment might think. Interestingly enough, we found two pro-war liberal-leaning single mothers.
Brenda Roe, who works the register at CC Military Surplus, has an interesting view on foreign policy for a Democrat.
While she is not sure which Democrat she supports right now, she says Hillary has the most practical outline for withdrawal from Iraq and the best health care plan out of any of the candidates she has heard from. Like many other Iowans, however, she will walk in to her caucus on Thursday night on the fence between a decision on one of the big gun lefties.
Brenda described people in the Iowa City area as either conservative and elite or liberal and poor or not strongly tied to the city.
“It’s conservative for the doctors and attorneys and people who own stuff, but the college is all liberal,” she said.
But her situation on the margins is a little different.
While selling Editor-in-Chief David McSwane a paratrooper knife, Brenda explained that, though she has never caucused before, she is considering it this year because of the complicated issues at stake.
Moving her short, stocky figure around the shop, she helped us with notes and told us about the store’s inventory with help from her boss, the store manager Missy Michel-Daugherty.
Neither of the women, who are also sisters, have caucused before. Brenda hasn’t because she used to work as a legal secretary for a very politically active law firm and didn’t want to deal with political bullshit on her time off. Missy never caucused because she has always been too busy working nearly 100 hours a week to keep surplus moving through her store. Still, she can’t afford to supply her employees with health care because of the small-business nature of the surplus industry.
Roe had worked for a trucking company the year before, but quit this year to work for Missy. After leaving her comprehensive health care plan along with her trucking job, Brenda now has to worry about her 14-year-old’s well-being, despite working as hard as she ever had.
“It’s not because we’re not doing our job,” she said. “It’s because (health care’s) not available.”
Clinton’s plan would mandate continued health care, when a consumer switches job.
The surplus store, located in a shopping center on the frigid plains east of town, is filled with Airsoft and Paintballing supplies, pro-war bumper stickers that say things like “Got Freedom? (Iraqis don’t),” olive green anglehead flashlights and American flags.
Roe’s views on the war reflected the ambience in the shop. She wants the war in Iraq to continue until the country is established as a sovereign entity in order to ensure a stable environment in the Middle East.
While most Democratic candidates are one way or the other on Iraq, Hillary is the only candidate with a health care plan that Roe likes and wants to keep U.S. military presence in Iraq until the civil unrest ends.
And the GOP doesn’t offer her solace either.
With the Republican candidates focusing their attention on the conservative, rural western half of Iowa and the New Hampshire primaries, Roe finds some of their policies hard to swallow. Mitt and Mike don’t strike her fancy because of their hollow talk, she said.
“Lots of pretty words and nothing behind it,” she said of the Huckabee campaign.
But with the frontrunners stoking pissing matches in the tense days leading up to the premier presidential event in the country, Brenda and Missy keep paying attention to the lighter aspects of life, encouraging a young group of college reporters to spend New Year’s Eve taking advantage the biggest hot female contingent in the state courtesy of the University of Iowa.
“It’s New Year’s,” Brenda said. “You’ll like the way the ladies are dressed.”
Hoping for some fun tonight and a more promising conservative base awaiting us in Cedar Rapids and Des Moines tomorrow, my colleagues and I keep bringing you coverage as the race unravels.
-Hedgefund
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Paul-change: How the Paul campaign plans to revamp ... everything
Rolling into Council Bluffs last night two hours later than we had planned, I was immediately presented with a perfect opportunity to demonstrate how much a nasty hangover can fuck up an interview. But William Muller didn’t seem to mind, recognizing that journalism is, by nature, a perfect facilitator of alcoholism.
Our conversation about Ron Paul and how Mitt Romney’s perfect Ken-Doll appearance mixes with his message of family values and Tom Clancy conspiracy theories was highlighted with Muller giving our photographer strange, hard-to-interpret looks over his coffee cup and the surroundings of the grossest Village Inn I've visited.
The interview was supposed to take place in a nearby coffee shop, but another thing my hangover prevented me from doing was calling ahead of time to ensure the place would be open, which it wasn’t – I’m an idiot.
So within the confines of the Bluffs restaurant, Muller told Brandon Iwamoto and me why taxes should exist on a minimal level, conspiracy theories should be taken with a grain of salt and why self-admitted crazies like Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel deserve the presidency.
The Paul campaign, which Muller, a 30-year-old Public Relations senior at the University of Nebraska at Omaha is a big fan of, is probably the most bizarre facet of the campaign trail (with the possible exception of Dennis Kucinich’s UFO sighting accounts). Even Muller admits that Paul has no chance for the Republican ticket.
The Republican Party of New Hampshire excluded hopefuls Paul, Duncan Hunter and Alan Keyes from participation in their debate next month, a possible precursor for more underdog exclusions from the GOP.
"I don’t think the GOP will allow (a Ron Paul ticket)," Muller said. "I think they will move Heaven and Earth before they let that happen ... because he scares the neoconservatives and they've taken over the party."
Sure, the candidate has some wild, controversial ideas, like the eradication of the federal tax system.
To do this, Paul would oust the Department of Education, the Department of Homeland Security and repeal the PATRIOT Act -- views that have garnered a tidy sum of oppositional anecdotes from the GOP.
The Texas senator would also pull U.S. troops out of Iraq ASAP, take the U.S. out of the free trade agreements like the North American Union that have been the target of work-government conspiracy theorists, and instill family values into the educational attitude of the nation’s schools.
By all partisan accounts, some of these ideas don’t exactly mesh with any well-established set of ideals.
But Muller, who identifies himself as a true blue Libertarian, finds this recipe for national sovereignty an appeal to his deepest values, which have not been catered since the 1930s.
"We seem to have lost our way in what is important; we’ve consistently sacrificed security for liberty," he said.
Growing up in Houston, Texas, and later serving the Air Force as a linguist speaking Serbian and Croatian, Muller had never been political. But when the Paul campaign started garnering national attention, especially among college-age libertarian groups, Muller had found what he called in a round-about way his political soul mate – someone who promised tax reduction with sensible (and not-so-sensible) spending cuts.
"I give a thumbs up on (tax eradication) ... the income tax is a big one, as well as most taxes. I feel that they’re unnecessary. Most taxes are just used to support this burgeoning welfare state in this country,"he said.
Muller believes education should be localized and any interference from the federal government in the institution "screws it up in a bad way."
"Every time government tries to step in and standardize education, it just goes by the wayside," he said. "And as the government becomes more and more involved in people’s lives, the people become more dependent on the government, and less dependent on themselves and the community."
But the conundrum remains that in the unlikely situation of a Paul presidency, he would have to work with the most liberal Congress and Senate in over a decade to support the biggest bureaucracy in the world. The resulting trifecta of extremism would be quick to get rid of right-wing bureaucracy like the Department of Homeland Security, but would most certainly clash when discussing the end of federal education funding.
Muller said his ideal Paul-Kucinich ticket would fix a lot of the problems America has.
"This is my dream line-up, I’d like to see Ron Paul get the Republican nomination and Kucinich get the Democratic nomination," he said. "I know at least we’ll be out of Iraq and we can probably get rid of that PATRIOT Act. That would make me happy."
He organized a grassroots, Internet-connected group of UNO students in support of Ron Paul earlier this month. People have been signing up every day to support the candidate that he says students can identify with since he started the group.
Paul, an underdog of the race has five percent of Iowa’s support right now according to polls.
On a lighter note, a bunny trail from a side-conversation we had with Muller had about Mitt
Romney’s private equity firm buying out Clear Channel Communications inspired me to name my first-born son Jazz Murdoch, assuming I have kids.
-Hedgefund
Our conversation about Ron Paul and how Mitt Romney’s perfect Ken-Doll appearance mixes with his message of family values and Tom Clancy conspiracy theories was highlighted with Muller giving our photographer strange, hard-to-interpret looks over his coffee cup and the surroundings of the grossest Village Inn I've visited.
The interview was supposed to take place in a nearby coffee shop, but another thing my hangover prevented me from doing was calling ahead of time to ensure the place would be open, which it wasn’t – I’m an idiot.
So within the confines of the Bluffs restaurant, Muller told Brandon Iwamoto and me why taxes should exist on a minimal level, conspiracy theories should be taken with a grain of salt and why self-admitted crazies like Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel deserve the presidency.
The Paul campaign, which Muller, a 30-year-old Public Relations senior at the University of Nebraska at Omaha is a big fan of, is probably the most bizarre facet of the campaign trail (with the possible exception of Dennis Kucinich’s UFO sighting accounts). Even Muller admits that Paul has no chance for the Republican ticket.
The Republican Party of New Hampshire excluded hopefuls Paul, Duncan Hunter and Alan Keyes from participation in their debate next month, a possible precursor for more underdog exclusions from the GOP.
"I don’t think the GOP will allow (a Ron Paul ticket)," Muller said. "I think they will move Heaven and Earth before they let that happen ... because he scares the neoconservatives and they've taken over the party."
Sure, the candidate has some wild, controversial ideas, like the eradication of the federal tax system.
To do this, Paul would oust the Department of Education, the Department of Homeland Security and repeal the PATRIOT Act -- views that have garnered a tidy sum of oppositional anecdotes from the GOP.
The Texas senator would also pull U.S. troops out of Iraq ASAP, take the U.S. out of the free trade agreements like the North American Union that have been the target of work-government conspiracy theorists, and instill family values into the educational attitude of the nation’s schools.
By all partisan accounts, some of these ideas don’t exactly mesh with any well-established set of ideals.
But Muller, who identifies himself as a true blue Libertarian, finds this recipe for national sovereignty an appeal to his deepest values, which have not been catered since the 1930s.
"We seem to have lost our way in what is important; we’ve consistently sacrificed security for liberty," he said.
Growing up in Houston, Texas, and later serving the Air Force as a linguist speaking Serbian and Croatian, Muller had never been political. But when the Paul campaign started garnering national attention, especially among college-age libertarian groups, Muller had found what he called in a round-about way his political soul mate – someone who promised tax reduction with sensible (and not-so-sensible) spending cuts.
"I give a thumbs up on (tax eradication) ... the income tax is a big one, as well as most taxes. I feel that they’re unnecessary. Most taxes are just used to support this burgeoning welfare state in this country,"he said.
Muller believes education should be localized and any interference from the federal government in the institution "screws it up in a bad way."
"Every time government tries to step in and standardize education, it just goes by the wayside," he said. "And as the government becomes more and more involved in people’s lives, the people become more dependent on the government, and less dependent on themselves and the community."
But the conundrum remains that in the unlikely situation of a Paul presidency, he would have to work with the most liberal Congress and Senate in over a decade to support the biggest bureaucracy in the world. The resulting trifecta of extremism would be quick to get rid of right-wing bureaucracy like the Department of Homeland Security, but would most certainly clash when discussing the end of federal education funding.
Muller said his ideal Paul-Kucinich ticket would fix a lot of the problems America has.
"This is my dream line-up, I’d like to see Ron Paul get the Republican nomination and Kucinich get the Democratic nomination," he said. "I know at least we’ll be out of Iraq and we can probably get rid of that PATRIOT Act. That would make me happy."
He organized a grassroots, Internet-connected group of UNO students in support of Ron Paul earlier this month. People have been signing up every day to support the candidate that he says students can identify with since he started the group.
Paul, an underdog of the race has five percent of Iowa’s support right now according to polls.
On a lighter note, a bunny trail from a side-conversation we had with Muller had about Mitt
Romney’s private equity firm buying out Clear Channel Communications inspired me to name my first-born son Jazz Murdoch, assuming I have kids.
-Hedgefund
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