April 22, 2007
IOWA CITY, Iowa -- "This is April, but it was very powerful."
So said 60-year-old Gary Sanders of Iowa City about Barack Omama's Earth Day speech on the grounds of the University of Iowa's Pentacrest. And Sanders says he's "neutral, non-committed'' when it comes to the field of presidential candidates. He didn't sound too neutral after the event that he and about 5,000 others attended on an idyllic spring day.
"I was actually surprised at my reaction to him,'' said Sanders, an activist for local labor. "Because up until now, I've thought he was more 'rock star,' to be honest.
"He was fabulous. Very, very energized. A really incredible speaker, incredible heart. He spoke to people, he connected with people. He really did. ... He has that potential -- potential -- to be the first candidate since Bobby Kennedy who can speak to black and white, workers and professionals, people across the spectrum who want to turn the page, who just feel that enough's enough.''
Sanders wasn't the only member of his age group here by any means, but this was a young crowd on a college campus in what probably is the most liberal city in Iowa. Obama's insistence that the U.S. must remove its troops from Iraq, that teachers should be paid and valued more in this country, that the American health care system is broken -- these were things that would play to this particular crowd were they to come from any candidate.
But would any other candidate attract 5,000 people here on a Sunday afternoon in April when Iowans wait several months for a Sunday afternoon in April like this one? It was warm, sunny, breezy, perfect.
This "rock star" thing gets beaten to death, but it seemed more than fitting as virtually everyone on the Pentacrest lawn stood to get a glimpse of Obama and click an image of him on their picture-phones as he worked his way to the stage. U2's soaring "City of Blinding Lights'' blared from amply-sized amplifiers, booming off the Old Capitol and other buildings on the grounds.
Bono and Barack.
The song opens with:
The more you see the less you know
The more you find out as you go
I knew much more then than I do now
Voters would probably hope the second line is to be taken more literally than the first or third when applied to their candidates.
But these songs aren't chosen haphazardly. Amid popular modern-day rock anthems played here before Obama arrived (his campaign is big on U2 songs), the Rolling Stones' Vietnam-era classic "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction'' was included. That seemed a better fit for some in the crowd, like 29-year-old Kristi Lohmeier of Iowa City, who works for the non-profit, non-partisan Iowa Policy Project.
"I watched (Obama) speak yesterday in Des Moines,'' Lohmeier said. "I met him. I looked him in the eyes. I have a brother that's on his third deployment right now with the Army and I just looked him in the eyes and said 'Bring my brother home, please, bring him home." If I were to say that to George Bush, I think he would say nothing. He would be totally blank. I could see in Barack's eyes that he felt my fears about my brother being deployed."
But the passionate were intertwined with the merely curious. Some were there because it was the place in Iowa City to be for an hour, to see a celebrity, and move on. Others staked out their viewing positions long before the event started. But like the crowd of 2,200 that packed Kennedy High School in Cedar Rapids to see Obama over two months ago, virtually all in attendance seemed to listen attentively. Like 19-year-old Erica Clausen of Portland, Ore., a goalkeeper for the university's women's soccer team. She also attended a speech former President Jimmy Carter gave in the University of Iowa's Carver-Hawkeye Arena last Wednesday night.
"I haven't decided who I want,'' Clausen said. "(Obama) went up a few notches in my book. Some people said he wasn't very strong at public speaking, but I definitely thought he was pretty strong at it.
"I feel like everyone's kind of up in the air right now.''
I worked at the University of Iowa's student newspaper in 1980. Carter easily outpolled Ronald Reagan for president in Iowa City and Johnson County voting. On that Election Night, some of my co-workers seemed stunned when they learned the nation hadn't fallen in line.
"You can't lull yourselves and delude yourselves into thinking the crowd here is a microcosm of voters in America,'' Sanders said. "What we saw here today was yonger, more middle class and upper middle class, people not committed to power structures, more highly educated.''
But when Democratic flavor-of-that-moment presidential candidate Howard Dean campaigned in Iowa City's City Park on Labor Day, 2003, the gathering was a few hundred. Sunday, over four months further from January's Iowa caucuses than that day four years ago, a campaign appearance was the focal point of this campus and city for a day.
"The amount of people that are here today, to me, is incredible,'' Lohmeier said. "It's very exciting. I relate this feeling I have now to what people must have felt when JFK was president. It's really somebody that cares. I've never felt that way about George Bush. I really didn't feel that way about (Bill) Clinton, honestly. But I think Barack has an energy around him and he comes from a genuine place. He comes from a grass roots background.
"For a lot of people the last eight years that have been working at a grassroots level trying to make a difference and just get beaten down and beaten down, Barack stands for something that they can actually put themselves behind and win. It's just a great feeling.''
It was, in the words of U2 and many here, a beautiful day. "Flawless,'' said a young Obama campaign volunteer.
It also was Iowa City.
April 20, 2007
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa -- Bill Richardson made one campaign stop in this city of 123,000 people Friday, to a senior center.
If you aren't from Iowa, you might ask if this was a good use of precious time for a presidential candidate. It's a presidential caucus here next January, not a presidential primary. You don't just drop in and vote, you participate for a few hours. You barter, you lobby, you listen. Then you vote. On a winter night. In Iowa.
But the candidates quickly learn that Iowa skews old, and that going out in potentially frigid weather for a night of political participation doesn't scare off Iowans who care about the process. No matter their age.
Richardson spoke to an audience of about 75 at downtown's Witwer Senior Center. The gathering was about two-thirds seniors. All seemed to pay close attention to the Democratic governor from New Mexico. A few asked pointed questions.
For all of Richardson's lines that got light laughter ("I'm not a rock star ... but close," "I'm going door-to-door. Well, door-to-door is a little difficult. I just drove up from Des Moines. There weren't too many doors when I drove up."), the one that got the biggest laugh was delivered by a male senior when Richardson facetiously claimed "I don't see any old people here."
"You got my vote!" the man in the crowd instantly responded, earning howls from his fellow seniors.
If 59-year-old Richardson could actually connect with Iowa seniors that easily, he'd have some traction in trying to close the distance between himself and Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards, the real "rock star" Democrats in the race. Combined, those three will visit Decorah, Des Moines, Dubuque, Indianola, Iowa City, Marshalltown, Muscatine, Newton and Oelwein by the end of the weekend. Richardson needs to make a lot of friends and create a lot of new supporters just to be part of the discussion.
"Just give me a chance," Richardson asked the gathering here. "You know, we've got ten (nine, actually) months to go and they've already announced the winners. My God -- you have a responsibility as Iowans. So bring your candidates and test them and scrutinize them, look in their eyes. I believe I'm the best qualified. I have the most experience."
Cedar Rapids' Doreen Meier, 73, looked into Richardson's eyes, scrutinized him, and enjoyed what she saw and heard. But it may not be enough.
"I really like Governor Richardson, I've admired him from afar," Meier said. "He's very qualified. I think he cares about what happens to people. We need to dialogue, talking rather than taking up arms. I'm always for that."
But ... "I do have a certain candidate in my heart and in my mind."
She wouldn't name her favorite. With nine months still left of Iowa campaigning, Richardson needs all possible caucus-goers to keep their hearts and minds open at least a crack.
"I've met quite a few of the candidates," Meier said. "It's going to be a horse race. Out of the respect we need to give them, I try to listen and learn.''
Whether she'll attend the caucus simply isn't a question.
"It's an honor for me to go. I'm proud of our state being the first in the nation to go. It behooves all of us here to go."
Meier grew up in London. She and her husband moved to California in 1955 when she was 21. They returned to England for 10 years, then moved to the U.S. for good. She became a U.S. citizen in 1979. She raised seven sons here.
"When my sons travel abroad, I want them to be as well-received as I was in the United States by Americans. I love America, and I take great pride in getting my citizenship here. It's been very good to me. I want that to happen for everybody, to get the respect I was given.
"I'm an activist. I was one of the 'Kerry babes' when he ran for president. We feel we need to stay together, stay focused. We meet regulary every week. I feel we will work again for a campaign because we care, and this is a beautiful state."
This was one of the hearts and minds Richardson wooed Friday. An older one, yes, but one whose voice and vote will count as much as any other next January.
"I will be here ... forever,'' Richardson said, exaggerating for comic effect, though not with total success. "I'm not going to just drop in and do a rally in a gym and then leave."
But once his hour at the senior center was done, he was in a Chevrolet Impala on the road to the University of Northern Iowa for a late-afternoon talk on Darfur and international peace missions. UNI is in Cedar Falls,
Before he took off, he said: "We're going to Cedar, uh, Cedar, uh ..."
"Falls!'' several in the crowd responded.
"We're in Cedar Rapids, right?" Richardson asked, knowing he was. But he was serious when he asked "Where are we going now?" to his staffers before climbing inside the Chevy.
That was Cedar Falls, Governor, about 60 miles north of Cedar Rapids. It has confused many others who aren't from here.
During his address to the Cedar Rapids crowd, he struggled to remember the name of a regional economic agency.
"It's hell to get old," Richardson said about himself. Now that got a laugh.