June 2, 2007
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa -- "Is this the best damn pep rally you've ever been to in your life?"
The answer certainly was arguable, but it was understandable why first-term U.S. Congressman Bruce Braley of Iowa asked the question Saturday night. The Iowa Democratic Party's annual Hall of Fame Celebration in downtown Cedar Rapids was pep rally all the way.
About 800 people stuffed a ballroom in the Crowne Plaza Five Seasons Hotel to cheer for their team, and their specific players, five of whom are running for president. In attendance were Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, John Edwards and Bill Richardson. Each spoke for 10 minutes or so. Each had their core of supporters in the room waving signs and cheering as they entered and exited the stage to specifically chosen music. None of the five said anything new or groundbreaking. You fans are great, they said. Our team is great. We have to fight, fight, fight for victory.
Or something like that.
I've covered sports for a quarter-century in this area, and just about every time I cover one of these campaign events someone jokingly asks me if this is sports. If it isn't, it's very close. The main difference is that games are played frequently in sports, while elections roll around only very two, four or six years depending on the office. Sports and politics have press conferences upon press conferences, strategy discussions, pep talks. Then, at least like in baseball where there's no salary cap, the team/candidate with the most money has the best chance to contend for the championship.
On one side of downtown's First Avenue East, a crowd of Clinton supporters wore similar T-shirts and chanted their support for the New York senator. Across the street, groups of Edwards and Dodd backers did the same. Barack Obama didn't participate in this event. Had he been here with his many young followers, there would have been enough chirping on First Avenue to drown out all the cicadas in Cedar Rapids, who have recently emerged from their 17-year hiatus.
Edwards added to the festive football-type atmosphere with a 13-member drum corps from Dubuque Senior High School. After playing on the sidewalk for about an hour, they made their way into the hotel to follow the candidate before he headed to the ballroom. That got things kind of loud in the hotel. The drummers' payoff, as far as I could tell, was post-performance pizza.
One difference between sports and politics is that sports teams have different colors. Candidates running for president all feature combinations of red, white and blue. The signs waved vigorously by fans of Clinton and Dodd were blue with white lettering and red stripe running through them. Edwards' signs were white, with blue and red lettering. That, one presumes, is because they're all very patriotic.
No more than a hundred feet apart on the hotel's second floor -- with the walls completely covered by red-white-and-blue signs of all the candidates -- Dodd's people were chanting "D! O! D! D!'' while Clinton's were yelling "I! O! W! A!, Hillary Clinton all the way!''
Sophisticated stuff, it wasn't. Not that anyone seemed to mind. This wasn't a night for policy debate. This was, as Braley put it, a pep rally. There was even popcorn, in small plastic bags that were plentiful in the hotel bar.
The popcorn was provided by the Clinton campaign and came with labels with messages like "Are you ready for change? I'm ready to lead! Hillary.''
"I think this is my eighth trip (to Iowa this year),'' Clinton told the crowd. "I plan to spend so much time here I'll be able to caucus for myself before it's over."
"Man, I love being back in Iowa,'' Edwards proclaimed.
"It's so great to be in a sea of blue in Iowa,'' said Biden.
"I will be in every home (in Iowa)," Richardson said. "Well, let's not overdo it."
No, we wouldn't want anyone overdoing it.