Well, I have to be honest: I thought it would be pretty funny to watch Marc post every entry in this thing, respond with something and just converse with himself like a mental patient. Truth be told, I was kind of hoping he would get pissed at an earlier posting of his own and then start insulting himself. I would have enjoyed that. But I promised I would post, so post I shall. Here's a short rendition of my visit at the Iowa caucuses.
At 6 a.m., I returned back to Heavenston, Ill. after covering the caucuses for the Daily Northwestern. I made the trek with an editor, a columnist and two other writers. The real impetus for our travels -- besides the fact that the five us are, like you, absolute politics junkies -- was that a group of NU students from our School of Ed and Social Policy made the trip to volunteer for the candidates of their choice. Anyway, long story short, our edit board decided to front us some moola to make the trip a possibility. I'll spare you the tales from the heartland, but suffice it to say, it was incredible to be there. With the race as close as it was (four candidates all basically within the margin of error in the Register poll the day before) the feel of Des Moines can only be described tritely as "electric." With the majority of the Dean supporters in their bright orange beanies and the Kerry ones in their dark blues, and so on, the entire state had the feel of a camp color war. One couldn't sit down in a coffee shop without seeing beanies, buttons, staffer badges and journalist notepads designating what purpose each person had in the Hawkeye state that week. I've never talked about politics in a similar fashion before. I mean, I've discussed politics with friends and family before, often ad infinitum, but talking to Iowans about their choices was unique. Everything was personal, everything had a reason, every reason had a change of heart behind it. I am now a believer of caucuses. They cannot work in large states for obvious logistical problems. But in these church basements and middle school cafeterias, people not only made a vote but defended it against their next-door neighbors, sometimes even family members. These people's devotion to the democratic (not to mention Democratic) process is unquestioned. As a visiting journalist (technically) I was embarrassed to be told of the Edwards-Kucinich back room deal by a 60-year-old man in a Starbucks down the street from the Kerry Campaign HQ. Of course he had Internet to check CNN.com, and I only had the Web to file at night, but the thing went down and almost immediately it felt like the entire state was talking about it.
I don't want to suggest that my time in Iowa was all newsgathering and reporting, although that was the highlight. I started Sunday morning at the Dean HQ which, as I mentioned in one of my articles (which was then gutted of any soul, character or interest by the cruel hand of a pissed-off editor. Bitch.) closely resembled a teeming campaign HQ downstairs, but upstairs: a frat house. Of course, I understand that analogy is probably not going to compute to most of the people I know who read this, but try to imagine one: old couches, pizza boxes, Red Bull cans aplenty, funny signs, huge maps... I was doing an interview with a deputy press secretary for Dr. Dean when her phone interrupted us twice. One was Peter Jennings, the other was "just" an NBC affiliate. Walking out of the door, I ran into a man whose face I recognized, but couldn't get a name. Then my buddy jabbed me in the stomach, and in the loudest stage whisper ever hissed in my ear: "Joe Trippi!" I was going to stick out my hand and introduce myself, but I decided against it. Maybe because I knew he had no time to schmooze. Or maybe it was because I quickly remembered that his (bitter) ex-wife lives in Evanston, and a mention of NU might not be what he needed. Anyway, after interviewing college students (so many college students! a la DC in the summer, even) including one girl who drove from Mt. Holyoke with two guys she met at a meet-up TWO weeks ago. The punch line? One was 50 and the other was 67. So then we walked down the street to Kerry HQ, with the Real Deal Express parked out front. Typical headquarters stuff here, aside from George Will chatting it up nearby. It was at this point that my gang of five split up. The editor and the two feature writers went to Davenport (2 hours away, on the Iowa/Illinois border) to watch the SESP kids. So I picked that moment to get me and the columnist lost on the way to this Kerry campaign party at a pub.
We wandered into a Marriott (keep in mind its -17 with the wind-chill) to ask for directions. I ask a guy where Street X is. He laughs. Loudly. But! He volunteers to drive us for five bucks. Needless to say, my friend (named Shira) and I agree. We assume its a taxi. Turns out he's a bus driver. When we get there, we're the first ones there. So we take out our laptops and start pecking away. In ten minutes, instantly, the entire place is packed with TV cameras. (Hate TV news even more now, but that's a blog for another day.) To make a long story short, I end up sitting next to a writer from the Boston Globe, Rick Klein. He graduated Princeton in '98, but even still, he's still a very cool guy. He was one of the Globe's NINE reporters at the caucuses and was cool to talk to. He was also useful because I had no idea who some of the people there were. A man came up to us, introduced himself to me, already knew Klein, we talked for a while about the campaign, so I thought he was a staffer. Turns out he was Chris Heinz, Kerry's stepson, heir to the Heinz fortune, etc. I ended up playing foosball with him. Globe writer and me, vs. Kerry's stepson and one of Kerry's press-people. Very cool. Also there was Max Weinberg, drummer for Bruce Springsteen as well as on Conan's show. The other celebrity touring with the Kerry people was "Party of Five"'s Scott Wolf. (I'm sure you know who Scott Wolf is, but Josh K-R doesn't, so bear with me.) Shira thought interviewing him for her column would be perfect, so she went over to him and they talked politics for about 20 minutes. Of course, the Daily was pretty close to getting 550 words on Scott Wolf's eyes, if not for Shira's professionalism. Anyway, we're about to call a cab to take us to Edwards' HQ to talk to more teenage volunteers, when Klein tells us he's going to an actual Edwards rally. We ask if we can come and of course he relents. So we drive to Drake U. and only by showing reporters notebooks do we get in through the packed house. We slip behind the podium he's on, and I sneak underneath the rope sectioning off the press people. (Klein tells me later I was between the head political writer for the Dallas Morning News and a writer from the NY Times. Also above me was a writer from the SF Chronicle. [Christy Marinucci or something?]) I'm literally six feet away from John Edwards. It's my first presidential stump speech/rally and it was something else, trust me. This was, incidentally, my first time on CNN for the day. (Saw myself clearly when they played clips from the speech later that day in the hotel room.)
Shira and I are about to call a cab to take us to Gephardt HQ, when we see other student journalists. After I interview the sherriff of Polk County (woohoo!), we introduce ourselves and they turn out to be UMich writers. Who, of course, volunteer to drive us to Edwards, which is on the way to the huge Kerry/Ted Kennedy rally they're going. When we get to Gephardt's, the deputy press secretary won't let us talk to anyone, even as we plead and remind her that he's an alum. (The fourth NU grad to lose a pres. election!) Anyway, we call a cab (successfully, for the first time) and we bump into a woman who introduces herself as Nancy Gephardt. Turns out to be a sister-in-law or something. I was exhausted and blew the chance to ask her a few questions on the record. But we get home, and on our hotel bed, I peck away at my laptop, with my notes scattered around me, with CNN on mute in front of me. Let me tell you: journalist nirvana. So I filed two hours late, who cares? We made a pool and I picked Kerry/Edwards/Dean/Gephardt. My friends attributed my victory to the fact that I was the only one who spoke with a few people from each campaign. I just think I'm omniscient.
Next day, I'll spare you the whole day shenanigans. Just let me say that typing in the Kerry pressroom (we coulda gone to the Dean victory party, but I assured the team to go to Kerry's.) was the coolest thing I've ever done, and I'm not one for needless superlatives. Rows and rows of laptops, everybody's typing, cell phones are going off feeding in color and quotes (I wrote the final story -- the other four went out to caucuses to talk to people). There are TVs around the room with TV crews' stand-up spots, which lets you watch the live correspondents live and on TV three seconds later. I was on CNN a few times. I called my parents to tell them right before they went "hot," and they made me wave. Which I did slowly, while watching myself on the TV. Next time she did her stand-up, they rotated the angle, cutting me out. Ha. The writers there were from everywhere, obviously. I recognized many faces and more names. Adam Nagourney. Behind me James Carville and Bob Novak fought. I was behind Al Franken in the food line. (When Dean had his apoplectic fit and started screaming state names -- seriously, didn't everybody stop breathing during that? -- Franken turns to me and says "He's going to forget to say a state and piss someone off," to which I said, for lack of anything better, "It's kinda cool, actually. I've never seen a presidential candidate implode before." And Al Franken Laughed At My Line.
OK: So that's my really long, rambly embedded journalist portion. As far as analysis is concerned, I disappointingly agree with much of Marc's post. However, I do urge caution to make ultimate claims after Iowa. As every news agency reported last week, the winner of the Iowa caucus has won the White House twice: Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush. So, while I would hold off on the "Dean is Dead" firing gun, I do think he proved the old adage that the worst thing a candidate can do is become the front-runner. If he had placed second in Iowa, and then even third or second, he would be totally fine. But he got less than half of Kerry's vote. My take, is what a woman in Des Moines told me. Dean's organization is phenomenal, but it rested solely on two things the average Iowan dislikes: A) Outsiders and B) Young'uns who think they know everything. Clearly, Edwards' putting all his support on Iowan middle-class families trumped Dean putting all his support on college students. Plus, many people loved the fact that he is both the establishment and, at the same time, not -- a belief stemming from his freshman senator status. This bugs me, because I like my politicians to be politicians, but Edwards is certainly playing that card well. His stump speech is SO good, by the way. You can tell, and I'm no expert, but you can easily recognize his 20 years as a trial lawyer. He even had me convinced that he could beat Bush in the South. For a second. But that second felt so good. Gephardt? Smell ya later. His ad's biggest claim was that he "was the only candidate who voted against NAFTA." Mazel tov, Dick. I look forward to the book. Lastly, before I pass out (again I got in at 6 this morning, was at class at 9 and didn't nap) Kerry showed that sometimes good things can happen when you fire your campaign manager and take a third mortgage out. Ted Kennedy helped him, yes. But what was unique of his stay in Iowa was his ability to wait until every single question was answered when he went from event to event. He turned Iowa into believers purely by offering them what they wanted: everybody I talked to said they wanted "experience" and "someone who can stand up to Bush." I still think W. is going to win by a few touchdowns, but this weekend certainly gave me some hope.
I'll post something over the next few days when I get my head screwed on straight.
- Seth
