Living in Iowa has been a huge political awakening for me. "Iowa, first in the Nation" comes to mind. For those of you not from Iowa and have no idea what I mean, Iowa is the first state to have a caucus. What is a caucus? Well, from my limited understanding as an outsider, it is basically a vote that helps choose the political candidates for the primary elections. Is that right? Essentially, Iowa is often the state that gets the ball rolling and propells the candidates into the national spotlight. "As Iowa goes, so goes the nation." Think back to Romney v. McCain v. Huckabee in the last election. Huckabee was basically a no name until after the Iowa caucus which Romney won, and eventually put Romney out of the running and McCain in the spotlight again.
Part of living in Iowa means we get a lot of campaigning. I didn't even know politicians traveled around meeting people and putting ads on TV, etc, until I moved here. Needless to say, not a whole lot of money goes into campaigning in Utah as the results rarely change much.
We have had the chance to attend multiple rallies, conventions, lunches, caucuses, etc. I have seen Obama in person two times. I have shaken (shook?) hands with Guilliani, eaten lunch paid for by Romney, and it seems like more but I really can't remember. I rode a bus from the Romney campaign to the caucus where he fed us pulled (Iowa) pork and provided entertainment in hopes we would help him win the caucus.
Tomorrow Obama comes to the University of Iowa. Iowa City is somewhere I had never heard of before 6 months before moving here. It is amazing to me that the President of the United States is coming back to give an address at the Fieldhouse. Before the elections, he first announced his health care bill at the Medical School. I guess he is back to report his findings. I guess he chose the U of I because it was THE medical school in the FIRST IN THE NATION state.
I wonder how crazy tomorrow will be on campus?
3 comments:
Iowa City is so dang liberal. I'm sure they love Obama--it will be a madhouse! Funny that I grew up in Iowa and now I live in D.C. and probably will for quite some time (if not forever). I can't escape politics!
Be prepared to be unable to get anywhere if it involves the motorcade route. It was always a pain trying to get around Aurora (CO) because if the President flew into Denver, he got there via Buckley AFB(where we lived).
I was thinking the same thing.... first stop after the big health care bill mess... IOWA CITY. Not thrilled at all.
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