A Campaign in Iowa: Plenty of Pork and Politics
The GOP straw poll was the final resting place for many a pig and probably more than one campaign
Fred Heads. Fred Thompson, the almost-a-candidate-for-president, didn't show, but a handful of guys who met through Thompson sites on the Internet did. With a folding table and a piece of paper taped to a handicapped parking sign, they proclaimed their patch of asphalt Fred Heads HQ and handed out bumper stickers and FDT08 buttons.
"We're coming in second today," Dan Garcia, a student at Texas A&M, predicted. He was later proved to be wildly optimistic. But Garcia and his buddies can take heart. They got lots more attention than the folks at the Alan Keyes table next to them.
The Ambivalent Republican. Romney may have toted a big win Saturday, but the general feeling among Republicans who showed up at the event—nearly 10,000 fewer voted than in the last contested GOP presidential race in 1999—was "eh."
"I'd like to take part of all of them and merge them into one," said Doug Attema, whose shirt was plastered with stickers from all the candidates—with the exception of Romney, whom he says he could vote for but needs convincing.
An evangelical Christian and father of six from Pella, Iowa, Attema said he's dissatisfied with the front-runners. A flat "no" on Giuliani and McCain, and a not-very-convincing "maybe" on Romney and Thompson. "I could support them, but I'm not thrilled."
He decided to vote for Huckabee, he said, "because I like governors better than senators."
Inside the (Not Paris) Hilton Coliseum. The inside event—part pep rally, part political convention—dragged.
Too many long introductions, too many pep talks from local politicos—"It is great to be a Republican today," Congressman Tom Latham said to tepid response—and too many stale bits from emcee Laura Ingraham. The big boar at the Iowa State Fair, the big "bores" in Washington—get it? And a Dixie Chicks joke? In 2007? (Oh, wait—the conservative talk show host has a four-year-old book on the subject to plug. Sorry, forgot.)
The highlights, if you will:
• Romney hitting his theme of the need for change in Washington but standing alone among candidates in mentioning President Bush in a positive light. "He's kept us safe these last eight years," he said, blaming the media for not noting that fact properly and frequently enough.
• Tancredo doing a passable Yakov Smirnoff accent, quoting the Russian comedian's signature line, "America, what a country," before launching into a speech that sounded more Germany 1939.
• Paul assuring the audience that, as president, "I would not want to do a lot of things."
Even Impossible Dreams Die Hard. In the shank of the afternoon, a few of Duncan Hunter's supporters kept cranking the homemade ice cream and grilling corn on the cob for practically nobody. About a half-dozen people, seeking shade and waiting for the merciful breeze that would come, stared glassy-eyed while an Elvis impersonator in a powder-blue jumpsuit with silver fringe persevered from a small flatbed banked by hay bales.
"Tell me, dear," he sang, "are you lonesome tonight?"
Hunter finished ninth but was thrilled: He beat McCain. Early Sunday morning, there he was on live television at Iowa State Fair exulting over the 174 unpaid-for votes he received, and pledging to continue. He had pamphlets, he said, and he was going to pass them out.
advertisement
