You wouldn't know it, but the Senator was in a bad mood today because he was so tired, and this was literally the last thing he did before he turned in at the hotel. Can't tell though can you? Those people who say that people run for office just for the power are crazy. You do NOT want to subject yourself to all this for something so selfish. Trust me, it's not even close to worth it.
To opposite end of the day. Yes, that is the sun rising over the Iowa cornfields. It is actually very beautiful and peaceful if it weren't for the fact that it was 6 in the morning, and I had just slept on the floor for the fourth night in a row. And I was driving two and a half hours southeast to South Tama County High School. For a Rural Summit. My qualifications for this consisted of the fact that I think I milked a cow once.
We started off the day at around 11AM. The host was Gary Lamb, probably the most important farmer in Iowa. He is the guy on the podium. His endorsement is sought every cycle, so he is heavily courted. After being taken in as a sucker enough times by various presidential aspirants, Gary decided to turn the tables on everyone, and ask that if they want to talk to him, they come to him. Obama's campaign did, and during that visit, my boss Rohan proposed holding a rural summit with Gary as chair. He said "I've been trying to put one of those together for 20 years," and it was on.
After a short keynote speech, where Gary said the summit would cover Agriculture, Energy, and Rural Economic Development/Quality of Life, we split up into breakout groups. Each person at the summit, an expert in one of the three areas, attended one of the sessions. The session I was overseeing was the Rural Economic Development/Quality of Life session. The guy running it was a Bush appointee who asked me to keep his participation on the DL, since his Rovian bosses would not be too happy if they knew he was there. I was pretty much just the guy who took notes for the section, but unofficially (and very temporarily) I was promoted to "Rural Economic Development Policy Advisor." Remember this for later.
The Senator sat in on each of the sessions. Pictured above are the Agriculture (left) and my (right) sessions. This summit was actually for the experts to help articulate and build a foundation for Obama's economic policy, so he just listened, and he listened well, as during the summary at the end, he actually had to chime in with a conclusion that the speaker who ran the session missed. Smart... as... all... heck... dude.
At the end he gave a speech about the importance of rural America. I won't bore you with the details though, other than to say that the lady below made a butter statue of the Obama campaign logo. (See Butter Cow and Butter Harry Potter, State Fair post).
After the Summit, I drove at warp speed back to Clear Lake for the event. There were several reasons for this. First, I had helped all week to build the event, so I wanted to see if to fruition, but perhaps more importantly, I wanted to check out the venue.
The event was the Wing-Ding, cited by the Washington Post as a "can't miss event" for the Iowa presidential cycle. It's a fundraiser for the local county Democrats from three counties around Mason City, mostly to fund local races. Northern Iowa is generally Republican territory, however, Kerry did carry Cerro Gordo county, which includes both Mason City and Clear Lake.
The dinner is okay. All you can eat wings and a keynote speaker, usually nationally renowned. Last year it was John Edwards, and this year Sen. Obama. What is special about the event, however, is the venue. It's held at the Surf Ballroom, otherwise known as the last place that Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper held a concert before their plane crashed killing all three on that snowy night on February 3, 1959. For those in need of a refresher, check out the movie La Bamba.
Buddy Holly was by far the biggest of the three who died, so his face is most prominently featured all over the Surf, as it is called by the locals. It is still a pretty popular music venue, as there is tons of cool memorabilia all over the place. I don't know why you would ever do this, but if you are traveling between Des Moines and Minneapolis on I-35, it's definitely worth the very small detour.
These pictures are boring, except for the fact that I made the signs, and I wanted to show my handiwork (or lack thereof).
The dinner was pretty decent (the aforementioned wings, potato salad, garlic bread, and salad bar). I didn't get to eat much, however, as I was working the door trying to convince people to support the Senator. Not so easy to do on the way in, but on the way out, it was like shooting fish in a barrel. Turnout was about 550-600, which more than doubled last year's turnout with Edwards (hehe).
There were lots of speakers, since this was ostensibly an overall Democratic party event, and not just for Senator Obama. Pictured below on the left is Scott Brennan, chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party. On the right is Tom Miller, Attorney General of Iowa, who has now served for 28 years. He is apparently known as being a great consumer advocate. Definitely my kind of guy. He introduced Sen. Obama, as he is one of his biggest supporters. I heard some people say he should have waited longer to endorse Sen. Obama so as to get courted by all the campaigns and have his endorsement have more impact. I would like to think, however, that he just endorsed Sen. Obama because he genuinely liked the guy and believed he was the best choice.
Last, of course, is the Barry-man himself. You can see a part of his speech here.
That part of the speech was okay, but he told another story of how he was at an event in South Carolina where he was seeking the endorsement of a state legislator. The state legislator told him "you come to Greenwood, SC, and I will endorse you." Little did he know that Greenwood is two hours from the nearest airport. So, he flew in real early one morning and drove to Greenwood (or the Secret Service did, whatever) to see the state legislator. She was at her house with about 20 other people. The meeting was going as well as it could for a grumpy early morning, when someone in the background, apparently a city council member yelled "FIRED UP?" In unison, the rest of the crowd yelled "FIRED UP!" The city council member then yelled "READY TO GO?" and the crowd also yelled back "READY TO GO!" And so this went on for about five minutes. At the end of those five minutes, Barack said that it actually worked, and that he was fired up and ready to go. So, he ended the speech of getting the crowd into a rousing chant of "FIRED UP" and "READY TO GO!" Needless, to say it got the crowd into a frenzy.
Which brings me back to the money photo. Like I said, we were literally the last thing he did in an official capacity today. We were the "younger" volunteers/interns at the event (aka, the bottom of the barrel), and so we waited outside for the Senator while he hobnobbed with the VIPs, as well as Lindsay and Nick, the field organizers in this region. As he was escorted out by the Secret Service, he came over to us and shook each of our hands. As he shook mine, he said "hey, I remember you. You were taking notes today in the back. Good to see you again. Thanks for coming out." And then he grabbed me (and the weird kid) real close for the picture. Do you think I am glad I came out to Iowa?
1 comment:
You so need to ride this wave all the way to the WH...
Post a Comment