Tag Archive: Yale on the Trail: Iowa

  1. Biden: Bush ’68 ‘most harmful’ president in modern history

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    SIOUX CITY, Iowa, 6:09 p.m. – Delaware Senator Joe Biden is not happy with President George W. Bush.

    “This president has done more to harm our national defense than any president in modern history,” Biden declares as he paces before an audience of mostly senior citizens at the Boys and Girls Home.

    It was to be one of many jabs the 65-year-old senator threw at the sitting president during the course of a one-hour port of call. Biden also lashed out at Bush’s mishandling of the post-September 11th moment, accusing the president of dividing the world in a moment of grief rather than uniting it. Energy policy also fell under Biden’s harsh gaze, as he attacked current levels of alternative-energy funding and laid out a plan to raise taxes on individuals making more than $435,000 a year to fund investment in alternative energy.

    But it was style more than substance that set the Biden stump apart from others – for me, at least. Biden ditched the podium after minute four of the speech, opting instead to pace in front of the assembled crowd of about 150. Time after time, he paused to lecture a voter like a stern schoolmaster, explaining just how dangerously unstable the status quo is and talking about the need for someone to “right the ship.” Biden is a man not afraid to raise his voice, not afraid to show the passion beneath the policy positions he espouses. At times it can come across as patronizing or frustrated, at others as imminently necessary.

    Biden speaks

    Delaware Senator Joe Biden talks with supporters at an event at the Boys and Girls Home in Sioux City, IA.

    –Zack Abrahamson

  2. Caucusing Un Presidente

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    SIOUX CITY, Iowa, 5:14 p.m. — Walter and Elsi Carranza have never voted in a caucus before.

    In the basement of the unheated Mount Olive Baptist Church, they hunch down in winter coats and listen quietly for 45 minutes as Obama volunteer Carlos Odio translates caucus-trainer Rick Mullin’s lesson on how to caucus: arrive on time, go to your candidate’s corner, switch candidates if yours is unviable. Occasionally, Walter tosses a question at Rick.

    What happens if my name isn’t on the precinct list? What happens after the initial caucus tallies are taken? What if I don’t speak English? Can I still caucus?

    Hispanic Apathy

    Only four potential Hispanic caucus-goers attended a training session for first-time voters held in Sioux City, IA on Sunday afternoon. The low turnout added to Democratic concerns about the political apathy of the growing Hispanic population in Iowa.

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  3. On the rocky trail, Dodd stops for Rocky Road

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    Icecream

    LE MARS, Iowa, 12:54 p.m. — Come west of the Mississippi and you can kiss your beloved Phish Food good-bye. The Midwest and the Plains are Blue Bunny territory, a vast steppe unclaimed by boutique ice cream makers like Ben & Jerry’s or Haagen-Dazs. Since the founding of Wells’ Dairy by Fred H. Wells, Jr., in 1913, Le Mars has been home to the company’s flagship ice cream brand.

    “Today, more ice cream is produced in Le Mars, Iowa, by a single company than in any other city in the world!” reads the town’s Web site.

    So it’s no surprise that we caught the Dodd bus pulling into the shop, factory and museum complex just off Le Mars’ main drag, Iowa Highway 75. Rocky Road, Senator?

    –Zack Abrahamson

  4. For Dodd, a struggle to matter

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    LE MARS, Iowa, 12:29 p.m. — “This has to be about something more than celebrity,” Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd told a crowd of 30 as he stood atop two stacked forklift palletes. “This has to be about something deeper, much deeper – about substance and about who has the ability to lead this country.”

    This week is likely to make or break the campaign for dark horse Dodd, who has lagged in polls in Iowa and nationally since the announcement of his candidacy in January. At the 4 Brothers restaurant in Le Mars, Dodd asked Iowans to look past his relative obscurity and “prove the national pundits wrong.”

    A third-place finish here would be an impressive victory for the veteran Connecticut legislator, although Dodd left himself room in the expectations game to finish fourth, telling those in attendance that “Iowans could punch three, even four tickets out of this state.”

    Harold Schaitberger thinks he can make that happen. The general president of the International Association of Fire Fighters union has been on board with the Dodd campaign since August. He has traveled to all 40 local firefighter unions across Iowa, urging members to support Dodd and lending “firepower” to a campaign that Dodd admits has few celebrity allies.

    Dodd - Dec. 30

    Chris Dodd at an event in Le Mars, IA at the 4 Brothers Restaurant. Dodd discussed his experiences in the Senate, the need for substance over celebrity in this year’s election, and made a passionate appeal for Iowa voters to believe in his underdog crusade for the nomination.

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  5. In Iowa, they ‘really get to pick ’em’

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    NORTH SIOUX CITY, Iowa, 10:29 a.m. — I-29 crosses the Big Sioux River at North Sioux City, South Dakota. Just across the river and down an exit ramp is the Seargant Floyd Iowa Welcome Center staffed by Mark and Sharon, who moved to the state just a few years ago and will caucus for the first time on Thursday.

    “I’m supporting one and she’s backing another,” Mark says, declining to mention names. The two are both registered Republicans, so they have largely been spared the $10 million-plus feeding frenzy of robo calls and canvassing on the Democratic side of the campaign. “We’ve received calls, and the ads are on all the time,” Mark says.

    Overall, though, Sharon likes the process. She says it’s important. “It’s part of the process of communicating information,” she says of the candidates’ endless campaigning. Mark nods his head, adding, “In some states, the caucuses don’t really matter, but here in Iowa, we really get to pick ‘em.”

    Zack Arrives in Iowa

    Here I stand at the border of South Dakota and Iowa, ready to cross into the state on every American’s political radar this week.

    –Zack Abrahamson