MANCHESTER, N.H., 6:45 p.m. — Welcome to the Carr Center at Saint Anselm College, which tonight is the headquarters for what seems to be all of the media in the United States.
In a building that looks something like the Lanman Center at Paine Whitney Gymnasium, hundreds upon hundreds of journalists are seated facing two massive projection screens, like those used at trendy rock concerts. In about a half hour, the Republican debate will begin. (more…)
CENTERVILLE, Iowa, 7:58 a.m. – We finally saw one of the candidates this morning. But it wasn’t in any large auditorium; it was in the intimate confines of an Iowan family home.
ROUTE I-80, Iowa – I never thought I would find myself here, but lo and behold, I am now between Davenport (definitely not the college) and Iowa City, heading west on I-80. It’s cold here in Iowa… and flat—and empty.
DES MOINES, Iowa, 7:15 PM – The floor of Senator Barack Obama’s Des Moines Iowa headquarters is soaked. Two canvassers walk in wearing thick-soled North Face hiking boots and you can see drops of water press out of the carpet around the edges of each shoe. Each volunteer that has come in out of the light snow and slushy streets tracks a tiny bit of the dreaded Iowan “wintry mix” into the office until the floor feels like what one volunteer calls it from her desk, “It’s a swamp, really.”
Matt Hasvold – an old high school buddy of mine who works for the South Dakota State University Collegian (www.sdsucollegian.com) – and I have been here two days now and have determined there are a number of minor inconveniences that come with the state of Iowa. One is the cold. You try to stand outside for 90 seconds to top off your gas tank and your fingers swell up like hot dogs when you return to the heat-blasted environs of your car. And we’re both from South Dakota. We know what it’s like to drive through zero-degree weather and shovel snow in sub-zero wind chill conditions. We can handle the cold.
Sort of.
-Zack Abrahamson
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