January 18, 2004
...on the Iowa Caucuses.
DES MOINES - Two blocks off the town square in Winterset, Iowa, and not far from the birthplace of acting icon Marion Robert Morrison (better known to most as John Wayne), is Madison County Post 8142 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
On a rainy Friday night in this small town 35 miles southwest of Des Moines, Senator John Edwards (D-NC) wowed them at the VFW.
Edwards spoke to an enthusiastic crowd that surely exceeded 250 people, and the reception he received certainly confirmed the "buzz" that his campaign is, in the words of supporter Roxanne Conlin, a one-time Democratic candidate for governor, "on fire."
Edwards gave his audience a steady dose of populism, promising to take on the insurance companies, Washington lobbyists, those engaged in "war profiteering," and HMOs.
"The government doesn't belong to the insiders in Washington, DC. It belongs to you," he told the crowd in Howard Dean-like terms.
Emphasizing upbeat themes and avoiding criticizing his Democratic rivals, Edwards showed energy and enthusiasm, and he clearly connected with the crowd.
He wasn't hurt either by the entry of his wife, Elizabeth, and their two small children, who surprised him at the event.
If Edwards was terrific at his Winterset event, former Vermont governor was only mediocre at his afternoon event in Newton.
Introduced by Sen. Tom Harkin, Dean sounded his usual themes, though adding more upbeat comments about what can be accomplished in the future.
The crowd was far smaller, maybe 150 people, and far less enthusiastic. Dean Still appears to lecture to his audience more than talk with them, and the setting of his event - up on a state, with the audience sitting at long stables - was far less intimate than Edwards', during which chairs were placed in circle and the senator stood in the middle, virtually surrounded by people.
The "buzz" suggests that late deciders are not gravitating toward Dean, and his Friday swing didn't produce the grass roots groundswell that many in the media have come to expect.
But Rep. Gephardt and Dean still have the best organization in the state, and that could help them withstand the late challenge from Edwards and Sen. John Kerry, who also reportedly is getting bigger and more enthusiastic crowds.
Dean can also take heart from the comments of Bill Schultz, a one-time Reform Party national committee from Iowa. Schultz, who now lives in Gainesville, Florida and left the Reform Party when allies of Pat Buchanan took it over in 2000, has returned to Iowa for a few days to go door-to-door for the Vermont governor.
Drawn to Dean's stance on "fiscal responsibility," Schultz told me that after during the 1960s he swore he'd never vote for a Democrat again. "But I got active with Dean, and he brought me into the Democratic Party," he said. That's got to be music to the ears of Dean and his strategists.
The Democratic race seems to have come full circle, with any of the four main candidates having a chance to pull of a surprise. Once again, it appears, the voters of Iowa are proving difficult to gauge.