News from what they call the Iowa Ground Game got interesting this week, following the Oprah-Obama festival weekend.With less than a month before the Jan. 3 Iowa Caucus, the Hillary Clinton campaign brought in Bill Clinton to do some retail politics. CBS 2 Regular Guys caught up with the former-President outside an Iowa City coffee shop as the master politician refused to let a winter storm stop the campaign.
The 2 Regular Guys wrote:
"As the winter storm covered Iowa in ice, Team Clinton was feeling the heat.
One month ago, Hillary was hitting her stride with double-digit leads in Iowa polls. But now, with Barack Obama's slight advantage, Hillary has brought in her not-so-secret weapon—Bill.
Like Barack's support form Oprah, Bill Clinton brings a rock star quality to the campaign trail. Unlike Oprah, however, Bill is a political veteran with a record of winning support from undecided voters. Bill is a veteran of the retail politics in Iowa and New Hampshire where handshakes and face-to-face conversations are more important than slick TV ads."
Earlier (or later) not sure on the time, Bill was met by a robot-dressed heckler, as the Des Moines Register reports It just confirms for me that high school teachers like the 2 Regular Guys, Dan and Andy are contributing more than some college professors:
" A University of Iowa professor dressed as a robot interrupted Bill Clinton at a campaign stop here late Monday, screaming for an apology before security escorted him from the building.The professor, Kembrew McLeod, stood on a chair and screamed several statements, includ
ing: "Robots of the world want you to apologize." The audience erupted into loud boos.
McLeod, before security officers could reach him, tossed hundreds of cards into the audience of about 400 people in protest of statements the former president made in 1992 of Sister Souljah, a member of the musical group Public Enemy."
ing: "Robots of the world want you to apologize." The audience erupted into loud boos.McLeod, before security officers could reach him, tossed hundreds of cards into the audience of about 400 people in protest of statements the former president made in 1992 of Sister Souljah, a member of the musical group Public Enemy."
It all just adds to the legend and navigating the strategy of the Iowa ground game, sumarized well in this clip from Politico.com
3 comments:
Once again, we are too overfocused on a state with darn little to offer in the end run. It would be best to limit the time available to campaign and have all the states go at once on the first Tuesday in March, just to get it over with.
As for our friend Mr. Robot, Clinton obvioulsly pulled a Don Imus and made an inappropriate comment, but I think the professor went too far. That was almost sixteen years ago. His time would be better served protesting the profanity-laced lyrics of gangsta rap.
This interesting episode once again reminds me of the advantage (or disadvantage?)of America's most valued freedom of speech. Although I also believe that Mr. Robot went too far, this kind of activities/opinions are definitely necessary for politics. What Bill Clinton did during the 1992 election was highly wrong, and such misdeeds shouldn't be forgotten. I'm not saying that the citizens and the media should never forgive Team Clinton for such incident. It's just that it is important for citizens to understand that a favorable campaign backed by giant resources doesn't wholly describe the candidate.
I agree with Alice - while Mr Robot did go a little too far, he should certainly be allowed to express his ideas. I'm not sure that the time and place he picked to express those ideas was a very wise choice, however I really value freedom of speech and encourage this kind of political involvement. Also as Alice pointed out, Bill Clinton was wrong to say what he said 16 years ago. The people help to control what political leaders do by exactly this kind of action - protest. Once again, Mr Robot was a little out of line with his comments, however the IDEA behind his speaking out is very important.
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