One of the jobs Waubonsie Valley grad Sarah Sampson may have tomorrow in Iowa is to arrage for baby-sitting for potential caucus goers. On the ground on Wednesday working for Barack Obama in Des Moines, Sarah spent her time arranging for rides for those she hopes will show up to caucus for her candidate.Sarah Sampson called me yesterday from Des Moines, Iowa where she met the candidate she's volunteering for. Sarah, past president of Youth & Government and alumnus of AP Government at WVHS, spoke with more exitement than many would think possible in Iowa.
She said she got the chance to meet Barack Obama Wednesday, while spending the day trying to arrange rides for caucus-goers Thursday night. "He has the most diverse group of supporters," Sarah related. "That's what I think is so cool. That's why he's the kind of candidate I want to help become president if I can."
With now less than 24 hours left till the first nominating contest in the country, Iowa is where it's happening for many politically active college students. The Politico wrote about Winter Break Iowa style:
"After we go out and meet people and do what they want us to do, we go back and play cards and talk, kind of like at Youth & Government,'' Sarah said. "I didn't think it would be like that, but it's really cool."
The hands-on retail politics in Iowa, a state with 2.9 million residents, has always attracted what many critics call a disproportionate importance in the presidential nominating process. The USA Today reports that the Iowa caucuses have never attracted more than 250,000 participants from both parties. A good article with a wonderful graphic visualizing the Iowa Democratic caucuses from the USA Today is linked here:
And an entertaining "Causing is Easy," ad is linked here from the Hillary Clinton campaign.
As for some news on the ground today in Iowa, Dennis Kucinich called for his supporters to throw their support to Obama as their 'second-choice' if he does not read the 15% viability standard at caucuses.
Liberal activist Michael Moore, while not endorsing, in a letter posted on his website, seemed to support John Edwards over Obama and Clinton.
And Obama increased his lead in the last Des Moines Register poll, the poll also found that most independents planned to caucus with the Democrats.
Tomorrow should be an exciting night -- the horses are at the gate. Watch caucus coverage on C-Span (or C-Span.com) -- for non-infortainment biased coverage -- and blog your commentary here. I'll be here doing the same. For pre-prognostication, post your picks that will click. Will Obama and Huckabee come through as the polls project, or will there be another Iowa surprise like Howard Dean's screaming fall from the ranks of the contenders?
2 comments:
Well, the only certainty is there are no certainties. Based on what I've been seeing in the papers, I expect Obama and Giuliani out front. Remember, the media had itself convinced Howard Dean would face off against W last time. The result: "FYAAAAAAHHH!!!!!" Hillary Clinton is just too wishy-washy and divisive, and I have no idea what Edwards's thought process is. On the Republican side, Huckabee and Romney will get plenty of support from the Religious Right and will certainly make a strong showing, but I'm not expecting them to remain viable all spring. And we can forget about Kucinich and Paul. They're just too extreme.
OBAMA!!!! OBAMAMANIA WILL SWEEP THE COUNTRY!!!
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