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If presidential candidates are the bread and butter of campaigns, celebrities are the frosting. In this campaign more than ever, we're being forced to confront the political implications of Kevin Bacon and his colleagues supporting one candidate or another. But for every Oprah or Chuck Norris, there’s a horde of famous people operating under the radar.
Take Madeleine Stowe, of Last of the Mohicans fame. Seated among the dozens of phone bankers at the Des Moines steelworkers’ headquarters, Stowe placed calls from her cell phone. When people pick up, she tells them who she is and what she does, but doesn’t elaborate. Still, she turned heads at Edwards’ New Year’s Eve party, but more in that Where have I seen her before? way than the OmigoditsMadeleineStowehowdoilook? way.
Then there are the famous people you’d never ever recognize. It was only three minutes into my conversation with Elaine Marshall that she mentioned she was the secretary of state for North Carolina, Edwards' home state. She rarely reveals this fact while canvassing. “I’m here as Elaine Marshall,” she said. She hasn’t publicly endorsed Edwards; Secretaries of State are discouraged from vocally supporting candidates “ever since the Kathy Harris problem,” she said.
Nor does she reveal her personal connections to Edwards and his wife. Back in the 80s, when she and Elizabeth were both lawyers, they faced off at least once. “I would take her any day of the week,” she said, adding that Elizabeth was a gracious opponent. “She wouldn’t let you bleed.”
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Among other indicators that Iowans are getting sick of caucus season, one Edwards phone banker told me he heard this message
on an Iowa resident's voicemail (his paraphrase):
"Hello, this is Mr. X. If you are a presidential candidate or calling on behalf of a presidential candidate, please do not leave a message. Otherwise, please leave a message."
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Ralph Nader, who had previously all-but-endorsed Mike Gravel, has jumped ship and backed John Edwards, instead. This comes just 48 hours before the Iowa caucuses. Will Gravel be able to recover in time?
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The
Peace Train has pulled into Obama station-temporarily. Dennis Kucinich
has endorsed Barack Obama in the Iowa caucuses, but only if he's declared unviable.
We've been advising fringe-minded
Iowa causcusgoers how to vote if their first-choice is declared unviable at
their caucus meeting. (See advice for Biden
and Richardson
supporters.) But Kucinich's endorsement of Obama seems to go against his
platform. He acknowledged as much in a press release, but said, "Sen. Obama and
I have one thing in common: Change." Issues-wise, here's why Kucinich is
supporting the wrong mainstreamer:
Health care:
Kucinich wants a single-payer, universal health care system. We're talking
tax-funded, government-administered,
mandates-aren't-necessary-because-it's-automatic health care. Kucinich is such
a pinko on health care that Michael Moore endorsed his
plan.
Obama, meanwhile, has a plan
that's been derided by lefties
as being too conservative. Adults aren't even mandated to get health care, so
either Hillary Clinton or John Edwards deserves his health-care focused
constituency. But even Kucinich says
all their plans suck.
Trade:
While Obama says the usual NAFTA-is-a-no-no talk, he voted
for a free trade deal with Peru (as did Clinton). John
Edwards is the only one of the Big Three to come close to jiving with
Kucinich's lefty trade talk.
Iraq (PDF):
Bill Richardson really deserves the support here, but he isn't
guaranteed viability, either. Given that, Kucinich and Obama do share some
similarities on Iraq. They didn't want it to happen in the first place and
they've voted against funding it in the future. So, on the war, Kucinich's
support of Obama seems defensible.
It's important to note that Iowans don't vote for
Dennis Kucinich. He pulled in 1.3 percent of the primary vote in 2004 (some of
his support went to the (relatively) more electable Howard Dean, another
anti-war candidate). The latest Des
Moines Register poll shows he's
pulling in one percent this year, as well. A state that nicknames its residents
the Hawkeyes seems inherently opposed to the Department of Peace.
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AMES -- Well, that was news-free. I heard variations of that comment three times coming out of Hillary’s event here today, as reporters struggled to frame their ledes. But for Hillary, that’s mission accomplished.
In the last days before the Iowa caucuses, the goal for the candidates is to gain as much attention as possible while generating as little news as possible. Because by now, after a year of repeating variations on the same message, anything that qualifies as news is by definition not that message, and therefore bad.
Hillary adhered to her themes like tack. Listeners learned she works hard: She rolled out her line about not “demanding” change, not “hoping for” it, but “working really really hard” for it. She is a diplomat: Three times she mentioned cooperating with Republicans on legislation. And she’s willing to take on powerful interests: She described requiring pharmaceutical companies to test their products, saying that “then the drug companies weren’t happy with me—which is pretty much a constant experience.” I couldn’t help thinking she was trying to out-Edwards Edwards.
She did stray from script by taking questions at the end – something she hasn’t been doing lately – but the queries she got weren’t particularly risky. At an Edwards event later in Ames, Iowa First Lady Mary Culver got in what sounded like a little dig at Clinton: “We’ll now open it up to questions, because as you know John Edwards always takes questions.”
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AMES -- John Edwards never misses an opportunity to use his favorite metaphor about speaking for those who don’t have a voice. But over the next 36 hours, there’s a good chance he’ll lose his.
Starting now, the Edwards bus (I can't bring myself to say "Middle Class Express") will be touring around the state for a day and a half straight, including a midnight “GOTC” stop, a 2:30 a.m. union event, and breakfast with supporters at 5 a.m. “I’m going to try and nod off for a bit, but I won’t be able to sleep a lot,” he said.
Stamina has always been a major part of campaigning, but Edwards is making a point by drawing attention to his own. He’s younger than all the candidates but Barack Obama. In 2004, his six-Diet-Coke-a-day routine became a symbol for his frenzied schedule. And he’s the only candidate aside from Richardson who has visited all 99 counties in Iowa. With polls showing him neck and neck with the other candidates (although the latest and last Des Moines Register poll, which Edwards' campaign disputes, shows him trailing both Hillary and Obama), every hour counts.
All you insomniacs, check back throughout the night for updates.
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In a new ad
for New Hampshire voters, Mitt Romney claims:
In the next ten years, we'll see more progress,
more change than the world has seen in the last ten centuries.
You read that correctly. The next ten years will run roughshod over the
Enlightenment, the French Revolution, the formation of American democracy, the
printing press, interchangeable parts, division of labor, the end of slavery, nuclear
technology, antiseptics, the theory of gravity, the theory of
relativity, the rise of communism, two world wars, universal suffrage, landing
on the moon, and the Internet.
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There's a reason they call political parties parties, and not just groups or organizations or clans. Because in some political arenas, it's less about who can pound the most gavels than who can pound the most brewskis. Policy making? That's just what happens between ragers.
A handful of presidential candidates threw New Year's parties in Des Moines, practically demanding that we compare and contrast:
Mike Huckabee threw a true blowout. Hosted by Des Moine's Wakonda Club, the shindig looked like it cost about as much as Huckabee's first quarter fundraising totals. A besuited band played Glenn Miller on stage while country club types munched on egg rolls and beef skewers. The best part: Janet Huckabee. Charming, self-deprecating, impassioned. Why haven't we seen more of her?
Replace the chandeliers with Christmas lights, the jazz band with a local outfit called Who's Your Daddy, and the crab cakes with potato skins and you've got Bill Richardson's party. Fiesta HQ was the the ballroom at the Quality Inn, one of the more suspiciously-named hotel chains. The crowd seemed as western as Huckabee's was southern: Volunteers had come from Las Vegas, Arizona, and of course New Mexico. I listened in while a tall man in a yellow shirt and ten gallon discursed on the economics of livestock.
Mitt Romney's party was billed as a family event, with more screaming babies and balloon animals than mingling politicos. Newsweek's Andrew Romano bore the full brunt of the event. I skated in at the end, but not too late to see a fat, aging clown named "Jelly Bean" working the last remnants of the crowd in red suspenders, a yellow striped shirt, and purple Chuck Taylors.
The Hillary Clinton party is everything you'd expect: Big, produced, flavorless. A huge flag and Christmas tree suggest a generous budget. Everyone I talk to seems a little on edge, almost as if the caucus were three days away. Music comes care of Big Head Todd and the Monsters, who seemed to played one song from the 90s on a loop the entire time. "What a perfect metaphor," said one observant newspaperman.
John Edwards' karaoke party has everything such a party needs except karaoke and John Edwards. Attendees take turns ogling Madeleine Stowe, who you may remember from The Last of the Mohicans. After a year trailing the most famous politicians in the country, everyone is suddenly starstruck. Perhaps Edwards found her through his pal Kevin Bacon.
Photos on their way, pending technological competence.