Iowa and the caucus - part 3

by Don Wheeler

(this is the fourth installment of my Iowa caucus journal)


It was time to call it a day at the Fort Dodge Edwards office. I was told that my hosts lived out of town and a staffer named Russ volunteered to guide me there. At first that seemed generous but unnecessary – I’m used to finding my way to new locations – but it wasn’t long before I was feeling very appreciative.

As mentioned earlier, a dense fog had settled into the area. A fog like that at about zero degrees seems very strange, and it’s pretty unusual in my experience. There were many times I would lose sight of the taillights of Russ’ car. I was also trying spot potential landmarks, so I’d be able to find my way back the next day. My success in that regard was pretty limited.

Eventually, we made a left off the second main highway we’d been on (poor Russ had made a couple false starts at turns earlier). We followed this new road slowly for several minutes, eventually pulling off onto a narrow lane. A few hundred feet later, Russ pulled up front of an unassuming ranch house. All told, it had taken nearly two hours to get to our destination.

As I got out of my truck I asked Russ “So, what part of Nebraska are we in?” He grinned and said that under normal conditions, it was about a forty minute drive from town. I thanked him for being my guide. There was pretty close to zero chance I’d have found the place on my own in those conditions.

I grabbed some of my stuff and walked with him to the front door. We were greeted by my hosts Colin and Kathy. Russ made introductions, chatted briefly, and made his exit. Poor guy, by this time it was about 10:30 and I have no idea how far he had to go in that lousy fog before he got to call it a night.

The home which had looked rather unassuming from the road was anything but ordinary once inside. It had started life as a modest lake cabin, I suspect, but Colin had added on vastly. Once inside this was not obvious, because the place had a real flow to it and was done in nice wood, quarry tile, carpet and marble. A great bank of windows overlooked the lake – or in my experience, a large area of suspiciously flat snowfield.

(Interrupting this narrative…when I volunteered my services to the campaign, all I asked for was shelter. I came armed with a sleeping bag and a ThermoRest pad. I was not to need them.)

My hosts gave me the grand tour – which included my quarters. I was to have my own bedroom (recently used by David Bonior, former Democratic House Whip and John Edwards National Campaign Chair) and a private bathroom down the hall. The bathroom was gorgeous to say the least, and larger than my bedroom at home. Then we repaired to fire for cocktails and conversation.

Colin is an attorney and a pretty successful one I would guess. He’s done the type of litigation John Edwards is known for, but he’s also something of a General Practitioner as well. It sounded to me that he was kept pretty busy keeping locals out of trouble and straightening out their affairs. Kathy is recently retired as a business manager for a local school district. They are long time supporters of John Edwards, and had hosted at least two house parties for his candidacy. Kathy likes to tell the story that after one of these, Elizabeth Edwards tried to insist she should help clean up. Apparently she (Elizabeth) was talked out of it.

They regaled me with tales of those house parties and the efforts at local support they’d made. Colin had been working hard to recruit an acquaintance in a precinct near the one he was going to captain. His contact (who was a Biden supporter) knew that his first choice was unlikely to be viable in the caucus. Still, Colin was having a tough time recruiting him. This gent also expressed a lot of frustration that a lot of people he was talking to made it plain they wouldn’t vote for a woman or a nig... – you get the idea.

Since Kathy worked the business end of public education, I asked her about an issue our friendly fake consultant http://www.progressivessouthbend.org/2007/07/on-teaching-debt-collection-to-kids-or.html wrote about last summer. Some may remember he had discovered that many school systems had adopted a policy to collect unpaid lunch money from parents by shaming their children. The tactic was to produce lunch for those children, but the meal was different and calculated to be a bit less attractive than the meal presented to the other children.

It turns out Iowa has a similar policy, and I was disappointed that Kathy didn’t see anything problematic about it. Maybe she’ll read fc’s series sometime and change her mind.

At some point, I surrendered to my fatigue and called it a night. I have been hosted well in the Midwest in the past, but never any better than this.