In the latest must-read political story of the week, Adam Nagourney chronicled Hillary Clinton’s plans for her run for President. However, in the New Hampshire heavy article, one paragraph stood out,
“Mrs. Clinton has less experience with presidential politics in Iowa than in New Hampshire because in 1992, when her husband ran the first time, Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa was also seeking the presidential nomination, so other candidates steered clear of the race”
This misses one of the big challenges that Hillary faces. Rogue polls aside, she has next to no traction among Iowa caucusgoers. Vilsack has been Governor for eight years, Edwards still has a formidable base of support left from 2004 and Obama is not only seen as a political rockstar but, as a Senator from Illinois gets local television coverage in much of Eastern Iowa as well. In contrast, Bill Clinton never had to campaign in the Iowa Caucuses and Hillary has no hometown advantage in Iowa.
Hillary will have none of these advantages and right now is clearly running fourth in Iowa. Although she may have a lot of money, media is secondary to field in caucuses and among Democratic activists, all the candidates have high name ID. It’s still early and as Chase pointed out recently, the Iowa Caucuses are still wide open. But, Hillary is clearly starting behind the eight ball and it would not be a surprise if she doesn’t compete in the caucuses at all and tries to build up New Hampshire and South Carolina as firewalls.
Well, not really but in this article (subscription only), Conor Clarke touches a lot of the themes from my post earlier this week. However, he thinks all the three major candidates, Clinton, Edwards and Obama have ties to Wal-Mart that could tarnish them (although, with the exception of Clinton, the ties are pretty weak).
Needless to say, this is not the first time The New Republic has plagarized from the Iowa Blogosphere. In fact, their endorsement of Joe Lieberman in 2004 was almost word for word stolen from Iowa’s resident Liebermaniac, Drew Miller. Drew will deny it if asked, (it’s part of his settlement with Martin Peretz) but it’s true, and, deep down inside, Drew is still feeling the Joementum for 2008.
According to today’s Register, “Des Moines-area tourism officials have launched an effort to attract “A-list” rock stars, comedians and other Hollywood types for what they hope will be a nationally televised show to kick off the 2008 Iowa caucuses…No performers have been booked, but organizers say names like pop princess Britney Spears and patriotic country western star Lee Greenwood are on their early wish list.”
Unlike other commentators like David Yepsen, I think this is a great idea. (And not just because “Oops I Did It Again” is the story of John Kerry’s candidacy for 2008) The best way to draw attention to the Iowa Caucuses is having a second rate version of the Super Bowl halftime show. After all, if concerts can end famine in Africa, it might just get America hooked on the Iowa Caucuses. So hooked that everyone outside Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, might realize that they don’t have any say who the Presidential nominees are. In the meantime, I look forward to hearing Wu Tang perform an Iowa caucus version of one of their hits, come on everyone, check out my Mike Gravel Pit.
