Today’s Column — Revisionist Herstory

Democratic front-runner Barack Obama stood on an Iowa stage Tuesday night, delivering a rousing speech to a big crowd at a big moment. Nice visual, but Iowans have seen it before.His rival, Hillary Clinton, was also still standing a few states away, passionately fanning her flickering hopes to win the nomination with a forceful speech in Kentucky, where she vowed to fight and scrap for every last vote.

That was something Iowans didn’t see before January’s crucial caucuses, which Obama won in a stunning upset. You have to wonder, if the twofisted Hillary of May had replaced the cautious Hillary of January, whether things might have been different.

Sure, it’s like wrapping revisionist history in hindsight to speculate, especially now that the race is nearing its end and Obama appears to be the winner. But you can’t help but look upon Clinton’s current gutsy campaign like a beautiful, arcing three-point shot that hits nothing but net, fired, unfortunately, after the buzzer sounded.

Where was that in the first half?

Where was this brawling, bareknuckled contender back when Iowans were sizing up the Democratic field? Why didn’t the Crown Royal shooter of Pennsylvania and the Maker’s Mark maven of Kentucky give her Iowa campaign a stiff shot of Templeton Rye? I bet some of her supporters here are wondering the same thing.

“She was so on message all the time,” said Liz Hoskins, a Clinton caucus backer and executive director at Waypoint Services for Women in Cedar Rapids. When Clinton privately visited Waypoint, Hoskins found her to be warm, passionate and personable, qualities that didn’t always come through on the Iowa trail. “I think she listened too much to (advisers) Mark Penn and Terry McAuliffe,” she said.

What if Clinton had listened to her gut? What if she had tried to outpunch John Edwards, the fair-haired passionate populist, and grabbed some fired-up, fed-up rural voters here, as she has in places like West Virginia?

What if a campaign now insisting that every American should get a chance to vote had done less griping about the out-of-state college kids who gave up winter break to legally caucus? Maybe Obama wouldn’t have cruised with the youth vote.

What if she had decided to leave Bill out of this, instead of making him an integral part of her strategy, starting in Iowa? Would that have made a statement that her campaign is not a nostalgia trip back to the triangula tion and prevarication of the ’90s?

Could she have stood, on her own, as what she is – a historic candidate smashing barriers, not carrying her husband’s baggage?

“Somewhere in Hillary’s inevitability phase, the trailblazing nature of her effort got lost,” Howard Kurtz wrote in the Washington Post this week. “She became the establishment candidate, the return-to-the-’90s candidate, and the wow factor – which has always surrounded Obama – simply faded.”

Maybe it wouldn’t have changed things here. Obama deserves credit for running a consistent, inspiring, organized and well-financed campaign.

Perhaps this is his moment.

But Hillary Clinton’s gritty end game has also made this her moment – to reflect on what might have been.

Tuesday Column — Don’t Stop Now, Dems

Just look what you irresponsible Iowa Democrats started.

You college kids, with your disdain for America’s dysfunctional politics and your thirst for something different and inspiring, just look at the mess you helped make. And all of you older voters who were suckered by fancy speeches and those compelling calls for “hope” and “renewal,” and “turning the page,” are you happy now, three months later?

Way to spark a presidential contest for the ages. Great. Just great.

Actually, it has been great. So I don’t understand why so many Democrats are worried that this spirited struggle is damaging their chances in November. They want to play it safe and end it now.

I’m with Hillary Clinton. There’s no reason for a 10-count now. Granted, I know I’m playing into the latest embarassment-victimhood cycle in her campaign. Clinton and her husband spent the weekend trying to bury her bouquet of Bosnia fibs by lambasting all the meanie men who want her to pack it in. She’ll be verklempt any minute now.

But just think if Iowa Democrats had played it safe in January. They could have handed their support to the “presumptive nominee.” They could have taken a pass on a historic choice that opened eyes and changed views about Iowa and America from Keokuk to Kenya. For my oldest daughter, thanks in part to the state where she was born, the first consequential presidential contest she will remember is between a woman and a black man. Without an Iowa win, it’s tough to see how Barack Obama would be where he is today.

Just think what we would have missed.

We would have missed seeing pompous pollsters getting their comeuppance in New Hampshire. We would have missed cringing at “likable enough,” and rolling our eyes at welling eyes and witnessing the remarkable sight of a former U.S. president trading elder statesman for attack dog. We’ve had a chance to see how these rivals wrestle, in real time, with changing fortunes in Iraq and an economic downturn.

We might have postponed indefinitely a healthy struggle between bickering boomers and young voters sick and tired of having their politics dressed up in love beads. Superdelegates would have remained ordinary.

If Clinton had quit after Obama’s February run, the Illinois senator might have missed an early opportunity to address the outlandish words of his pastor. And it was that opportunity that allowed him to show us his maturity and ability to deal with a crisis, to give a tough, honest speech on race that will stand as a monument in this age of sniveling, pandering politics.

Millions of American voters who, before 2008, never had a say in the nominating process got a big say this time. And if this goes where I think it’s going, we’re going to see an oldtime, bare-knuckled party convention for the first time in decades.

And we wouldn’t have known that Clinton once bagged an unlucky banded duck, or that Obama is one of the nation’s worst bowlers.

So please, Democrats, don’t pull the plug. Keep fighting. There will be plenty of time to deal with senator Mc-what’s-his-name later. He gets the back pages. You’ve got the spotlight.

Super Tuesday vs. Super Storm

1. Super Storm — Time it took to snowblow my drifted driveway and buried sidewalks: More than an hour.

Super Tuesday — Time it took for the Fox Decision Desk to declare winners and bury losers once the polls closed in several states: About 5 seconds.

2. Super Storm — Just when you think you’re done shoveling, a pathologically merciless snow plow driver shows up and fills the end of your driveway.

Super Tuesday — Just when you think promising early returns might indicate a big night for Obama, the pathologically conniving Clintons rise up to halt his surge.

3. Super Storm — Can it please stop snowing already?

Super Tuesday — Can Mitt Romney please stop wasting his childrens’ inheritance already?

4. Super Storm — The more snow we get, the more bitter this winter becomes.

Super Tuesday — The more Hannity, Limbaugh, Ingraham and Coulter bitterly pile on McCain, the more attractive he becomes.

5. Super Tuesday — Disturbing demographic divisions as Obama wins with blacks but loses among Hispanics and Clinton wins women but falters with men.

Super Storm — Disturbing gender divisions as a disproportionate number of men push shovels and snowblowers while a disproportionate number of women are stuck with crazed, snow-bound children.

6. Super Storm — Local TV reporters stand shivering in front of snow drifts and don’t tell us anything useful.

Super Tuesday — National TV journalists stand clueless in front of multi-colored maps and don’t tell us anything useful.

7. Super Storm — Low pressure on top of us.

Super Tuesday — George Stephanopoulos.

8. Super Storm — This winter will never end.

Super Tuesday — This campaign will never end.

‘Senator Hick’ makes NY sick

The New York Daily News unloads on Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley after the Iowa Republican cited Rudy Giuliani’s “New York personality” as one reason he didn’t catch on in the caucus campaign:

An Iowa senator is blaming the Big Apple‘s “lifestyle” and “personality” for Rudy Giuliani‘s failure to win over Middle America.

Iowa’s Chuck Grassley, a dour, 74-year-old Corn Belt Republican, said Wednesday that Giuliani’s spectacular flameout stemmed from “that New York personality.”

And New Yorkers are responding with plenty of personality and a couple of choice words: Shtick it!

“The New York lifestyle hasn’t gone over [in] some places. It seemed like the more people got acquainted with him, the less they liked him,” he said.

Not content to leave it there, the Big Apple-baiting butthead from Butler County said that unlike Las Vegas, “Things you do in New York don’t stay in New York.”

Hey, I never get to use `butthead’ in my columns. Read the rest here.

Rudy lost because, in the eyes of many GOP activists, in Iowa and elsewhere, he’s not a real Republican. It’s really that simple. He thinks abortion is a personal decision, that guns should be controlled and that gays and lesbians shouldn’t be marginalized. All his pledges of allegiance to Justice Scalia couldn’t make that go away.

His New York personality had little to do with it. But the positions he had to take to win public office in New York that sank him.

No Regrets for the Big V

Tom Vilsack couldn’t even deliver Clinton a caucus win in his hometown precinct, according to this great story in this morning’s Burlington Hawkeye. But he was a sharp-dressed man with a GQ magazine writer in in tow. Not too shabby. 

Winners and Losers

WINNERS

Iowa’s caucuses — Sure, the NY Times edit page may be dumping a truckload of smug on our “undemocratic” process, but Iowans who care passionately about politics jammed their caucuses and thumbed their noses at everyone who says that this state shouldn’t matter. That maligned small gathering of old, gray and white party hacks in seed caps turned out to be a much larger gathering that included young Iowans and independent voters. Oh, and those lily white Midwesterners may have just put America on the road to its first black president. The dead Iowa stereotypes are stacking up like chord wood around here this morning.

That said, Iowa Democrats in particular had better hope Hillary doesn’t win the nomination, because if that happens, the caucuses are toast. Did you see the look on Bill’s face while she tried to explain her third place spinning butt-fall? He wanted to dismantle this state brick by brick and sell it to Canada.

Idealism — Someone at the bar last night was complaining that Obama is little more than a flowery public speaker. I want to see a plan for what she’s going to do, she said.

But the fact is Americans are desperate for a leader who has the skills to inspire them to make them feel proud, who knows what to say and how to say it with passion.  They don’t want a wonky 12-point plan, they want some hope. Listen to Obama’s victory speech last night and you can easily see why caucus night went down the way it did. I heard it again on the way into work this morning. I’m as cynical as the next heartless hack, but that was goosebumps stuff. Hillary is in big, big trouble.

Lunch Pail Republicans — Sure, Evangelicals made Huckabee a winner. But So did lunch pail-carrying, deer hunting, churchgoing and NASCAR loving conservative Republicans who looked at Mitt Romney and saw their jerk boss standing there in an expensive suit with a fake smile. They didn’t like him and they didn’t trust him to look out for their  best interests. Huckabee’s campaign, part revival, part blue collar comedy tour, was right up their alley.

Journalists — For reporters, you couldn’t have ordered a better caucus night. The best campaign here ever ended with the most dramatic outcome in decades. The ledes wrote themselves.

LOSERS

The Establishment — The kingmakers in both parties, who threw their expert support behind slick Mitt and Ms. Inevitable, had humble pie on their faces. They thought newbie Obama would never get the kids to the caucuses. They thought the media pounding Huckabee took at the end would be enough to finish him, and that Mitt would buy the caucuses just like the straw poll. Oops.

Republicans — Could this party be any more screwed up right now? Huckabee was a great caucus candidate, but he could be a general election disaster, especially if Obama wins. Romney and Giuliani are fading fast. (Did you notice Ron Paul had three times as much Iowa support as Rudy?) Thompson is sleepwalking. The GOP’s best hope may be McCain. He’s a likeable, solid candidate who could have general election appeal, especially among independents. His strength, experience, could be contrasted with Obama’s weakness.

T. Vilsack — Needless to say, this has not been a great year for our former governor. He abandoned his presidential  bid, signed on with Hillary and then watched her go down in flames. Just think, he could be in year two of an illustrious third term, counting the triumphs handed to him by an adoring  Democratic Legislature. It’s hard to believe this guy once had a golden political compass.

Today’s Column — Caucus Thank Yous

 It’s finally arrived. Caucus night.
  Presidential aspirants have been poking around Iowa for the better part of two years now. We bumped into them at our county fairs, coffee shops and even in the supermarket produce aisle. We’ve studied them, squeezed them and scanned them for blemishes like so many ripe tomatoes.
  Some will leave our state intact. Some will become marinara.
  Either way, they’ll be long gone by Friday.
  Before it’s over, some thanks are in order.

Caucus morning

For some historical perspective, check out this great NY Times essay by Mildred Kalish, an author and former Iowan.

One day, three candidates

Amy Hermsen was looking over Hillary Clinton around midday and planned to check out Barack Obama late in the afternoon. The undecided Cedar Rapids Democrat knew she was running out of time Wednesday.

Hillary’s Little Helpers

Hillary Clinton is getting some premium help on the campaign trail in Iowa this week. And that’s critical in the final, fateful hours.

According to AP, her daughter Chelsea is doing a great job keeping the nasty wolves in the press at bay.

“Sydney Rieckhoff, a Cedar Rapids fourth grader and “kid reporter” for Scholastic News, has posed questions to seven Republican and Democratic presidential hopefuls as they’ve campaigned across Iowa this year. But when she approached the 27-year-old Chelsea after a campaign event Sunday, she got a different response.

“Do you think your dad would be a good ‘first man’ in the White House?” Sydney asked, but Chelsea brushed her question aside.

“I’m sorry, I don’t talk to the press and that applies to you, unfortunately. Even though I think you’re cute,” Chelsea told the pint-sized journalist.”

Way to play hard ball, Chelsea.

Also, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland is lending a big hand to his favorite Democratic hopeful. He’s really getting Iowans’ attention, as this Columbus Dispatch article shows.

Beginning the presidential nominating process in Iowa, as will occur this week, “makes no sense,” says Gov. Ted Strickland, who recently campaigned there for Sen. Hillary Clinton.

“I’d like to see both parties say, ‘We’re going to bring this to an end,’ ” he said.

Sometimes insult is the sincerest form of flattery.

And finally, hats off to Clinton’s Midwest co-chair Jerry Crawford, who gave a sketchy/ambiguous answer to a WHO TV reporter when asked if Clinton would be in Iowa on caucus night. No, I mean yes, I mean probably.

Hillary had to clear this one up herself on the same Des Moines channel.

“Well, my plan is to be here on Caucus night. It’s certainly what I’m planning to do. I want to thank, you know, the Iowans who have supported me, so many have volunteered for me, everybody who caucused for me, everyone who went through the trouble to drive somebody else there…I just want to thank Iowans for everything they’ve done for me the past year.” 

But first, be sure to thank your surrogates for keeping it all smooth sailing in the final hours. Bonuses for everyone.