Newsroom

Dispatch from Iowa: Game Day!

Posted on January 3, 2012

For us political junkies it doesn’t get any better than this. It’s game day in Iowa, all candidates still in state pressing the flesh, and the undecided number is unprecedented. It has been said that a week is a lifetime in politics. Well, in Iowa 24 hours is a lifetime. All bets are off.  To some degree, this is still anybody’s race to win and the nature of this historical process gives each candidate good reason to believe that.

Tonight at 7pm CST, there will be 1,774 meetings of Iowa Republicans covering 99 counties across the state.  These local meetings will consist of neighbors and friends — in most cases, everyone will know everyone.  Some meetings may have as little as 50 people and some may have as many as 300 or so.  Each individual will ultimately cast a vote for the candidate of their choice but they will first have a discussion (or maybe even an argument or two).  A candidate can spend as much money on TV as he or she wants to leading up to today (and believe me….there has been a lot spent) but their fate will ultimately come down to a good old-fashioned town hall meeting where voters can still easily be influenced by their peers.

The last 24 hours have been some of the most interesting in my career.  The excitement and anticipation across this state, and especially in Des Moines, truly has a “Wizard of Oz” feel. In Des Moines, you can’t walk one block without bumping into a celebrity-level member of the media and, in many small towns around the state, it is like the circus is coming to town when one of the candidates pulls up in their decorated campaign bus with a large entourage of media in tow.

Last night, I decided that I really wanted to get outside the walls of Des Moines and get a feel of the current emotions in these smaller communities by attending a couple of campaign events.  I first made my way out to Perry (about an hour from Des Moines) to observe a highly organized rally for Rick Perry.  Yes…Perry was Perry.  The event was held in a very old and historic hotel that sat in the center of town.  The whole scene reminded me of a town used for a movie set at Universal Studios. After some good live country music to get the crowd going, Governor Perry made his way to the stage and gave the best campaign speech I have heard by any candidate to this point. I was stunned and kept thinking: “where has this been?” And then I mumbled to myself, “too little too late.”  I then made my way to Urbandale, a town on the other side of Des Moines, to attend a Mitt Romney rally.  Well, the turnout was so big that the closest parking spot was six blocks away.  On top of that, there were at least 40 tv cameras perched on risers inside the event.  It had the smell of a coronation to come and certainly had the signs of a campaign with a ton of momentum.  Senator John Thune (hopefully a candidate for President in 2012) got the crowd fired up and then introduced the candidate.  Romney was Romney.  A little starchy but seemed to have a command of his surroundings.  What struck me the most was that every recognizable political media personality had made a point of attending this event.  It was clear they sensed the momentum and wanted to see it firsthand.

While the Caucus process is supposed to be very “human” and “old school”, there is one element this year that is extremely prevalent and powerful:  social media.  I am brand new to the social media world.  My New Year’s resolution was to enter this world and use my time in Iowa as the entry point.  To say I have been overwhelmed by the force of this ever-growing and changing medium is a major understatement.  No matter where you look, everyone out here (and I mean everyone) is using Twitter.  There has not been anything else close to this resource for real-time, up to the second information about candidates, their campaigns, or breaking news.  What is even more amazing is how the mainstream media is using it through their personalities.  The fact that David Gregory is literally tweeting about a conversation he is having with a candidate while he is having it reinforces not only the presence of this communication medium but, more importantly, that you will always be one step behind if you are not utilizing this resource.  Last night a reporter was at a bar in Des Moines and, within seconds of overhearing Governor Brandstad tell someone he considered Romney the best candidate, it was tweeted out to thousands of people.  This was newsworthy because the Governor is not endorsing anyone but he has tremendous influence throughout the state with voters.  That tweet will have an impact today.

I am going to sign off for now and head back to the media center and try to scrounge up some more opportunities to do the talking head thing (will actually be on FOX Business at 5:30 EST by the way), but will post a blog for sure tomorrow with thoughts and observations on the results and what folks here are saying about what these results will mean for the GOP going forward.  Until then, please follow me on Twitter (@treyhardin16) for regular updates.  I will be tweeting often throughout the day and night on key developments and timely information.  Thanks.

Trey Hardin

Tags: advocacy, David Gregory, Iowa, Iowa Caucus, Perry, Politics, Romney, social media, Twitter