Caucus Bits
By Chase on Jul 30, 2007 in Barack Obama, Democrats, Iowa Caucuses, John Edwards, Media, Politics, Rhetoric
Here’s a little of what the mainstream Iowa media have been saying recently:
Using unfortunately-hackneyed boxing metaphors, Todd Dorman (Lee Newspapers) identifies the fundamental issues of the 2008 presidential campaign. A little “big picture” for me, but still noteworthy.
David Yepsen (Des Moines Register) blogs that the Obama-Hillary feud only helps the candidates not yet involved. This was a day after the Edwards campaign made what looked like repeated efforts to insert itself into the conflict (cf. Trippi on Hardball, Edwards’s comment). If Yepsen’s right, Edwards was lucky he failed.
Kay Henderson (Radio Iowa) relays a minor Obama gaffe: “I left the event in Adel early on in the Q&A to get back to the newsroom and write, edit, etc. Sources on the ground say Obama drew blank stares and no response from the crowd when he mentioned the outrageous price for ‘arugula’ at ‘Whote Foods.’”
End Argentinian Arugula subsidies today! (I don’t actually know where Whole Foods gets its arugula, since the nearest Whole Foods is in Omaha.)
And Charlotte Eby (Lee Newspapers) cautions us to remember the other side of caucus-going Iowans: “As much as activists here have an independent streak, they want to get behind a winner.” And that, she says, could be John Edwards’s biggest obstacle.
Chase Martyn observes and analyzes politics from Des Moines, IA, capital of 2008's first caucus state. He is also Managing Editor of the 
On Whole Foods and arugula — I was there and I saw no blank stares. None. The accusation came from New York Times writer Jeff Zeleny, and I believe he was grasping for a stereotype of Iowans as unsophisticated rubes. True, we don’t have any Whole Foods stores, and Obama made a minor mistake in referencing it, however, the crowd knew what he was talking about. Personally, I think Obama made an important point about agriculture and food prices, which was sadly glossed over in almost all of the mainstream media coverage of the event.
Dien Judge | Jul 31, 2007 | Reply