Radio Iowa

Flashback to John Edwards, Bonnie Raitt & Jackson Browne

Last week two music legends headlined campaign rallies for John Edwards, but the workload pre-holiday was too heavy to be able to blog about it and the venue too cramped to get the laptop fired up on site  I was able to sit in on the trio's session at the Des Moines Roosevelt High School auditorium last Tuesday night.  The stop was the last of the "tour" and the Edwards campaign said 1600 people had signed in at the door.  It was standing room only in the auditorium, which had a balcony..

Browne was first on the stage.  "Thank you very much.  It's good to be here," is all Browne said before launching into chords on his guitar.  "I've been waiting for something to happen for a week or a month or a year," Browne began singing.  Fans in the audience who recognized the lyric applauded.  "There's blood in the ink on the headlines..."

Next, Raitt came on stage accompanied by Hutch Hutchinson who played base.  "Go Bonnie," someone in the crowd yelled.  "So proud to be here on our two-day world tour for John Edwards.  It's just the beginning," Raitt told the crowd.  "Seventy degrees in Iowa City and now we have this.  For Californians like us, this is major seasonage."

Their first song as a duo began with Browne singing, "Sun goin' down on the USA...." with both strumming their guitars. 

Memo to flacks

Just fielded a phone call in the Radio Iowa newsroom from the 202 area code.  The young woman on the other end of the line wanted to tell me about an event she'd like Radio Iowa to cover in "duh-MOYNZ" tomorrow.

Des Moines is pronounced duh-MOYN.  The "s" is silent. 

The event the flack was promoting?  A news conference featuring Des Moines residents Mary Campos and State Representative Wayne Ford who intend to "urge" the presidential candidates to address America's high school dropout rate.  Campos and Ford, by the way, are two of the organizers of the Brown and Black Forum in Des Moines on Saturday night which will feature the Democratic presidential candidates.

Hillary Clinton in Ankeny (finally)

If you don't understand the word finally in the headline, read the previous post.

After apologizing for being late, Clinton tells the crowd why her campaign has chosen the Des Moines Area Community College as the venue for this event.  "I was here in 1993 talking about health care and I'm back because we're going to get it done this time," she began.  "...14 years later I'm a little older, I hope I'm a little bit wiser, but I'm still committed to universal health care...This has to be an important priority for our country."

"...We had a problem back in '93, but the problem has gotten worse because we haven't addressed it," she said.  "...This is a moral crisis and this is an economic crisis," she said.

Clinton lays out the problems of the current system, namely those who are uninsured and those who have coverage, but are denied services by their insurer.  She soon winds up talking about her 1993 experience again.  "What's great about Americans is we learn from what doesn't work...and that's what we're going to do about health care," she continues.

Clinton then launches into her attack on Obama.

Airplane Delay Reason #1734

You've been waiting to board a plane, and someone comes over the airport speaker system and delivers a reason for the delay.  I was once on a flight out of Denver where we waited allegedly for a new pilot's chair to be installed to replace a broken one.

Well, someone from the Hillary Clinton campaign just spoke over the sound system in this gymasium in Ankeny, Iowa.  HRC was due to speak at 12:15 p.m. in this very venue.  The gentleman from the campaign advised she is still sitting on the tarmac in Washington, DC -- because her plane has a flat tire.  She will be in the air soon, allegedly, and make up some time flying quickly.  Revised appearance time for HRC in Ankeny, Iowa is 2 p.m. central.

"We've ordered everybody lunch as a little bit of a consolation," the Clinton campaign aide told the assembled crowd.  "But we're probably not going to be here 'til about two o'clock so we wanted to let everybody know.  Don't start throwing food or anything and we'll keep you posted.  Thanks."

UPDATE:  Sources reveal the culinary staff at Des Moines Area Community College were making food for the traveling press when they were notified at 10 o'clock this morning they needed to "up" the order to feed 300.  No fish or loaves of bread were on the menu, but then there aren't 5000 people waiting for Clinton in the venue.  The menu: hamburgers or croissants filled with a selection of three shaved meats, a bag of chips and a cold beverage.

Vilsack underestimates Oprah's ratings in Iowa

Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack, as ABC's The Note put it this morning, is one of Hillary Clinton's "overly enthusiastic" supporters.  (Observers note Vilsack was among those holding a sign and screaming "Turn Up the Heat" during HRC's speech at the Iowa Democratic Party's Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner earlier this month.) 

As you may know, Oprah Winfrey is going to be campaigning with Obama in Iowa on Saturday, December 8, 2007.  In answer to a reporter who asked Vilsack what Oprah's ratings were in the Hawkeye State, Vilsack told The Washington Times in essence that Oprah's show probably isn't as highly rated in Iowa as it is elsewhere since a high percentage of Iowa women work a full-time, out-of-the-home job. 

The Obama campaign has provided the following information in rebuttal, courtesy of KCCI -- the Des Moines affiliate which broadcasts The Oprah Winfrey Show (exclamation points were not added by me, but were embedded in the copy as forwarded):

In May 2007 Nielsen Media Research, Oprah had an 8.1 rating/32 share. Out of the Top 100 markets in the country, KCCI's 8.1 rating was 12th highest, but KCCI's 32 share was tied for 2nd highest.

A rating is the percentage of all TV households in the Des Moines/Ames DMA (Designated Market Area) tuned to a particular program. A share is the percentage of all TV households using television in the Des Moines/Ames DMA tuned to a particular program.

On average, 40,000 central Iowans watched Oprah each weekday. To put that in perspective, that's more than WHO-TV's (NBC) primetime average (38,000) and WOI-TV's (ABC) primetime average (39,000)!

In closing, I offer this from Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor:  "As you can see, Oprah is a rock star, and her ratings are rock solid."

Leading, direction and the rhetoric of a campaign

Barack Obama said this in Des Moines on October 27, 2007: "You're not ready to lead if you can't tell us where you're going."  It was a strike at Clinton who has been focusing on the "ready to lead" mantra for months.

Hillary Clinton said this today in Nevada, Iowa:  "You've got to know where you're trying to go.  You've got to know which direction you're headed."   It was a verbal strike back at Obama who has said it's time to "turn the page" and lead the country in a new direction.

 

UNI versus UNH

It's a First-in-the-Nation showdown on the gridiron!  The University of Northern Iowa -- ranked #1 in the NCAA division formerly known as IAA -- faces off Saturday against the University of New Hampshire, which is ranked #17.  The UNI Panthers are 11-0.  The UNH Wildcats are 7-4.  Let's just hope they don't change the date of the game.  It's scheduled to kick at 6:35 p.m. Saturday in the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls, Iowa. For you out-of-staters, that is pronounced YOO-NEE-dohm.

Hillary Clinton's rewind to Bill Clinton era

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton briefly included a quote in her campaign speeches this summer saying many would like to "rewind" to the Clinton era.  Clinton delivered a speech focused on the economy today (listen to it here by clicking on the audio link at the bottom of the story) and she made reference to her husband's tenure/her time in the White House (at least) 16 times in just over half an hour.  See quotes/partial quotes below:

Hillary Clinton in Knoxville

Hillary Clinton is due to appear in this gymnasium on Main Street in Knoxville, Iowa, in about half an hour.  The campaign has set up several hundred chairs which are slowly being filled with locals.  In trying to discuss with audience members whether they plan to support Hillary, one man disclosed he was just here to see a celebrity and had no plans to attend a Caucus on January 3rd.

Some young man is pestering a reporter on the media riser behind me.  "Are you going to vote for Hillary?" he asks the journalist.  "I don't live in Iowa," the journalist replies.  "Are you an American?" the kid continues, sharing that he will be 18 by election day, 2008, and plans to "cast his first vote for Hillary."

This event is billed, so to speak, as focused on "rebuilding the raod to the middle class."  I know this because three huge banners with this phrase are hung in the gym. 

"Full house," says the young girl who just got the last seat in the row in front of the media riser.  There appears to be a contingent of local high schoolers and the five young women in front of me assure me they are "going to vote."

Linda Brobston of Knoxville is here and she plans to support Clinton in the Caucuses.  "I just thought this would be my only chance to see Hillary," Brobston said. "I think she would probably do something about health care which is a huge issue for me also I just like the way she's conducted herself in the past.  I have a lot of respect for her," Brobston said.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked.

"The way she handled herself as first lady and then as a senator," Brobston replied.  The Clinton folks shooed me out of the way as they were trying to seat people in Brobston's section.

Ron Paul focuses on "currency crisis"

Texas Congressman/GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul was in Iowa Saturday.  After he'd been tailgating in Iowa City before the Iowa Hawkeye football game, Paul made his way to Des Moines.  We sat down for an interview in a room in downtown Des Moines the campaign uses for a call center.

"It's my first one," Paul said of his Iowa City tailgating experience as we started the conversation.  "I didn't know that was a big deal.  A lot of parties going on.  I've heard of them and seen them from a distance at the Astrodome in Houston, but it's all in one lot.  Here, they're all over town in everybody's yard. It was fascinating."

"Let's talk about something you discussed here in Iowa at the end of October -- the currency crisis," I began.

"Everybody's concerned about their cost of living and their standard of living," Paul replied.  "Costs are going up and their salaries are going up but they can't keep up.  They don't know if they can pay their bills and they have a lot of debt and this all has to do with the currency.  It has to do with what the Federal Reserve does and that's why I talk about monetary policy.  It's the loss of the value of the money that is the culprit and it's not just costs going up, it's really the value of the dollar that's going down and this is tied into all our financial bubbles and of course when bubbles burst, it's very, very painful for the people who are left holding a lot of worthless debt and that's what happened when the housing bubble burst and a lot of people were initiated into this when the NASDAQ bubble burst and the big bubble is the dollar bubble.