When President Obama did his three-day trip across Iowa last week, he came through Tama County. The president’s Tuesday leg included going north from Oskaloosa and then west for stops in Haverhill and Marshalltown, then back and along 63 north to Waterloo.
The Toledo Chronicle has details on the pass-through and also about previous politicians’ stops in the county. This is believed to be the first time a sitting president has been through the county at least since World War II*, but we have had many candidates (including Hillary Clinton at the end of 2007). As a sitting president, he gets all the security trappings, including a reported 44-car motorcade of state and county patrol cars, while riding an armored bus (nicknamed Ground Force One by some).
The Traer Star-Clipper got media credentials to Obama’s speech in Waterloo and has a report and pictures. (It’s not a minor issue or undertaking for a weekly paper to do that.) In the gallery is a picture of the bus rolling through Traer:
After speaking in Marshalltown in the afternoon, the president hopped aboard his bus, bound for Waterloo, and passed through downtown Traer as well-wishers were lined up and down Main Street to cheer him on. The president gave waves to the crowd as the bus passed through the Main and Second Street intersection.
Mitt Romney’s bus has also been in the area.
*EDIT: Both Roosevelts made train stops in Marshalltown, according to the Chronicle article, so it’s possible that they saw the area.