{"id":9493,"date":"2017-12-29T10:00:37","date_gmt":"2017-12-29T16:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/?p=9493"},"modified":"2017-12-26T23:11:55","modified_gmt":"2017-12-27T05:11:55","slug":"three-days-five-candidates-five-counties-ten-years-later-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/2017\/12\/three-days-five-candidates-five-counties-ten-years-later-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Three days, five candidates, five counties, ten years later – 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is a well known fact that those people who most\u00a0want\u00a0to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. <\/em>\u2014\u00a0Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe<\/em><\/p>\n

As an Iowan and political junkie (back before constantly drowning in covfefe), I have a collection of obscure-candidate items from the past three election cycles that would make Jake Tapper jealous. From my vantage point, I have seen enough of the sausage factory to know that I don’t want any part of it.<\/p>\n

There’s no better encapsulation of this than the last three days of 2007 (thanks, Florida<\/a>), when a bit of fortune and a bit of strategery enabled me to do something few Americans get the chance to do. Through my own notes, pictures, and contemporary coverage, here’s a journey with five presidential candidates in five counties in three days.<\/p>\n

\"\"December 29, 2007:<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani stops at his campaign headquarters in Clive.<\/em><\/p>\n

In the five months preceding the caucuses, Rudy Giuliani was in Iowa six times<\/a>, and only three involved Polk County. My merely getting into the building for his last was a victory. People wanted to see him, but he didn’t really want to see Iowans; he had staked everything on winning Florida (see intro). I found myself standing shoulder-to-shoulder with political columnist David Yepsen, nowhere near the front, trying to get a glimpse of what turned out to be Giuliani\u00a0mostly signing a few things and saying very few words. (This was a blessing because a small, packed room with everyone in winter coats is no bueno<\/em>.) Rudy finished sixth in Iowa and his campaign cratered in Florida.<\/p>\n

\"\"December 29, 2007:<\/strong>\u00a0Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee talks with an Iowan at Signature Bar and Grill, Indianola (Warren County).<\/em><\/p>\n

After the Giuliani appearance I drove to Indianola in time to see most of a media availability with Mike Huckabee. See this short story<\/a> from a CBS reporter who also made both those events for more background. Huckabee, neck-and-neck with Mitt Romney in the polls at the time, defended his new aggressive stance<\/a> against Romney. In the 2008 campaign cycle, authenticity was a thing on the Republican side, and Romney supposedly didn’t have it. C-SPAN had a 25-minute session with him<\/a> shortly afterward. Huckabee would score an upset victory in the caucuses, propelled in no small part by Iowa social conservative voice Steve Deace<\/a>. The eventual winner of the Republican nomination, though, would be John McCain, who I saw Sept. 12 shortly after his campaign was left for dead<\/a>\u00a0(NYT) and he was testing his “No Surrender” theme in front of veterans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is a well known fact that those people who most\u00a0want\u00a0to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-iowa-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9493"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9511,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9493\/revisions\/9511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}