cross-posted at skippy and a veritable cornucopia of other community blogs.
more from michael bersin and skippy cartoonist brett penrose on the tom harkin steak fry last weekend (previous installments about this adventure can be found here and here)…
to start, michael talks about the speechifyin over at show me progress:
as the speechifying started i realized i wasn’t going to be able to talk to people in the crowd. they were paying attention to whoever was speaking on the stage. i later made the mistake of trying to talk to some edwards supporters after he had finished speaking. a woman dismissed me with [rightly so], “i’m trying to listen to this speaker…”
the candiates spoke in an order determined at random. first up was barack obama:
…some of the reason you’re all out here. you’re sick and tired of george bush…
barack obama supporters started trickling to the exits after he spoke.
bill richardson:
…al gore has been right, we all just hope he doesn’t get in the race…
…with bill richardson you get change and experience…
hillary clinton was introduced and a good portion of the crowd got on its feet:
…building a new field of dreams for the country we love, and we’re going to take it back…
if you’re ready for change, i’m ready to lead…
…[referring to the bush administration] the era of cowboy diplomacy is over…
…[referring to cabinet appointments] let’s appoint qualified people to do the job in america again…
…[a 90 year old woman] said, ‘i was born before a woman could vote and now i’m going to see a woman in the white house’…
a number of hillary clinton supporters exited the grounds after she spoke.
chris dodd:
…doing something greater than ourselves…
…all 12,000 of you are invited to spend inaugural night at the white house [harkin supposedly quipped, “we’ll all be there.”]
john edwards:
…when we walk away from the poor and defeseless our party loses its identity…
…we need more than the rhetoric of change…
…[the system] is broken. it does not work for ordinary americans. when you give [corporate interests] a seat at the table, they’ll eat all the food…
…i don’t want to see us replace corporate republicans with corporate democrats…
…george bush has not damaged america’s standing in the world, he’s destroyed it…
every [war] funding bill sent to bush should have a timetable for withdrawal…
most of the crowd started to stream out.
there’s plenty more (including snippets from joe biden) over at show me progress, so pls. go read michael’s post.
and our intrepid cartoonist, brett penrose, had this to say about the whole experience:
i was nearly crushed between hillary and edwards supporters– i forgot how much enthusiasm college-age people have. needless to say, i did not take my sketch pad into the crowd (as i may have ended up wearing it!). at one point, as the crowd rushed forward to get a better view of hillary, the plastic construction fence snapped and i thought for a second the secret service was going to pounce!
i had no problem seeing bersin because he’s so tall. i always knew where the candidate was based on the location of the boom mikes and by the location of our mike. i have to say, bersin looked like a real journalist out there and his posts showed it. i think he missed his calling.
on my way back to my seat, i almost ran into the c-span reporter guy but there is no stopping a man who just survived the college stampede and who needs a beer. shortly after i was seated back at “camp warrensburg,” bill richardson stood to my left and i didn’t even notice until he was walking away. my wife was trying to get my attention but i was staring off into the iowa sky (or something).
in short, the food was good, the beer was cold, the weather was great, my travelling company was awesome and it was great to be surrounded by 12,000 screaming democrats all fired up for 2008! as the county we reside in is republican infested, it was refreshing to spend a sunday with progressive-minded people hungry to move this country forward!
and, here’s brett’s interpretation of the whole ordeal:
good job, boys! thanks for covering this important event!
