Iowa Dreams, Iowa Memories

by: Living Liberally

Thu Jan 03, 2008 at 18:49

With only a few hours left to go until Iowa, we asked our Des Moines host of Drinking Liberally, the incomparable Amanda Mittlestadt, who she was supporting tonight. Given the nature of the Iowa caucus, this sometimes requires a second choice, and that was what she gave us: first round Dodd, second round Edwards. Both being a shift from her prior support of Richardson.

This was no minor decision - our Des Moines DLers have been living and breathing the caucus for months now. Co-hosting "Caucus and Coronas" public forums, hosting and meeting with candidates, producing Rock Out With Your Caucus Out t-shirts...Des Moines DL has been in the thick of it.

What drives someone so closely following and heavily involved in the caucus to make a late-in-the-game switch? Funnily enough, it ended up that the social aspect of politics - the aspect which Drinking Liberally focuses on - played a substantive role in the decision. While Amanda is wonky and politically savvy enough to have strong policy-influenced reasons to support Dodd, she needed a final push to make her decision:

You get a sense for the reasons people attend events...the Dodd people had a genuine interest in getting to know us and just hanging out. They didn't come wearing campaign buttons or stickers - they just needed a release from the toils of campaign work, and that echoed in Dodd's personality when I met him. So, like Dodd, his campaign staffers just seemed more genuine..[Not] only do meeting the candidates influence people, but how their staffers interact with people - and how they interact with you if you volunteer - can also play a big part.

Candidates, Constituents, Caffeine. What happens when Chris Dodd meets with a bunch of coffee-addled comic book geeks. Plus - a guy dressing up as Wonder Woman.

Back To The Beginning of King Corn. Why and how Iowa ended up with so much dang corn.

The Tom Harkin Steak Fry. A first-hand DL look at an Iowa political institution.

Iowans For Corn-servation. The founders of Eating Liberally muse on the Iowa campaign diet of fried oreos, fried twinkies and fried snickers.

Happy Caucus Night everybody!