Tonight, my wife and I attended our first presidential candidate rally in 32 years (our last one was for McGovern in San Diego's Balboa Park). We were accompanied by about 10,000 of our closest friends:
To put it in perspective, this turnout was more than twice the size of Gore's margin of victory in Iowa in 2000.
Kerry has a special fondness for this state given the caucus win here that propelled him on his way in this campaign. He said that he has spent so much time here he could probably declare residency.
He also referred to Bush having called Iowa "the hinterlands" and said that come November 2, we would be sending W back to the real hinterlands. Of course, the crowd was your usual homogenous assortment of midwestern folk.
Kerry and Tom Harkin talked about having been freshman senators together in '85. Kerry discussed his plans to promote broadband internet access to rural areas and support for biofuels research and development. And he announced that, within his first 100 days in office, he would hold a national summit in Iowa focused on economic development and improved access to health care for small town America.
All in all, it was just another of your typical quiet evenings in the heartland.