Iowa On My Mind

This is very interesting.  I want to become involved in the workings of HASTAC, so I had first better say something about myself.  I am an oddly bifurcated person.  I make my living by teaching chemical engineering at Iowa State University, and I have done so for a long time.  Before coming to Iowa I taught for a few years in New York City, and before that I was a graduate student at Champaign/Urbana and an engineering undergraduate at North Carolina State.

But before that I was a Duke graduate -- in music!  If that combination turns you around, you're probably quite normal.  Most folks do a quick little adjustment when they learn about my dual persona, and I have tried to explain it so many times that not doing so seems strange.  Yes, I teach hard engineering courses in the daytime and play jazz at night.  These days the split is strongly biased toward engineering, but the music is never very far beneath the surface.

That said, you may sense that I don't look at the world as does a typical engineer (with due credit to my capable colleagues and mostly excellent students).  And I will have more to say about that as I develop a blog (which I have never done before), but for the moment please take the dual existence as just an odd fact of life.  For now I want to get on with commenting about the Iowa Caucuses.

I was involved in the Caucuses at a couple of levels.  First, because I am something like the "designated musician" for my county Democratic organization, I played for three of the principal candidates, including the New Year's Eve event at our Memorial Union where Barack Obama spoke.  I don't want to over blow those roles -- I was just the keyboard player in groups of three or four professional musicians doing the requisite "Happy Days Are Here Again" at the appropriate times.  But I did have a front-row seat and I got to see some of the behind-the-scenes activity that helped make the candidates look good.

More important is that I attended my own Caucus last Thursday along with a little over 500 other residents of this fairly typical college town, Ames, Iowa.  My precinct is heavily populated by Iowa State University people, so you can understand that it's strongly Democratic and slanted toward long-time Iowans.

I went to stand in Joe Biden's corner.  I heard him speak more than anyone else, and I think that his experience and stamina under fire would make him a terrific president.  If some Osama-look-alike were to get his (or her) hand on the wrong kind of switch I'd be more comfortable with Senator Biden running interference than any of the other contenders.

But Biden's count was very small, and so I had to change or not have my presence mean anything.  Hillary Clinton's original count was under the limit of "viability," and so I went to her along with several other Bidens so that she would have delegates at the county and state conventions.

Over the past several days there have been some pretty negative opinion pieces in the New York Times about the Iowa and New Hampshire events: the populations are too small, they are nonrepresentative, they are over-hyped, etc., etc.  The first few I chalked up to standard eastern aloofness (after all, I lived in New York, and I experienced that phenomenon).  What I saw at my Caucus was NOT a social event with a collection of farmers in overalls and hip boots wearing John Deere caps (OK, it was a semi-urban, college-educated group and probably not like the Caucuses in the more rural areas).  These were thinking people who had come together to help fix a system that has gone badly wrong.  Sure, there were laughs and lots of friendly exchanges, but there was also determination and resolve.  When the people standing for the nonviable candidates (like myself) were "courted" to join other groups, there was no back-slapping, no sly winking, no "come-on-down Sam" type of coercion or submission.  Some folks held their ground and simply refused to go with platforms that they didn't agree with.  There were no "good ol' boys" at my Caucus," just purposeful people -- Iowans.

So I discounted those early complaints and just considered where they came from!  But yesterday, Saturday, Jan. 5, there was another column in the Times by Gail Collins entitled "What Would Hillary Rodham Do?"  Ms. Collins did attend a Caucus last Thursday and saw the same things that I saw.  Not only does she still question the significance of the results, but she also questions whether the front runners really have what it takes for that inevitable time when political push and shove become one and the same.  I'm not as elated now as I was Tuesday morning (nor as I believe Cathy Davidson was when she wrote "Iowa on My Mind").  Senator Biden is far too principled a person to show it outwardly, but I wouldn't fault him for feeling a slight twinge of "I told you so" at Collins' remarks.

I hope those who read this will look at the Times' opinions and offer their own comments.  

One more thought.  I too felt that Barack Obama's victory speech was perfect.  Every word -- wow!  His speech writer (if there is one) will go far.  And I thought that Hillary Clinton's words were equally good -- gracious, and positive.  But I was disappointed at what John Edwards said.  Blaming corporate money and citing specific unfortunate cases where the system had failed people, let alone his wife's cancer, was just out of line, or at least I think it was.  It seemed a little -- well -- desperate.  I hope others will comment about this.

Kenneth R. Jolls
Ames, Iowa