Iowans gather 'round for holiday politicking
Iowans have head-on collision of holiday festivities and high-stakes politics.
DES MOINES -- At least Joanne Locke's cookies were baked.
"If I wasn't here, I'd be home writing my Christmas cards that are still sitting on my dining room table," the retired office worker said a few days ago as she waited for Illinois Sen. Barack Obama to arrive at a foreign-policy forum.
The head-on collision of holiday festivities and high-stakes politics is extreme this year even for Iowa, where every four winters people pretty much expect to run into presidential hopefuls at the diner or even their neighbor's house. That's because the Iowa caucuses that launch the 2008 nomination season are on Jan. 3 — the earliest ever, and more than two weeks earlier than in 2004.
The challenge for candidates this year: making their closing arguments to Iowans without turning them off during the holiday season.
"People want to spend time with friends and family. They're hectic, frantic, trying to put up the tree, shovel out the driveway, get to the mall and make those final shopping decisions," says Steffen Schmidt, a political scientist at Iowa State University. "It's really a delicate proposition for candidates to try and interject themselves into this."
Many Iowans like the attention and are willing to put up with the inconveniences that surround the caucuses: strangers calling and knocking on their doors, candidates and their entourages tying up traffic, political ads all over TV.
Daniel Dittemore, 65, a retired state administrator from Ankeny, jokes that the caucuses are "a special burden that we Iowans have to bear every four years." The caucuses are "so bunched up against the holidays" that it's hard to focus on either without being distracted, he says, but "it's not a huge, screeching problem."
For others, however, the campaign seems invasive. They're ready for it to end. "The commercials are wearing me out," says Steve Harris, 48, a cable TV installer from Lamoni. "It's just ruthless."
By late this afternoon, Iowa will temporarily become a political dead zone as campaigns shutter their offices, take down their TV ads, halt their phone operations and stop knocking on doors. Apart from a few moonlighters, candidates, volunteers and aides will be with family and friends.
But business as usual will resume Wednesday and continue through New Year's to caucus night, when neighbors assemble at community meetings to cast their public votes.
"There's no choice," Obama strategist David Axelrod says. "We've got a week to close the deal with people and we're in a tight, competitive situation here. Everybody will have a nice holiday meal, and then it's back on the hustings."
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