Burning Elephant Travelogue:  Iowa

Burning Elephant knows where the action is right now, and that’s Iowa.  So we packed up the trunk and headed for The Hawkeye State, home to nearly three million people and the first in the nation presidential contest, the Iowa Caucuses.

We kicked things off by sending an undercover agent to the Iowa Straw Poll, a GOP fundraiser that’s supposed to give an early indication of candidate support in Iowa.  Mitt Romney won, but he spent a ton of money to pull it off.  In second place was former Arkansas governor Mike Huckebee, no doubt due to his rendition of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird.”  Huckebee will probably wind up the first vice-presidential candidate that can play the bass guitar. 

Other amusements at the Straw Poll included the Colonial-era three-cornered hats among the Ron Paul supporters, an attack on Rudy Giuliani by the pro-assault weapons crowd, and Tommy Thompson waving goodbye to our camera the day before he quit the campaign. The food wasn’t much to speak of, though Tom Tancredo was very proud of his 4^th place finish and home-made ice-cream. 

But outside Hilton Coliseum, the cuisine has much more to offer.  Burning Elephant’s favorite Iowa watering hole is Hickory Park, a BBQ and Ice Cream restaurant founded in 1970 that is a must-stop for any visit to Ames.  Another great spot in town is Café Beaudelaire, bringing international flavors to nearby Iowa State University.  Their signature dish is the Beaudelaire bauru, made of fresh baked bread with mayo, tomatoes, lettuce, onions, sweet corn, peas, mozzarella cheese and a fried egg.  Get it with the Brazilian fries and some sangria.

Next up for the Burning Elephant was the Iowa State Fair, where we were tracking wanna-be candidate Fred Thompson though the corn dog and funnel cake booths.  The lawyer/lobbyist/actor was the last of all the major candidates to speak at the Des Moines Register’s Soapbox, a chance for the potential presidents to show they could connect with the people of the Midwest.  Thompson gave a pretty lackluster speech, conveniently forgetting about his 20 year career as a Washington lobbyist when presenting himself as a Washington outsider and champion of average folk.  The former one-term senator from Tennessee did suggest he’d be seeing a lot more of Iowa in the near future, but refused to actually declare himself a candidate.  Burning Elephant thinks the delay is probably because if Thompson waits until September 6^th, he won’t have to make any financial disclosures until January 31, 2008, well after the Iowa caucuses and primaries in New Hampshire, South Carolina, Michigan and Florida. 

The Iowa State Fair also featured the world’s biggest boar.  Fred’s the one on the left.

One Hundred miles north of Des Moines is Clear Lake, Iowa, home to the historic Surf Ballroom, where Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper played their last concert.  They died along with pilot Roger Peterson when their plane crashed north of Clear Lake on February 3, 1959.  A memorial marks the spot in the middle of a corn field where the plane went down.

But tonight the Surf was home to the 4^th Annual Wing-Ding Dinner hosted by the Hancock, Cerro Gordo, and Winnebago County Democrats, with keynote speaker Barack Obama.  The chicken wings were tasty (traditional, honey and some kind of mango concoction) and the crowd was fired-up for the Illinois senator, who stayed after his speech to visit with almost everyone who wanted to shake his hand or take a picture.

Saturday, Burning Elephant took a break from politics and visited Living History Farms, where you walk through three working historical farms. The 1700 Farm, 1850 Farm, and the 1900 Farm each have authentic crops and livestock from the period. Nearby is Walnut Hill, a recreation of an 1875 Iowa town with a general store, blacksmith shop, print shop, drug store, implement warehouse and two Victorian homes.  Supporting Living History Farms is the Machine Shed, a restaurant for those with a farmer’s appetite.  Classic American food with jumbo servings, servers in overalls and condiments in a tool box.  Yum! 

Well nourished, we were back on the trail of the presidential candidates, having scored two tickets to the August 20^th Democratic debate in Des Moines.  The debate was televised on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, which unfortunately meant being in our seats at 7a.m.  After a lot of waiting and short speeches by Iowa Governor Chet Culver and DNC Chairman Howard Dean, the crowd was asked to all remain seated, for security reasons, as the candidates entered.  Applause broke out as the line of well-groomed men in suits walked into the auditorium at Drake University, only to become more hesitant as the audience realized there were only men in that line.  No Hillary.  We had Obama, Kucinich, Biden, Richardson, Gravel, Dodd and Edwards, but not a Clinton in sight.  The crowd became uncomfortable as the men went onstage and stood there, one lectern empty, waiting for the New York senator.  They looked at each other.  Edwards rolled his eyes.  Stephanopoulos started to glance from side to side with a “What the h---?” look on his face.  After at least five minutes of the room rumbling with concern and frustration, in came Hillary, alone, to modest applause.  We don’t know if this was grandstanding or just another example of the Clintons’ notorious tardiness, but it wasn’t a good start.

Something else you didn’t see on TV:  nobody seems to like Dennis Kucinich.  Before the start of the debate, and during breaks, the candidates would mill about the stage talking to each other.  Dennis generally stood alone at his podium, and was rebuffed like the school nerd every time he tried to join a conversation among other candidates.  Even Governor Culver, when he moved across the stage greeting each of the candidates, barely looked at Kucinich as they shook hands.  Culver was still caught up in his conversation with the nearby rock-star Barack Obama. 

Stephanopoulos started the debate with questions about Obama and Hillary, basically characterizing the contest as a two-person race and trying to spark some conflict between the candidates.  Gravel went from amusing to nonsensical, and his Don Quixote campaign is getting old.  Richardson put in a strong performance, mainly because he had his hand raised the entire time, trying to get in on every question.  Kucinich sat there quietly like a doormat and then complained about getting walked on.  Obama seemed stronger at the Surf Ballroom, but in Clear Lake he had the stage all to himself.  Both Biden and Dodd came across as the thoughtful, experienced senators, but we were surprised at how confident and approachable Hillary seemed during the debate.  The best moment may have been after the debate, when Dodd’s young daughter decided she had heard enough.

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