Presidential Candidates Night

Saturday we went to a Candidate Forum to listen to most of the Democrats who are running for the Presidency in 2008. I think all but one of them appeared at the event so it was a good opportunity to start deciding who you might want to vote for.

For those of you who aren’t from Iowa, we are both blessed and cursed by this type of thing. Most states have a state convention, a mini version of the national convention. In Iowa we have “caucuses”. Iowa has the distinction of being the first state in the nation to make its selection of delegates. This is good because we are a small state and the candidates can make themselves known in a cost effective manner and can spend a lot of time here. It is bad for us because we get a concentration of political activity that most states don’t have to put up with. This time around the election process has started months before it normally does and I’m afraid this will be the model for the future. We joke that we don’t decide who we are going to vote for till we have had each candidate over for dinner at least 3 times.

Our friends Tom and Jenny Wertz got tickets to the event and gave us a couple of them. Part of the deal was admission to the VIP tent where several of the candidates came and rubbed shoulders with us, the common folk. Most of them were very friendly and spent a minute or two chit-chatting with us and didn’t mind a bit posing for pictures with us. Several didn’t show at the tent and you can tell which ones they were because I had to get pictures of them when they were up on the podium.

Karen Thorpe with Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Christopher Dodd, Joseph Biden, Barack Obama, Elizabeth and Dennis Kucinich and Karen Thorpe

The big coup was me getting Karen’s picture with Hillary Clinton, but speaking with Dennis and Elizabeth Kucinich was a total delight. She was actually more of a hit than he was.

Because the political process started so early this time around we are undecided who we want to support. After listening to all their speeches, we would be happy with any of them and their proposed programs and political philosophies. Dennis Kucinich is always fun to hear. By far and away he is the most dynamic speaker and can work the audience into a fever pitch but his viewpoint is probably a little too far to the left for many people (not me) and he isn’t taken as seriously as I think he should be. Besides him, I was most impressed with Clinton’s and Edwards’s speeches. Prior to this event I was leaning slightly towards Edwards but I have been warming up to Biden recently. I heard him speak at a similar event when he was running for the Presidency in 1988 and I was very impressed. However, his presentation at this event wasn’t as good as some of the other candidates. Barack Obama didn’t impress me either and I’m afraid Christopher Dodd is too obscure to be viable. It will be interesting to see who wins the caucuses. Usually a couple of candidates self distruct before the big day. That happened to Biden in 1988. I hope it doesn’t this time.