How Obama is playing in Iowa

[Ethelk2044]

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/10/16/how_obama_is_playing_in_iowa/

AT A RECENT rally at Luther College, Brenda Meyer text messaged her sons when Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said he respected the rights of hunters while decrying the dumping of handguns and assault weapons into cities. Meyer is a 46-year-old nurse from Decorah. She is a lifelong Republican and everyone in her family is a hunter.

She was in Decorah only because she was dragged here by a friend, Carol Hemesath, a Democrat and a mental-health therapist. Another Democrat nursing friend, Deb Tekippe, tried to persuade Meyer to come along earlier in the day but Meyer turned her down.

Meyer's text message was, "Interesting for a Democrat. Obama believes we should own guns to hunt."

She said she is seriously considering crossing party lines for the first time to vote for Obama. "My father would be rolling in his grave if he knew I came to this rally," Meyer said. "I hope I wasn't shmoozed but he said sometimes we have to do the right thing because it is the right thing, even if it is unpopular. It is time we had a president who did that."

Hemesath said, "I actually kind of like the fact that he is a bit raw, unpolished. He seems more honest. I want somebody who represents this country like a human being. George Bush has the US hated like at no time in my life."

Several other voters at Obama appearances in Waterloo and Independence said Obama became their favorite after souring on John Edwards. Edwards led in many Iowa polls in the spring and summer with his populist message but voters said he plummeted in sincerity with his $400 haircut and his ties to subprime mortgage companies in the national foreclosure debacle.

Julie Falcon, 49, a federal natural resources worker whose votes have swung from Ronald Reagan in 1980 to John Kerry in 2004, wrote a note during Obama's speech in Independence that said, "So far out of the others I have seen, he is by far the best of the three," referring to Obama, Clinton, and Edwards.

Fifty-year-old Geri Porteney of Oelwein picked up an Obama supporter card after crying to him in the front row about how her brother had to work despite cancer to keep his health insurance. Porteney said Clinton may know the issues, but the way Obama looked her in her wet eyes and held her quaking hands "meant more to me than anything."


Also in Waterloo, two 23-year-old nurses, Crystal Schrader of Cedar Falls and Julie Gleason of Denver, Iowa, said were leaning toward Clinton because she is a woman. They were persuaded to give Obama a further look because of the fact Obama said that he is a Christian, but that his administration would embrace all religions. "Too many people in politics are saying my Bible is better than your Bible," Gleason said. Schrader added, "We have a cultural melting pot. We don't need a president who polarizes."

[rinsd]

1. Derrick Jackson taking shots at Edwards.

"Edwards led in many Iowa polls in the spring and summer with his populist message but voters said he plummeted in sincerity with his $400 haircut and his ties to subprime mortgage companies in the national foreclosure debacle."

[geek tragedy]

6. Jackson takes his whacks at every candidate

at one time or another.

[Colobo]

12. Viva Obama!

[SteppingRazor]

2. How is it news to this Brenda Meyer that the Dems don't want to take hunters' guns away?

I mean, I'm glad she's thinking about going Obama and all, but sweet Jesus, does she really think it's all that unusual for a Democrat to say hunting is a-ok? Has she not listened to a Democrat in, oh, I dunno ... EVER?! How the hell can anyone be so thick-headed?

[Dawgs]

3. Agree. I think if you let Rush, Hannity, and Fox News think for you it's not hard to get it wrong.

[ieoeja]

7. You should rephrase that.

That should read, "I think if you only get your news from Rush, Hannity, Fox News, etc then it's hard not to get it wrong".

This is not always willful ignorance on the part of the audience. In large swathes of this country the local television stations, radio stations, and newspapers cover the entire political spectrum from extreme rightwing to rabid rightwing. Getting another viewpoint takes effort on your part. And when you do catch a non-rightwing report, it sounds so bizarre you doubt its credibility.

And it isn't just the media. It is the local Democratic Party as well. They spent the past couple decades following the DLC strategy, "talk like a Republican and distance yourself from anything liberal". So even the local Democrats have been telling people in Smallville, Iowa that they aren't like all those other Democrats who want to take away your guns.

This is what the 50-State Strategy is intended to correct. Maybe we cannot control the media, but we can at least get Democrats spreading the true national party message instead of letting our opponents just make up shit about us.

[derby378]

14. Besides, the Second Amendment doesn't guarantee the right of the people to HUNT...

...so patting hunters and sportsmen on the head doesn't take much courage on Obama's part. The Brady Campaign is still keeping his head in the vise, I'm afraid.

[Capn Sunshine]

4. Highlights the crossover appeal of Obama

One amazing thing at the rallies is how many republicans and independents show up "just to check this out"

The message is definitely one that has crossover potential.
As opposed to high negatives among the same group for the inevitable candidate.

[flpoljunkie]

5. A candidate who gets crossover votes has the capacity to unite this country. We are tired of the

divisiveness in Washington, and are pained at the thought of a return to the poisonous political environment of the first Clinton administration.

[BeyondGeography]

8. Great article...thanks for posting

[goclark]

9. I agree

:bounce:

[bigdarryl]

10. Idoit Rasmussen is coming out tomorrow with a NEW Iowa poll on....

the democrats side. he was on POTUS this after noon he said some interesting things are happening he wouldn't go into detail.

[illinoisprogressive]

11. Mark Penns partner, Schoen work for Rassmuessen now, BigD.

can't trust that poll

[MonkeyFunk]

13. Nonsense

tell us what's WRONG with the poll instead of just saying it's bad because somebody you don't like's partner does work for Rasmussen.

And since their polls agree with every OTHER poll, it's really delusional to think they're all rigged.

[benEzra]

15. Hunting is irrelevant, as the party found out the hard way in '94, '00, and '04...

only 1 in 5 U.S. gun owners is a hunter.

"Assault weapon" is a loaded term for the most popular civilian target rifles in the United States. Taking H.R.1022 as the operative definition, there are perhaps twice as many Americans who own "assault weapons" as hunt, and handgun owners outnumber hunters 2 or 3 to 1.

The gun issue is not, and has never been, about "hunting," contrary to Brady Campaign press releases and MSM spin, and Democratic strategists would do well to understand that fact.

----------------------
Dems and the Gun Issue - Now What? (written in '04, largely vindicated in '06, IMO)

The Conservative Roots of U.S. Gun Control