Politicians, media and students flock to Iowa caucus

CEDAR RAPIDS, IA -- The lands of Iowa are flat, with barren fields under the ugly frost of January. The highways are long and scenic, though Iowa is a state with nothing special to look at and provides little in the way of recreational enjoyment.\nThere is credit due to the kind of people who would live here. And every four years, they are inundated by candidates who seem to love it here, perhaps only politically, in an attempt to satisfy the picky electorate with down-home folksiness and win the great Iowa caucus.\nFor the past few months presidential aspirants and the media circus that follows them have descended upon the people of Iowa, who seem to take it in stride, and secretly revel in the pride that is associated with their first caucus.\nThe process has been going on since 1972, and Iowans are incredibly patient, if not accepting, of their candidates' rigorous schedules. At a Saturday night rally for Sen. John Kerry at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Kerry's college-aged daughters give short stump speeches to stall and fill time before their father arrives.\nIn the press corps, David Brooks, a columnist for The New York Times, waits for Kerry to arrive.\n"They're never on time anymore," Brooks said while the audience of nearly 400 waits more than an hour before the senator arrives. And when he does arrive, it's as if all is miraculously forgotten.\nKerry stands relaxed, despite the fact that he's had an intense week of campaigning that buoyed his faltering campaign into a statistical four-way split. \nOn the day before the caucus Kerry was leading the pack, followed by Sen. John Edwards, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, and Rep. Dick Gephardt, according to a poll released in the Des Moines Register.\n"The George W. Bush administration is leading the United States of America in a radically wrong direction," Kerry declares to an applauding crowd. "I have come here to mark with you the beginning of the end of the Bush presidency!"\nKerry is accompanied by key endorsements, including Iowa's popular attorney general Tom Miller and former Sen. Gary Hart, who introduced Kerry promoting him as a candidate with strong credentials for homeland security.\nKerry's event feels organized -- maybe too organized, with different color nametags signaling your support for him, or that you are undecided -- and he brings with him political powerhouses. The rally across town the next morning for Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio feels the exact opposite.\nKucinich spoke to a crowd of 75 in a small, old building which doubles as an art gallery. It's the kind of place you'd expect Kucinich supporters to rally in. He moves from the stage onto the floor, and eventually pushes folding chairs out of his way so he can walk into the audience as he fields questions.\n"Today I'm running to light up America!" he screams, and the crowd goes wild.\nBetween 300 and 400 people turn out for the Edwards rally which is held in a venue that should comfortably hold no more than 200. \nEdwards, who arrives late as well, tells the crowd there are actually two Americans, one for the advantageous and one for the disenchanted. He shouts that there is only one candidate who can take on President Bush in all regions of the country.\n"I will be competitive in the North, in the Midwest, in the West, and 'tahl-kin' like this, in the South! The South is not Bush's backyard. I will beat George W. Bush in MY backyard, you can take that to the bank!"\n-- Contact staff writer Tony Sams at ajsams@indiana.edu.