Ron Paul- a freedom fighter?

Last night, the Collegian road crew ventured into the heart of Des Moines to the Hotel Fort Des Moines, hoping to discover what's behind the eccentric Ron Paul's, “Revolution.”
We left expecting more of the same of what we had seen from the other candidates, but, instead, we found a flying circus.
By 7 p.m., the ballroom was packed with somewhere between 600 and 700 supporters, which is impressive considering Dr. Paul was polling at about nine percent – the lowest of any Republican candidate – just two days ago. What's more, unlike the other events we have attended, there was not a single conversation, it seemed, that wasn't centered around the man of the hour.
The tone of the evening was set long before Paul took the stage. There was a a brief introduction by two veterans discussing the shameful way in which the American government has dealt with POWs in the past, followed by a brief speech by Paul's national campaign manager.
What was most interesting, however, was interspersed between these speeches was a group prayer, the Pledge of Allegiance and a performance of the “Star Spangled Banner” by a veteran of the Marine Corp.
All this served to prove three things to the crowd – Ron Paul likes veterans, God and America. And it worked.
When he finally took the stage, to the backdrop of an enormous American flag, the energy of the room reached an almost unbearable level, but when the little Representative from Texas took his place behind the podium and opened his mouth, the crowd respectfully quieted. The speech that followed was perhaps one of the most enlightening and terrifying things I have ever heard come from an elected official.
Ron Paul's campaign is built on one thing, and one thing alone – his love of freedom. But his definition of freedom is a little different than that of most other candidates.
During his speech, he attacked big government and foreign entanglements that, he feels, hinder citizens' autonomy and make it harder for individuals to be successful. Unlike other Republican candidates talking the same line, you can help, but believe him. I mean, for a man to suggest the abolition of the IRS, he has to be serious, right?
The first step in his plan to get rid of the income tax, he said, is to stop being the world police.
“We destroy governments and have to be taxed to rebuild [them],” Paul said. “We need to spend all that money here in this country.”
This money, however, should not be allocated for government programs, but instead should be put back in the pockets of American citizens. In addition, he said, other programs that require tax funding, like education, should be trimmed from the federal budget and left up to the states.
This strategy of cutting foreign entanglements and social spending, will, he thinks, bring us to the point where we will no longer require the federal income tax to support the federal government and will help control inflation that he said shrinks the middle class, causing the gap between the rich and the poor to increase.
Without the income tax, he believes, there will be more money left for communities to decide how best to serve themselves.
During the speech, I found myself repeatedly rolling my eyes at his ideas, but the crowd ate it up, and despite my misgivings, I can definitely understand why.
Ron Paul wants nothing short of taking our nation back to its earliest beginnings, and, like his campaign slogan says, his ideas are nothing short of revolutionary.
Whether they are actually good for the country, though, is open for debate.

Near sleepless nights on the caucus trail

The Collegian road crew had a quiet day today, as the spent the day way the hell out of dodge in our West Des Moines motel room trying to play catch-up after three days of madness.
Last night, after nonstop travel from Ceder Rapids to see Mike Huckabee, to Amana for a Bill Clinton appearance, trip Des Moines for Huck and Chuck, we drove the final 40 minutes to our motel in Ames to start writing. However, after unloading our equipment at breakneck speed to avoid the Iowa cold, when we all sat down at our respective laptops, it was clear that nobody was in the mood to work.
I don't know how the rest of the crew chose to put off work, but I turned to my old standbys for putting off homework – phone calls and Facebook. After putting a call through to a certain someone and making plans for Friday, the night of our return (giving me a reason to be excited to come home), and checking my Facebook profile about a million times, it was finally time to get to work.
The problem was, after a day of events, I had a million ideas, but no motivation for anything but sleep. I'm sure it was the same for the others.
However, in a true Collegian style, we trudged on until the end, but not without difficulty.
While the writers fought slumber, our resident photog, Brandon Iwamoto, had bigger problems. In the middle of putting together his slide show, he informed the crew that we didn't gather in any audio at Bill Clinton's speech earlier in the day, due to a technical error by the Clinton tech guy.
In spite of the bad news, though, Iwamoto produced yet another killer slide show, using mostly audio from the Huckster's jam session at his morning event.
It wasn't until after 3 a.m. that most of the crew turned in, but we had gotten the job done.
That's why I really admire these guys. Sure, we may be a bunch of trouble-making college students, but when the time comes, we can really buckle down.
Tonight promises to be another long night, as we head back into the heart of Des Moines to see everyone's favorite underdog/nutcase Ron Paul. Hopefully, though, we'll turn in a bit earlier tonight, because with the caucuses tomorrow night, tomorrow promises to be even longer, and I know I'll need a good night's sleep to get through it.
No matter what, though, we'll stick it through to the end. Besides, there's enough time to sleep when we're dead. Right?
-S.R.

Slick Willy steals the show - Chuck just sucked

Every candidate has a gimmick, some are just better than others.
Ron Paul has the abolition of the IRS. McCain, his military service record. Obama has that whole “hope” thing going on.
However, two of the major contenders in Iowa, Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Sen. Hillary Clinton, the Collegian road crew discovered, have something a bit more interesting – mascots.
On Tuesday, Hillary's mascot, her husband Bill, made a stop at an RV Park in Amana, and the crew knew we needed to make an appearance.
Slick Willy started his speech about a half an hour behind schedule, but it was definitely worth the wait.
He began the event by informing those gathered of the great importance of the Iowa caucuses.
“On caucus night the whole future of the world is on your shoulders,” Clinton said.
The reason, he said, this election is more important than those of the recent past is simple – the Bush administration's blunders have left the American way of life in peril. Clinton slammed the Bush tax cuts and policy in Iraq as causing the downfall of America's image worldwide.
The only way to combat this, he said, would be to elect his wife, Hillary, to the nation's highest office. But he didn't just want voters to take his word for it, he had proof.
Hillary, it seems, had a hand in nearly every big decision of his political career, from his governorship in Arkansas to his stint in the White House. In a similar manner to way in which she attempted to reform health care during his presidency, albeit more successfully, Hillary aided her husband in taking the educational system in Arkansas from the absolute worst in the nation to one of the most improved. And what's more, she came up with the plan all on her own.
It is Hillary's commitment to finding practical decisions to difficult issues like health care and Iraq, he said, that make her the best candidate for the job.
Judging by the warm reception of the crowd, Bill was definitely an effective cheerleader for his wife, but it's hard to know if his effectiveness stemmed from his words or from his celebrety. I suspect the latter.
The draw of Hillary's star power, though, was no match for that of Republican candidate Mike Huckabee's celebrity supporter, the world famous actor, martial arts expert, home fitness expert, and butt of endless college jokes, Mr. Chuck Norris.
A “Huck and Chuck” event was held at the Val Air Ballroom in Des Moines – and the house was packed. Whether the folks gathered were there for “Huck,” or just to see somebody get roundhouse-kicked to the face, though, was not clear.
The Collegian arrived late to the event after hauling balls from the Clinton event in Amana, but we were there just in time to see the man Huckabee called “a great American and a wonderful conservative leader.”
However if Chuck Norris is, indeed, a “wonderful conservative leader,” than the Republican Party is in trouble.
I love the man, but his speech was a train wreck. He rambled, he complained, but never once did he actually explain why he liked Huckabee, let alone why anybody else should.
When he got to the Huckster's crowning glory, his “fair tax” plan involving the abolition of the IRS in favor of a higher national sales tax, it was painfully clear to me that the good Chuck had no idea what we was talking about.
He mentioned the fact that he didn't mind paying taxes, but that many other businesspeople do and go to great lengths to make ensure that they don't have to. For this reason, he said, people like him work hard to find loopholes to get out of paying taxes, too. After all, who wants to play by the rules when others don't?
For this reason, he said, there should be no income tax, but instead a national sales tax should be implemented, so when “[when] you buy a yacht, you buy a plane ... you pay taxes on it.”
Confused? So was I.
Of course, Huckabee isn't relying on Norris for his amazing oratorical skills, he just needs somebody to get bodies in the door. And, although Hillary knows Bill can string two sentences together, she's using her husband in the same way.
It's a cheap ploy, but, based on what we saw today, it seems to be working.
It's just a shame people can't get this excited for the presidential race for a good reason like, I don't know, actually talking about the issues. But I guess that's just not how America works.

Hunting for elephants, finding hope

The Collegian crew set off today at the crack of noon with a mission – to hit up Republican campaign offices and chat it up with volunteers for the other side of the ticket.
Unfortunately, this proved more difficult than expected.
After checking out all the campaign Web sites, we were dismayed to find two disappointing truths: a) no Republicans were planning events for the day, and b) not a single Republican candidate was listed as having an office within the city limits.
The county Republican Party was equally elusive. Their Web site listed no address and a phone number listed that led only to a full voice mail.
It looked like the elephants were off the agenda.
Still determined to justify last night's hotel bill, the crew, after a couple of side trips to a military surplus store (see Living on the Hedge) and the inaccessible facilities of the Daily Iowan, the University of Iowa's student paper, decided to go with our standby plan to hunt for any campaign office and bug the volunteers.
All the offices had a few things in common – the people were all very nice and obviously hard working, albeit slightly uncomfortable talking to us (due to the fact that field office personnel are not authorized to talk to the press) – but there were little differences that made each unique.
The Edwards camp had quite possibly the most cramped office we have seen thus far. The volunteers were nice enough, but didn't seem too comfortable with our presence, with the exception of a Colorado native who had moved to Iowa in her teens, who seemed less awkward.
After allowing Brandon to snap a few shots of some of the volunteers, they informed us that the Republicans were not entirely neglecting Iowa City. Just around the corner was “little New York” -- the field offices for Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton, located next door to each other.
Excited to meet some Republican volunteers, we thanked the Edwards folks and set off.
If energy had been lacking in the Edwards office, it certainly wasn't here. And for good reason. The staffers were friendly and thoroughly excited to be working on the campaign.
Unlike some of the other offices, most staffers were students from the University of Iowa, rather than transplants from out of state.
The fine folks at the Rudy office are the only Republican campaign volunteers in Iowa city, one staffer informed us. The other candidates are pooling their resources to the west, where more farming and industrial areas foster a more positive environment for Republicans.
These folks, rather than being content to cater only to those friendly to the Republican Party, were trying to convert people in an area that, they admitted, was more liberal.
You can't help but admire that kind of commitment.
Stepping in the door of the Clinton campaign headquarters, we were greeted warmly, but when we asked permission to ask the volunteers about their experiences and take a few photos, things cooled rather quickly.
We were referred to the director of the office, who promptly told us we had to get permission from the central campaign office in Des Moines. When Erik Myers placed the call, he was told we had permission to take photos of the building's exterior, but that we did not have permission to speak with the volunteers or photograph the inside.
Dejected, we moved on to the Obama office.
When we first stepped in, it looked like it would end like our Hillary stop. After hearing our request to poke around, we were again told they would need to get permission from their main office.
However, unlike the Hillary campaign volunteers, a volunteer made the call and, after being given the green light, gave us free reign to poke around.
Afterward, the office staff warmed up considerably. One of the staffers, after hearing we were from Colorado, even jumped on Facebook to see if we knew any of her friends.
The volunteers coming down from making phone calls upstairs seemed genuinely excited about their work and the gains they were making.
One particularly excited staffer was overheard mentioning how she went out of her way to take information to potential voters at a diner and, as a result, three Iowans now knew where the caucus for their precinct would be held.
She and a few others even made plans to mix business with pleasure and bring information cards out with to their respective New Year's Eve celebrations.
The grassroots excitement that I saw here and at the Giuliani office gives me hope that there is still some life in American politics.
At these offices, it's not about bipartisan bickering and spiteful attacks or personal glory. It's about good, hardworking people supporting people and ideas they believe will better our nation, which is what politics should be about. It's nice to know that somewhere in America, the system is working as it should.

Biden and the bigger fish

Everyone loves an underdog, and the folks in Council Bluffs are no different.
Today the Collegian crew, after a bit of dallying around town, including a brief stop at Wal-Mart (within which the Council Bluffs Police Department is stationed – no joke) and Barack Obama's campaign headquarters, met up with the fine folks of the Biden campaign.
Their office, located off the beaten path in a mini-mall right next door to Bill Richardson's campaign office, was far less impressive than Obama's independent headquarters in downtown Council Bluffs, but the friendly staffers more than made up for their small quarters.
Collegian crew members visited the Biden office twice today – once in the morning to meet up with a former colleague of Erik's from his UNC days, and then again at 2 p.m. for a special stop by the Senator's son, Bo, for which a small crowd – not much more than a dozen people – gathered.
The attorney general for the great (yawn) state of Delaware, Bo Biden's speech was obviously that of a seasoned politician, but it was effective.
While he mentioned one or two campaign issues, mostly the Iraq war and the recent assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, the brunt of the younger Biden's speech focused on comparing his father to “bigger” Democratic candidates. Though he never mentioned them by name, it was clear that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were the candidates in the attorney general's cross-hairs.
“One is talking about experience,” Biden said, referencing Clinton's campaign. “Our candidate has five times more experience.”
Playing on Obama's “Hope” campaign signs, he referenced the Violence Against Women Act, a law written in 1994 by Joe Biden that allocated funding for the investigation of crimes against women and increased the rights of victims, as an example of his father's “record of changing things that gives people hope.”
In addition to playing off of his father's opponent's campaign slogan, he also decried the big two for attempting to buy the vote rather than by connecting with the people.
“Biden, Dodd, and Richardson have been here the most,” he said. “Others have spent the most.”
However, he appealed to the pride of his audience and told them he didn't think the voters of Iowa could be swayed so easily.
“Iowa is still about the ideas, not the money,” Biden said.
All these remarks served to feed the view of Joe Biden as the underdog in a presidential race dominated by money – and it was very effective.
At first, I was taken aback by how little play the elder Biden's stances on issues was given in his son's speech, but after reflecting during the longer-than-expected drive to Iowa City, the brilliance of the speech hit me. This wasn't a campaign speech meant to sway potentials, this was a motivational speech.
Everyone gathered at that small office had already made up their minds, excluding one attendee who said he was undecided. Bo Biden was merely giving them a pep talk for their next job – ensuring that the 15 percent benchmark needed to be declared a viable candidate by the state's Democratic candidate was met.
Earlier, volunteers at the campaign had explained that at every precinct, voters gather into “preference groups” in support of each candidates. According to the caucus Web site, voters are given 30 minutes to do this.
What is interesting about this, though, is that groups suspecting they may fall short of the 15 percent have the opportunity to speak with members of other groups, in hope of swaying less certain individuals to their side.
The citizens who attended to the event today, for the most part, were not fence-sitters. They know why they support Biden and didn't need any convincing.
What they did need was some inspiration.
The caucuses are like a sporting event, and the Biden supporters are, at least right now, like the lovable ragamuffin team with a hardcore homegrown fan base (think the Red Sox before their Series win against the Yankees).
Today, Biden gave them the nobody-expects-us-to-win-but-let's-show-them-what-we're-made-of speech. The kind given by a high school football coach before the big game.
Of course, this isn't a football game. If Biden supporters want their man to survive, they have to fight Hillary and Barack's $20 million of exposure.
It won't be easy, but if any fringe candidate can do it, Biden's the man.