Steak Fry Demo-palooza

By John Deeth

Tom Harkin’s streak of good luck with the weather has stayed intact. The annual Harkin Steak Fry has never been rained out in 30 attempts, and Sunday’s weather in Indianola, Iowa was picture perfect — sunny and breezy in the mid. 70s

Harkin claimed his biggest turnout yet at his 30th Steak Fry. Indianola is best known for hot air ballooning, but Sunday the Balloon Field became Democratic Party Ground Zero. With his own re-election coming up next year, Harkin lined up all six leading Democratic presidential candidates – Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, John Edwards, Barack Obama and Bill Richardson.

The Harkin campaign issued over 200 press credentials, said spokesman Matt Paul, and claimed an attendance of over 12,000, at $30 a pop for regular folks ($200 to $500 for hosts and sponsors). For that Iowans got some meat and side dishes in a tent-and-picnic-table atmosphere, the company of most of the players in the Iowa Democratic Party, and a old-fashioned Democratic stem-winder Harkin speech. And, of course, the special guests, eager for their 15 minutes at the mic in front of a crowd of folks almost certain to attend the caucuses on whatever day in January they ends up once all the squabbling ends.

The Steak Fry before a caucus year tends to be an extra huge deal for Iowans. The event attendance record was set in 2003, ironically the year with the worst weather and the most-muddy members of presidential campaign staffs. Folks braved the iffy weather to see that year’s candidates and former President Bill Clinton. Howard Dean’s supporters wore shirts that said, “Hey Harkin! These steaks are DEAN-licious!” An all-out sign war erupted — mud-slinging, you might say, given the conditions.

This year’s sign war was subject to an arms control agreement — assigned areas –on the grounds. But on the streets of Indianola there were massive displays of the visibility efforts which cost campaign time, money, and energy, with no tangible evidence that voters are in fact swayed by them. Hillary Clinton seemed to have gotten her team up the earliest and installed the most signs lining every highway into Indianola, one roughly every six feet, perhaps in a push to cement the sense of inevitability. Many were between the sidewalk and the street – a no-no under Iowa law, but no campaign was 100% free from sin in this regard.

Obama seems to be a close second in the Burma Shave competition, but Team Edwards had the most posts with actual cheering bodies.

The entrance to the steak fry proper was lined with a cheering Hillary gauntlet. I grabbed the press pass and hustled back across Highway 92, a two-lane road backed up significantly in both directions 45 minutes before people are even allowed into the Steak Fry. Barack Obama was holding a pre-rally, something none of the other campaigns did.

I arrive at the Obama event to the tune of Van Halen’s “Right Now.” Barack’s staff must be unaware that Sammy Hagar is a notorious Republican (Everyone knows that REAL Van Halen is Diamond Dave Van Halen, anyway.) The rest of the music is off the standard Obama pre-rally R&B Oldie CD soundtrack: Jackie Wilson, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, “Shout” in apparently the Isley Brothers version. Disco one-hit wonders McFadden and Whitehead, “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now.” Songs any Iowan who’s seen Obama has heard several times.

The intros start at straight up high noon, 30 minutes behind the announced time.. They’re discussing the logistics of golf-carting people back across the highway to the Steak Fry proper and giving props to the bird-doggers. (“Bird-doggers” is Iowa campaign speak for interest groups whose goal is to get citizens to ask questions about their specific issue at candidate appearances.)

One such group is Iowa Global Warming, who brought us the famous snowman last seen in the YouTube debate.. Most advocate groups are “So and so” for “Such and Such” So it’s easy to slip and say “Iowans for Global Warming,” but they are in fact against the phenomenon, so it’s a big mistake.

Also on the scene is Iowans for Sensible Priorities, whose One Big Question is a variation of “would you be willing to cut military spending to fund social needs.” They have a PigMobile representing military pork, but they left it in the garage, choosing to instead bring their Upside Down Priorities School Bus.

Team Obama has a plan: after the speech, they’ll practice a few cheers then cross the road to the Steak Fry en masse. The Obama bling is moving quickly at the sale table at the gates. Sixty percent or so of the crowd seems to be outfitted in the navy blue shirts with that rising sun logo which any Iowan with minimal political awareness already recognizes.

The stage has a small main platform and a long catwalk, with people up close to it. Some of the mid-and-up level staffers sport little tabbed metal pins that say S-3 — Secret Service tags, precious political backstage passes. The staffers say 3,000 people RSVP’d and 2,500 bodies are expected for the Obama pre-rally. It didn’t look like that many, but my crowd-estimating skills are weak when rows of chairs aren’t available.

At 12:38 a pair of SUV’s pull up and a cheer rises as Obama emerges for the Secret Service’s protective bubble. Someone hands the Senator a wireless microphone the moment his feet hit the soil as he gets the standard Minimal Intro: “Ladies and Gentlemen, the next President of the United States, Barack Obama!”

Obama shakes hands while he heads up the catwalk. People are shouting “I love you” and Obama says “Love you back,” in a touch the hem of his garment moment one often sees on the Obama campaign. He says the speech’ll be short – “I got all of you persuaded.”

“People are sick and tired of being sick and tired of Bush,” he says, offering a short version of the Basic Obama Speech. Change, new page in history, etc. A little not so veiled criticism — “don’t settle for someone who’s been in Washington a long time and can work with the lobbyists.”

“I will always tell you where I stand, I will always tell you what I think. I am reminded every day, if not by events, then by my wife, that I am not a perfect man.” The cadence builds as he moves into the work hard, volunteer hard, inspire the troops rap.

He winds down with an oft-told story — says he’s going to tell it again at Steak Fry Proper, which he later does — that ends with a: “Fire it up, ready to go” chant. About 12, 15 minutes of speech. The chant rehearsal seems to go smoothly, and they pull off the drill. Obama, surrounded by the press scrum and the Secret Service, leads the line of troops chanting “I-O-W-A, Barack Obama all the way” right by the press filing shed. Press are pushed back a notch so Obama can shake some young hands. Among them, Frank Best of Columbus City who is now on board with Obama: “I was for Edwards for four years, and I switched two weeks ago.”

An hour before the presidential candidates spoke at the Steak Fry, the warm-up band — Lt. Gov. Patty Judge, the three Democratic congressman, and repeat challenger Selden Spencer — played to an inattentive house. The stage gives Rep. Dave Loebsack, one of 2006’s biggest upset winners, the look of a professorial Patton as he listed the accomplishments of his House committee, Education and Labor.

Instead of listening, most folks took the chance to grab some lunch before the main act, or stroll the midway-like rows of candidate and birddogger tables. It wouldn’t be a Demopalooza — or a Demstock if you’re a little older — without some silly hoopla.

So, where’s Dennis Kucinich, you ask? Not invited, says the volunteer at the Dennis Kucinich table. The Harkin folks say the invitation was extended to campaigns active in Iowa, and Kucinich isn’t. Team Kucinich claims Dennis has been here “several times,” though the last visit was for the debate last month. Launching into the talking points — single payer health care, impeachment, etc.– the Kucinich volunteer says the non-invite was an effort to exclude Kucinich from the “debate” (sic-there’s no debate, just speeches) with the national press present.

Team Dennis did go ahead and get a table, but say they were placed on the far end of the field with the button and t-shirt vendors. So in a guerilla (his word) action, they picked up and moved, next to Iowans for Sensible Priorities on Birddogger Row.

Team Biden’s theme for the day is Experience, as witnessed in the sign war on the way in. At their table they define “experience” as “years in office,” and translate that into a very Iowan motif, ears of corn. The absent Chris Dodd corn row would be just a couple ears shy of Biden’s.

In an interesting touch, Team Richardson is wearing shirts in a variety of pastel colors wide enough to stock a whole season of “Miami Vice.” Catchy, but it makes them harder to spot in the crowd than, say, the navy blue Obama army. Plus, as Kyle Lobner at the Common Cause booth notes, it must have cost a mint to print. All the more reason for campaign finance reform. Give him points for staying on message.

Team Richardson explains the shirts are color-coded by issue. “We have orange ones for sportsmen, like blaze orange,” says a staffer, and indeed the back is “Sportsmen for Richardson.” “There’s brown for vets, like khaki, and purple… I don’t know, must be wine drinkers for Richardson.”

The candidates march down from the staging area en masse with Harkin. The host takes the first speaking slot after an introduction by his wife Ruth, herself a powerful and popular figure among Iowa Democrats. All the candidates are seated on stage in the sun while the others speak, which is an interesting setup with lots of awkwardness potential.

The speaking order is settled at random: Obama first, followed by Richardson, Clinton, Dodd, Edwards, and Biden. In the press shed, the Biden staff distributes prepared remarks — how can Joe Biden talk for only two pages? The national press corps focuses intensely on every word of the 15 minute speeches.

As Chris Dodd continues, it seems apparent to Iowa reporters and a lot of the activists that we’ll get the condensed version of each stump speech. Dodd does get points for humor and honesty for actually saying “we’re here in part to suck up to Tom Harkin” — who’s all but pledged he won’t endorse this time. He endorsed Howard Dean in 2003 post-Steak Fry, and was on stage and in every shot of that endless loop of The Scream Speech. In 1999 he endorsed early, and Al Gore got a solo invite to the Steak Fry while Bill Bradley was left out.

While John Edwards speaks, one woman cheers him through a Hillary megaphone while wearing a Biden shirt. As the last speaker, Biden, takes the stage, a few of the decideds (mostly Team Clinton) are drifting away. So is some of the press corps in the filing shed, either satisfied with the prepared remarks or dismissive. The sky has darkened to partly cloudy. Biden wraps, the PA plays “September” by Earth Wind and Fire, the press shed rapidly vacates.

But the show’s not over for folks who want some physical contact with greatness. The Hillary Clinton claque is still cheering as she works the handshake line. Dr. Andi McGuire, a primary candidate for lieutenant governor last year, is in the midst of the crowd of young cheering folks. She talks up the major Clinton health care speech scheduled for Monday in Des Moines.

Closer to the rope, three college students wore vintage Jimmy Carter campaign gear older than they are. They were uncommitted but eager. They’d shaken Obama’s hand before I arrived (as his Secret Service team was loading him up in the distance), but Hillary Clinton left the line about 50 feet before she would have gotten to them. They settled for handshaking host Harkin. Meanwhile, up toward the horizon, Bill Richardson was still working the rope.

The campaigns appeared to have been duly diligent in cleaning up after the sign war along the roadsides of Indianola. Biden had the most signs left, but he was, after all, the last speaker and I recognized an Iowa City-based Biden staffer with stacks of signs.

At Clinton HQ — in Iowa, towns of 13,000 like Indianola often have presidential campaign offices — there was a large pile of blue signs with white and red. Mostly Clinton, but a few Dodds and Richardsons were mixed in. The problem may have been less hanky panky and more a matter of similar color schemes and tired people. Team Clinton was also loading up a big UHaul full of stuff at a parking lot near a school. A lot of folks, mostly young, were walking up to a couple miles from the balloon field toward town.

North of Indianola a TV crew was doing a standup. Apparently the actual field of the Steak Fry location wasn’t picturesque enough. Not enough corn. But the faux field was Grant Wood rolling perfect.

John Deeth writes for Iowa Independent.