skippy the bush kangaroo: they got a steak in the democratic process

Saturday, September 15, 2007

they got a steak in the democratic process

our own cartoonist, brett penrose, will be joining michael bersin and some others on a road trip to indianola, iowa, for the tom harkin steak fry to hear several of the big dem candidates speak...and to eat steak, we assume.

michael writes about it at show me progress:

early tomorrow morning a small group of us from warrensburg will pile into two vehicles for the 4 1/2 hour drive to that muddy (probably) balloon field near indianola, iowa for the 30th harkin steak fry. this to hear democratic presidential candidates joe biden, hillary clinton, chris dodd, john edwards, barack obama, and bill richardson speak...

after making arrangements to attend the event i noticed a link at the harkin web site for "blogger credentials". i thought to myself, "hey, we have a perfectly respectable progressive political blog here - i'll fill out the web form and submit it." so, i did. after i filled out the form the system came back with a page that told me i'd be contacted by e-mail with further details. a week went by. i navigated to the web site again, filled out the form again, explaining that i did so because i had yet to hear from them, and added more contact information. five days went by. "well," i thought, "we obviously haven't achieved a level of notice which would get someone to get us 'blogger credentials' to an event such as this." but, i also figured "what the hey" nothing had really changed.

i'd still attend the event and write about it here. because it'll be interesting, it's worth writing about, and it's a fun time. it better be - i've conned a whole bunch of friends into going with me…

the people in the crowd who have scraped together the cash to pay admission to attend these types of events are the most interesting. sure, the famous politicians make their speeches and we see them in the flesh. but, if they're good politicians they'll be staying "on message" and they won't do anything shocking. it's the people who are in the crowd listening to that message who fascinate me. i ask people "where are you from?", "why are you here?", "who are you supporting?" sometimes you get a unique life story along with the answers to those questions.

so, in reading the "media advisory" i note that there's a place for me to check in. there'll be a place for me to "file" (i ain't bringing a laptop to an outdoor event) and i'll get access to the public grounds.

there'll be thousands of people at the event. the vast majority will be democratic party activists - supporting one presidential candidate or another. as i wander the grounds will i have to endure cold stares from the masses? "no, no, you don't understand. i'm not one of them, i'm a blogger..."

it looks like getting credentialed really only means i get free admission to the event and that i can pay $10 for the feed if i want to eat.

we'll check back in with michael, brett, and the others' progress tomorrow!

Labels: blogtopia, democrats, prez campaign

posted by skippy at 6:07 PM |

1 Comments:

Can someone please tell me how Iowa got to be such an important state? Is the fact that it is such an important political state the reason why our agricultural policies are so screwed up?

commented by