John Edwards was in the hills of northeast Iowa last night to talk to a good crowd at the Elkader Opera House. The general area is about as rural as you can get as far as I can tell. I just moved here from Iowa City (originally from Davenport) and I've heard that Clayton County is the only county in Iowa without a stoplight. You gotta have a laugh at that. I live in a town about 15 miles south and teach in a neighboring school district. We're about an hour away from any city with more than 20,000 residents. But enough about me...
John was simply awesome. There were about 200 people there that filled the whole floor seating area of the opera house and they were very much into it. It was as inspired as I've been in a long time and you could really feel the electricity. I was really surprised at how many true progressives there were, but then again my move here has broken down a lot of misconceptions I had about rural life and people. Please read on for a taste of what John was talking about and maybe to learn a bit more about the good people of Iowa.
My wife and I sat in the second row and were in front of a couple that supported Obama. There seemed to be a few political tourists but for the most part it seemed as if it was a solid crowd in favor of Edwards. Elizabeth spoke first and was excellent. I'm sure it's been said before but John and Elizabeth have great chemistry together up on the stump. They had a back-and-forth thing running throughout the evening and that made it a lot of fun for the crowd. I hate to break it down like this but it gave his campaign some authenticity for me as I'm sure it did for a lot of others. Just seeing their love for each other gave credibility to everything else he said that night. I don't know how else to describe it, it's just something you feel. Elizabeth talked a lot about trust as did John, and they are people that Iowans can trust. Their message really resonates here.
John got a big ovation when he was handed the mike and started hammering home his big message that getting rid of the corruption in Washington is the first thing we have to do. I won't go into details about his stump speech because I'm sure many of you are already familiar with it, but I did want to comment again that he really hits at the emotions when he's giving you the cold hard facts. Other candidates will tell you all about the poverty in America and all the other problems we face; John Edwards makes you FEEL it. He tells you about the 200,000 veterans that wore our uniform in service of this country and are now huddled under overpasses and in the alleys and doorways all over this country and you can feel your eyes start burning. You hear about the man that couldn't talk for 50 years finally getting his voice and suddenly your mouth is dry and you have trouble swallowing. John Edwards believes what he says, and he makes you believe it too. Not just through logic and reason, but in your heart and soul.
The Q & A session was interesting, to say the least. It started out with a woman asking for the names and contact information of his policy advisors; I'm surprised she didn't want social security numbers. John gave a great answer that seemed to satisfy her, and then Ellizabeth asked for the mike and added a little bit. She did that a few times and the crowd really ate up her contributions. The next question was about the Biden plan and if John's plan was better. John provided a good outline of the Biden plan and then explicitly stated where his ideas differ. It really showed the depth of his policy knowledge and he was very good about smoothing over the differences but still making his ideas stand out.
If anybody ever accused John Edwards of "planting," the next question of the night would have blown that theory out of the water. Some old crank stood up and started rambling something like "Something's been stuck in my craw for about 10 years now; two murders in California and the murderer is still..." Nobody had a clue what this guy was talking about. Eventually we figured out he was talking about OJ Simpson and then the guy started saying something about "payback" and mentioned Obama and it was just a disaster. I was mortified and hoped that the people that traveled there knew that he didn't represent our area at all. John gave a great answer that talked about issues facing minorities and he did not stray from his message one bit even though the group was overwhelmingly white and he was just asked a question by either a crazy guy or a horrible racist.
The next questioner lightened my heart because he was an openly gay man that praised Edwards' views on civil rights and asked a question that I don't really remember but was basically just a chance for John to talk about his position. I found it hilarious that I felt redeemed one question after this horrible nut/racist by a 60-something gay Iowan that not only gave Edwards a chance to talk about civil rights but also reduced the level of embarrassment in the room about the image of intolerance the previous questioner had given us.
All in all it was a great night. I'm a lot more excited now than I was going in and I'm going to work hard in the next few weeks to make sure John Edwards takes the caucus.