The news that the Obama campaign has just woken up to the fact that most of the students in IA are going to be on vac on January 3 and is now promoting all kind of strictly legal but slightly smelly campaign tactics to deal with this problem sounds very Roveish. Apparently it's perfectly legal for out of state students to vote in the IA primary and since many come from IL the home state of Obama he has launched a campaign to use this bloc to bolster his vote.
This hasn't passed un-noticed. David Yepsen the doyenne of IA columnists having his big four year moment has been talking about it on his blog and will no doubt have more to say in the Register which surely gets more exposure in rural IA than the internet. Chris Dodd has also been crying foul so over the next few weeks it's surely likely this tactic is going to get a lot more daylight. If this happens, it's hard to estimate it's impact on a very small electorate of around 125,000 made up of mainly middle aged and elderly native sons of IA who are deeply jealous of their privileges. It's hard to see them reacting sympathetically to Obama bussing in a bunch of carpet bagging students. It's also worth remembering that many Obama campaign workers at the actual caucuses are going to be students also and this alone may act as reminder of what are regarded as being slightly iffy tactics.
I have no particular objection to it but it does rather have the look and smell of being too clever by half. Strictly legal like many of those scams Rove has used over the years to swing elections but something that could cause a wrinkling of the nostrils and thus damage the St Obama image of sea green incorruptibility. We'll have to see.