Bushed in Iowa

One thing is certain about the Republicans: When it comes to campaigning, they run a tight ship. I have never seen so many people moved in and out of a public forum so efficiently as I did last Wednesday when President Bush held a rally in LeClaire Park. Having the Secret Service and legions of paid staffers and volunteers at your disposal doesn't hurt.

There were reportedly 13,000 people in attendance, which seems accurate. As one local journalist has already pointed out, Bush and Kerry might have descended on Davenport, Iowa, on the same day, but those in attendance and those watching on TV couldn't have ascertained the difference between Davenport and Anywhere, USA. The staging was so well-defined and designed for a television experience, one couldn't tell that Bush was only yards away from the mighty Mississippi River, and Kerry could have been in an intimate meeting room in any number of conference centers nationwide. Any sense of place had been upstaged by the sheen of the campaign brands.

So why were the Bush and Kerry campaigns here in the first place? Iowa is a "battleground" state, and Bush operatives were buzzing about how close Bush came to winning Iowa in 2000. "We only lost the last election by two votes per precinct," said press secretary Scott Stenzel. (Earlier, I had inquired with the advance team if the media would get to ask questions of the president. "No!" was the resounding response.) Stenzel reported that there are 1,997 precincts in Iowa, and two votes apiece nearly equates to the 4,144 votes needed to swing this state to Bush. In fact, the Bush team had calculated down to hours the time remaining to rally these two votes per precinct: 2,196 until November 2.

Elected officials and big donors were seated on bleachers behind the president's podium. Various officials and guests entertained the crowd prior to the commander-in-chief's remarks. Congressman Jim Nussle, who was elected chair of the House Budget Committee in 2001, spoke about how the Republicans and Bush administration are for "less government" and how we "cannot grow the government." Had the media been allowed to ask questions, these comments would have prompted an inquiry along the lines of, "But what about the Republican Party's Medicare drug benefit - what some call the single largest expansion of the welfare state since Lyndon Johnson's Great Society? And what about the Homeland Security Act - what some call the creation of this nation's single largest bureaucracy?" Unfortunately, this forum offered no such opportunity.

I had already watched Bush's entire stump speech on C-SPAN a few days prior (and I couldn't tell where he was then, either), and he was dutifully on-message and consistent in his delivery here in Davenport. The major themes and slogans were all there: "We're turning the corner and we're not turning back," and "We've got more work to do," and "We must take threats from abroad seriously before they materialize." What I noticed in each speech was Bush's delivery method. When it comes to policy details and proposals, the president strains to get the script just right, looking at his notes and jumbling words here or there. But when it comes to campaign slogans and humorous jabs at his opponent, he's very comfortable looking up from his prepared remarks, just being himself and connecting with the crowd.

And this crowd loved him. He does have a charisma, a cockiness and assuredness that are certainly infectious and confidence-building for the Bush base. Just don't ask him any questions for which he isn't prepared.

Bush outlined many things this country needs, but gave very little detail on how he would achieve it. He got my attention when he stated, "We need an energy strategy less dependent on foreign sources of energy, like bio-diesel and ethanol." Sounds good, but who will execute that strategy and how will it be implemented? Is spreading democracy in the Middle East part of that new energy strategy? "We need to allow small employers to get insurance for their employees with the same discounts available to large corporations." Sounds good, but how will this get accomplished?

When it came to national security and the war on terror, Bush was especially focused. He didn't come out and say "pre-emptive strike policy," but the rhetoric around this subject indicates he clearly believes in such measures: "We must engage the enemies around the world so we do not have to face them at home." There's a lot packed into that short sentence, and Americans should pay close attention to it.

The crowd in LeClaire Park was easily whipped into a cheering frenzy, waving flags and placards in the air. However, when Bush stated the laundry list of reasons we needed to take Saddam out and invade Iraq, even this group of devotees could only muster a subdued round of applause.

Then there was the removal of the young woman wearing a T-shirt that had the words "Fight Terrorism. Defeat Bush" painted on the back of it. She was asked to leave by the volunteer crowd-handlers from Palmer, but kindly refused. Davenport police then escorted her off the premises. Bush later stated, "We need to change America one heart, one soul, and one consciousness at a time." I couldn't help but wonder if this removal of a dissident viewpoint from the public property was how the Bush administration was going to go about changing such consciousnesses. Had this woman been allowed to stay, who knows? She might have heard a viewpoint she had not considered.

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