At Iowa's State Fair, A Political Circus | Washington Post

[Ediacara]

At Iowa's State Fair, A Political Circus
Forget Budgets. Ever Balance a Corn Dog?

By Mark Leibovich
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 17, 2003; Page D01

DES MOINES -- Is it possible to look presidential while holding a corn dog to your lips?

The question presents a dicey riddle for candidates passing through the Iowa State Fair. It looms palpably over John Kerry as he rushes past the deep-fried Oreo and Snickers stand, the beer tent, the butter cow, the zucchini shaped like a duck, mutant beets, Tadpole the Clown, nut rolls and the photo of the American Honey Princess for 2003.

Kerry is on his best Regular Guy behavior, just another slob with pleated Ralph Lauren khakis and a large entourage. He is shaking hands, buying a $4 strawberry smoothie with a $20 bill and leaving a dollar tip. He thinks the John Deere tractor display is sublime. And it's just so great to meet people. "Hey buddy, what you gonna do with those dice," he says to a kid holding two furry dice.

He would love to stay longer and visit the livestock. But his people are running him off to a labor event in Waterloo.

"Wait," Kerry says, pivoting. "Gotta get a corn dog."

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[Fleshdancer]

1. Don't hold your breath for the the Pulitzer Leibovich

This author wants me to judge Kerry for eating a corn dog? Or Lieberman for eating a fried twinkie? Did Leibovich really get into journalism for the sole purpose of writing useless crap? What can I possibly gain from reading this article?

I see an odd and disturbing trend with "journalists" fixated on what and how Kerry eats. Oral fixation by proxy perhaps? Enquiring minds want to know. :eyes:

[DrFunkenstein]

2. Thank You For Being A Reasonable Dean Supporter

We should try to deep-six this garbage as soon as possible. It was this kind of crap that made Bush seem to be even from the same solar system as Gore.

[Fleshdancer]

3. Does Kerry have a defense force?

One of the things I love about the Dean campaign is the Dean Defense Forces (DDF). Well, It's not technically an official leg of the campaign, but it serves the valuable purpose of finding crap articles like this and responds with letters/emails to the writer and to the editors of the publication. I like to think that with DDF, a writer can say something negative about Dean if it's factually correct, but if words are taken out of context, or if the writer out right lies, then they will be held accountable.

Every Democratic campaign should do this and once primaries are over, it should be a complete party effort. How incredible would that be? We can't allow our candidate to be treated the way Gore was treated by the media in 2000. If we had a Gore Defense Force, then maybe the stupid internet story would have died early on.

Tomorrow I'll try to find the email or snail mail address of this particular writer and I'll post it on DU. You can take the info and post it on the Kerry blog and I'll do the same for the Dean blog. Sound good?

[ProfessorPlum]

5. excellent idea

Gloria,

I definitely think expanding the "defense force" to the whole Democratic Party is an excellent idea. They certainly need it. It should grow into a "truth squad" and maybe eventually fund our own journalists to create some press that actually can report the truth and put issues in better perspective (and NOT let attacks go unchallenged).

[ProfessorPlum]

4. Oh fer crying out loud

Here we go again.

One of the problems with our system is that the actual running for President is such a demeaning process that it scares off a lot of serious-minded candidates who might otherwise be very able to contribute, they just don't want to kiss babies and stand in every pig field in Iowa.

We put these guys through this incredibly stupid popularity contest campaign, and then writers like this lightbulb get to mock them about it. I'm sure he feels very clever.

One of my pipedreams is that someday we will have publicly funded elections, and along with them a fair process that forces candidates positions and experience into the open in an evenhanded way - a real clearinghouse of information and a set of debates that actually illuminate, rather than mask, the choices we have.

I love fairs. My grandfather was an officer of our county fair when he was alive, and every year I go back to my hometown (pop. ~2,000) for the fair. It's definitely fun, everybody enjoys the food. This writer is revealing that HE is the one who doesn't understand them, though, not Kerry. Even the people who live in the town where the fair happens don't have that "culture" all year round, and even they can feel a little self-conscious about corndogs. It's not like when the fair is over those people go back to banjo pickin' - they aren't a bunch of toothless idiots. Juxtaposing Kerry and the butter cow may create a humorous note for the author, but people go to the fair because of all that weird stuff. The FAIR is the weird spectacle, not someone wandering around in it.

I don't know. I hate these kind of bullshit articles.

[ProfessorPlum]

6. Jesus, the whole article is egregious

I just read the excerpt. What a load of garbage.

[Pavlovs DiOgie]

7. I'm beginning to wonder if anyone has a sense of humor

I liked the article, because it was so silly. C'mon, is anyone basing their votes off of this? Do you really think the author thinks so? Ya'll need to lighten up a bit, maybe go to a fair yourself.