F$@* Sioux City

Sioux City is far. 315 miles from Iowa City. Almost 5 hours.

Why do I care? Well, various candidates seem to be doing all sorts of events there I want to see, on the days I would like to see them. Nuts.

I sat down at Paula's computer tonight and started cruising websites. Obama's is the prettiest. Edwards was easiest to navigate. Hillary's had a search function that allowed you to filter events by distance, date, and city. (She is best "prepared" methinks.)

Oh, by the way, the drive was uneventful. The I-80 pile-up had been sufficiently towed. I passed 6-7 abandoned cars in the median, max. Listened to podcasts of Ring of Fire episodes from Air America. (Side note: Damn, Chevron is evil. Check this out: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/7113903.stm)

Anyhow, I didn't just ogle the big stars. I checked out Biden and Dodd's sites too. I've decided I want to see them in person. Kucinich is not campaigning in Iowa, so he's out.

And Richardson? He's just never interested me much, and when he specifically called out a fellow democrat (Edwards) for "trying to start a class war," he was dead to me. That, and I've heard whispers for over a year from some very different sources that he's got infidelity problems that would come out were he ever to gain the spotlight. By the way, here's Ezra Klein on Richardson labeling himself as the "pro-growth" Democrat: http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_economics_of_bill_richardson
How that for using a Republican frame and a Democratic straw man at the same time? Nice job, Bill.

So, tomorrow. As early as I can, I am showing up at Edwards HQ in downtown Iowa City. I'll try to be perky and caffeinated. See what happens. I'm sure I'll be put to work. Going door to door would probably be best, I haven't been to yoga in a month.

Then in the afternoon, I'm heading to Dubuque. Gonna go say hi to grandma and grandpa at Linwood. Then go see Biden at 5pm at the Mississippi River Museum and at 6:30pm, head around the bend to see Hillary at the Grand River Center. (Never heard of that place....)