A Des Moines Register Columnist's view of the Harkin Steak Fry:
Crowds, mud give illusion of surreal Woodstock
By ROB BORSELLINO, Register Columnist; 09/14/03
A rainy Saturday afternoon, and I had a choice.
I could tuck in with a good book, a plate of brie and a baguette, listen to some Norah Jones and think wonderful thoughts.
Or I could go out to the Tom Harkin steak fry, get wet, stand ankle deep in mud in a rain-soaked field and listen to a half-dozen presidential candidates call George W. Bush a schmuck - each in his or her own unique way.
We were out of brie, so I decided to go for the rain and the rhetoric. (snip)
I kept walking, and I saw a massive crowd of people, press with cameras and mics all trying to get close to Dick Gephardt. Or maybe it was Howard Dean or Bob Graham or one of those. A few feet away was Carol Moseley Braun standing with two women, both of them looking like they'd rather be sitting somewhere warm and dry reading a good book. I grabbed the opportunity to talk with a presidential candidate, and I asked Ms. Mosley Braun why - given her terrible poll numbers - she was still in the race.
She assured me her poll numbers were excellent. She said she was one of the leading candidates in the latest polls. I kept pushing, telling her that wasn't the case. She kept pushing back, telling me I should look at the latest numbers. She was pleasant, smiling. She was serious. She insisted she was winning.
I started to tell her that in the polls I saw she was about as popular as Saddam, and only a bit more popular than Gray Davis. But I caught myself. I did not want to be disrespectful. After all, this woman is a former U.S. senator, a former ambassador to New Zealand, and - if she's right - a front-running candidate for president of the United States of America. She's obviously brighter and better informed than I am. Besides, this race is quite fluid, and since I hadn't listened to the news in almost 20 minutes, I didn't want to push it. So I thanked her for her time and quietly trudged away through the mud. I walked past a guy carrying a sign that said: "Need a Bushectomy? Call Dr. Dean." There were other signs, but nothing else quite that clever.
http://www.dmregister.com/opinion/stories/c5917686/22247554.html
