On the Campaign Trail with Ed Tibbetts

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said today he’s added a couple well-known Iowa Republicans to his campaign team.

Former House Speaker Brent Siegrist of Council Bluffs will will join Romney’s 2008 presidential exploratory committee as an adviser. So has Brian Kennedy, a Bettendorf lawyer and former Iowa GOP chair.

They’ve joined ex-governor’s candidate Doug Gross, ex-party chair Rich Schwarm and House GOP Leader Christopher Rants, R-Sioux City.

The question that has a chunk of the political press atwitter today: Just who was Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton thinking about Sunday when referred to “evil and bad men” in a Davenport appearance?

“Bad men? Who would that be, Hillary?” read the headline to an ABCNews online story.

The New York Post had no doubt, nor subtlety.

“JOKE’S ON BILL,” read a big headline, with the subhead: “Hill: I can handle ‘evil, bad men’” The paper’s front page sports a fullpage picture of a smirking Mrs. Clinton pointing to an inset picture of her husband.

All this out of a quip in Davenport? And at the Mississippi Fairgrounds’ Keppy Hall, no less, a place better known for gun shows and flea markets.

If you haven’t heard, here’s the story: Clinton, in the midst of a town hall meeting, took up a question from a man who wanted to know what in her background prepared her to deal with terrorists.

As she had with others, Clinton repeated the question.”The question really, is we face a lot of dangers in the world and in the gentlemen’s words we face a lot of evil men. People like Osama bin Laden, comes to mind. And what in my background equips me to deal with evil and bad men?”

Perhaps it was the pause she took between the words “with” and “evil and bad men?”

No matter, the crowd laughed heartily, and so did Clinton.

Reporters, accustomed to the dull monotony of campaign stagecraft, stared in bewilderment. Did she just say what I think she said?

Since then, some have tried to interpret her demeanor and intent.

One said she paused for effect. Another said she nodded knowingly at the questioner. Truth is, her actions were ambiguous.

Clinton acknowledged the humor in the moment, though. “On a slightly more serious note,” she said as she gave her answer.

At a press conference later, Clinton, at first, said she was thinking about bad American leadership and the failure to get Osama bin Laden.Pressed, she said she was trying to be funny. “You know, you guys keep telling me lighten up, be funny. You know, I get a little funny and now I’m being psychoanlayzed,” she said.

Finally, after repeated prodding, she rejected the idea the crowd was thinking of her husband, the former president who was impeached in 1998 after an affair with intern Monica Lewinsky.

Not so, many in the crowd.

“I kind of thought it led toward all she’s been through with Bill,” said Bob Fox, the fairgrounds manager. He did allow she might have been thinking of Vice President Dick Cheney. “She doesn’t like Cheney,” Fox said. He had no doubt about the crowd’s reaction, though. “The crowd went with Bill. I think it went right to Monica.”

“I think everybody in that crowd took it the same way,” agreed Rep. Jim Lykam, D-Davenport.

So if the crowd’s laughter is unambiguous, what of Clinton’s intent?

Pat Baxter-Rebal, a longtime activist from LeClaire, took it as a “charming and disarming” moment, a hearty laugh shared between Clinton and crowd. “I think she was deliberately unguarded,” Baxter-Rebal said. “She had a twinkle in her eye. She was saying, ‘I’ve moved on.’”

OK, so in the scheme of things (war, terrorism, 47 million uninsured, etc.) this isn’t a big deal. And it’ll probably die down soon. Nevertheless, it’s this kind of thing that, if for no other reason than blogs, youtube, non-stop media, a ruthless political culture, won’t completely go away.

Whether this is a one-day story or is churned into something more, Fox, the fairgrounds manager, just wants to get one thing straight. It happened in Davenport. At the fairgrounds.

“I’d like to get some credit for it,” he says.