On the Campaign Trail with Ed Tibbetts

The Democrats just wrapped up. Lots of talk on foreign policy. Intriguing question about how the candidates would respond if there were American cities were struck by al-Qaeda terrorists.

Obama started it off by saying there needed to be a decent emergency response and good intelligence to determine who was repsonsible.

Edwards said he’d find out who was responsible then act “swiftly” but with consultation with other nations so we wouldn’t make new enemies.

Clinton said she’s move “as swiftly as is prudent,” then said she wouldn’t divert to other things, which she said President Bush did by shifting from Afghanistan to Iraq.

Bill Richardson wasn’t asked the question, but he took it upon himself to say he’d respond “militarily, aggressively.”

Interestingly, Obama took a second bite at the apple, bringing the issue up again later. He said America has real enemies and there’s no contradiction between using “lethal force” and building support overseas.

Not a minute after the debate ended, the analysts began to take over.

Other than Ohio congressman Dennis Kucinich and ex-Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel, the presidential candidates don’t look too eager to engage each other.

Clinton gave her usual near-mea culpas on Iraq. Edwards apologized again and, using Clinton’s name, said essentially it’s up to her whether she wants to apologize or not.

Obama reminded folks he opposed the war to begin with.

Kucinich, who not only opposed the war but also voted against funding it, faulted the others for voting for war spending bills, like today’s in the Senate.

Clinton and Obama both emphasized the need to gain the additional Senate (read: Republican) support to overcome a presidential veto.

Joe Biden may have created the most memorable early moment of the debate.

When debate moderator Brian Williams mentions that he’s prone to gaffes and asks can Biden assure people that, while on a national stage, he can avoid that.

Said Biden: “Yes.”

And that was all. Williams waited, expecting more.

There was none. At all. Biden smiled. Williams waited. Biden smiles some more. The crowd laughed.

“Sen. Gravel,” Williams said, moving on.

ORANGEBURG, S.C. — There’s about a half hour to go before the slate of Democratic presidential hopefuls take the stage at the Martin Luther King Auditorium here on the S.C. State campus.

I’ve been here all day, and you could just feel the tempo of the place pick up about 4 p.m. (Eastern). The “Hardball” crew was doing their thing in a plaza outside the student center just a bit ago. And that area has been the focal point of activity. The place got an energy boost about 4:30 p.m. when about 75 members of the S.C. State marching band made its way into the plaza and provided a dazzling backdrop to the Hardballers.

On the other end of campus, the local newspaper, the Times and Democrat, threw a reception. It looked like lots of local dignitaries showed up for some barbecue, baked beans, corn on the cob (sorry, didn’t try it. If it isn’t July…) and some fine lemonade.

Outside, there was a jarring site. An elderly black man in a confederate uniform with a confederate flag, in what appeared to be a debate with a group of young black men and women. I didn’t get the story behind that. I’m not sure I’d understand it anyway.

Closer to the plaza at the center of campus, it’s like a political bazaar.

Clinton, Edwards and Obama backers, clad in T-shirts, waving signs and trying to outduel each other’s cheers are thrown together with interest groups criticizing the No Child Left Behind education law and others urging the demise of the federal income tax system. They want it replaced with a “progressive national sales tax.”

All this and the candidates haven’t even stepped foot on stage to debate yet.

It’s a great community event for this place, where the poverty is evident.

Who knows? By the end of the night we may even get some news out of this…..

ORANGEBURG, South Carolina — So why is it that there’s an E-85 pump in Orangeburg, South Carolina, and not Davenport, the 3rd largest city in Iowa, the largest corn-producing state in the country?

Do they grow corn here? Some, I’m told. “Not like ya’ll, though.”

Still, there’s an E-85 pump in Orangeburg. John Shuler, a local attorney, pointed it out to me as we were standing outside the Cinema, a banquet hall here where hundreds of Democrats gathered last night to eat, drink and celebrate the big debate.

Gas prices are a big deal here. So says Jimmie Moore, a 20-year-old sophomore who’s not really politically oriented but he says he’ll watch the debate tonight in the hopes they’ll talk about gas prices. Moore was walking across campus about midday and he says that’s what students care about.

He doesn’t mention ethanol, the elixir of the farm belt. He’s not specific at all. He just wants results. “I just want them to tell me something about ‘em going down,” he says.

Gas is about $2.75 a gallon. I didn’t check the ethanol pump.

Because it’s a nationally televised debate, you can expect the E-word to get thrown around. But how much of this debate will veer to energy issues. It’ll probably come up when the candidates talk about the war on terror, and our need to become more energy independent.

But will Barack Obama challenge Hillary Clinton on the issue? Clinton had opposed ethanol subsidies, but said she did so because of concerns over what an ethanol mandate would mean to gas prices in New York. Now, she’s changed and New York is working on ethanol production itself.

Obama, being from Illinois, has a clean record on ethanol.

Actually, it’s a big question how aggressive Obama will get. He’s tried, of course, to be an above-the-fray politician, and it’ll be interesting to see how — and if — he draws comparisons with Clinton without looking like a regular politician. Of course, if he does it seems more likely it will be on Iraq rather than ethanol.

It’s about four hours to debate time. I’m told there’s debate watching parties in Davenport. Scott County backers of John Edwards will meet at Cammie Pohl’s place, 1216 N. Concord St., Davenport. Obama’s debate-watching party will be at Kelley’s Irish Pub, 2222 E. 53rd St., Davenport.

The debate starts at 6 p.m. central time.

UPDATE: The Department of Energy web site says there are 46 E-85 sites in South Carolina, the most of any state outside the Midwest. Any idea why? If you’re from South Carolina, or the renewable fuels lobby I look forward to hearing from you. Looks like we have more in common with folks here than just presidential politics.

Remember the day President Bush and Sen. John Kerry were in Davenport, the day two presidential campaigns converged on our downtown? Remember the hoopla?

I imagine that’s what people in Orangeburg, South Carolina, must feel like today. In about eight hours, eight presidential candidates will debate on the S.C. State campus.

Add to that hundreds of reporters, the usual political entourages and, well, for a town of about 13,000 that amounts to a pretty big deal.

I’ve heard the words “history making” a lot down here. Oh, I forgot to mention. I’m in South Carolina today. I’m sitting in the filing center on the SC State campus. The Times sent me here to file a story and, for a day anyway, to work on the team of a Lee sister paper, the Orangeburg Times and Democrat.

Last night, I hung out at the Cinema, an old movie theater where 400 Democrats (they’re all Democrats in this part of the state, by the way) were rallying the night before the big night.

Sen. Joe Biden was there. His speech was as impassioned, but briefer, than his remarks at Scott County’s Red, White and Blue dinner a couple months ago. Representatives of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton also were there.

 Lots of interest in the presidential campaign, and like Iowans not a lot of people I talked to had committed. Obama, Clinton and Edwards get mentioned the most, though Biden has some support. He’s been to Orangeburg three times.

Today, it’s hot but the campus, a small one, much like St. Ambrose, is alive with activity. Lots of sprucing up the flowers, cleaning the streets, hiding the endless cords and wires that feed the media. They want the campus to look nice and it does. One building, apparently in disrepair, is draped with what looks like a large black baggie.

But it’s a beautiful state.

And the place is steeped in history. I mentioned the Orangeburg massacre, a civil rights protest that ended with three unarmed students being shot by police in 1968, in my story in the Times this morning. Today, I stood at the campus’s memorial and chatted with 81-year-old Lewie Roache, a retired dean who worked here then. He describes it as a night of “sadness and death.” But when I ask him about the doings today, he smiles. “Man, it’s a great day,” he says.

The Obama campaign’s just unveiled a new Iowa-oriented web site.

See it here.

Barack Obama isn’t shy about touting his background as a community organizer in Chicago, and last week his Iowa campaign touted the names of 100 supporters in the field. In Davenport, Ida Johnson, the longtime head of United Neighbors Inc., is on the list.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson brought his presidential campaign to Iowa yesterday with a visit to Denison. Today, comes the news that he’s going to make some of our television stations a little richer.

The Democrat is going to air new television ads across the state beginning Monday. (Note: The Washington Post’s The Fix column first reported this yesterday).

Tom Reynolds, Richardson’s Iowa spokesman, says the ads will open the door to more face-to-face campaigning. “What these ads underscore is the governor is taking the campaign in Iowa seriously,” Reynolds said today.

Richardson is a bit behind the others. Most of the other Democratic candidates have made multiple trips to Iowa, and the top tier have already spread their organizational wings.

Reynolds says Richardson is ramping up, too, and the ads — one is a biographical piece, while the other outlines his foreign policy experience and belief that U.S. troops ought to be out of Iraq by the end of the year – are just the beginning of an extensive effort here.

The campaign won’t say how long the ads will run, or how much they’re spending.

A lot has been said about John Edwards’ $400 haircut, especially on this web site, where more than 250 people from across the country weighed in with comments on a Bill Wundram story about how Q-C barbers were reacting to the big bill.

Does it matter?

We can argue about it all day long. Elsewhere on this site, they are.

But will it matter to Iowa Democrats? That’s a question I posed to Jeff Link today. Link’s a longtime Democratic strategist in the state.

Democratic activists, after all, are the ones who will be weighing heavily on Edwards’ presidential campaign when they turn out for the caucuses next January.

Link, who’s not aligned with anyone now, says too many Iowa Democrats have met Edwards to believe a $400 haircut defines him. The former North Carolina senator has made 21 trips to the state since the 2004 election (22 starts Friday), and too many people have met up close and personal to buy the hype, Link says.

“That’s not their experience,” he says. The Edwards Iowa Democrats recognize is the guy who appeared at a nationally televised news conference talking about how he and his wife, Elizabeth, were dealing with the recurrence of her cancer.

I wasn’t sure. After all, he’s made fighting poverty at home and abroad a key part of his campaign, and he’s already been criticized for the size of his house in North Carolina. And, say what you will about Iowa Democrats, but they’re a pretty politically savvy lot — if they think a guy’s electability is threatened by a growing media narrative, they’ll act on it.

Link concedes if there’s a steady drumbeat of this kind of news, it might make a difference. But where a candidate like John Kerry, who often struck a patrician bearing, might have this kind of stuff stick (and did), Edwards, Link says, doesn’t have to worry about that with Iowa Democrats.

“People are not going to be quick to believe that’s who he is, because they’ve met him and that’s not their experience.”

He may be right. A $400 haircut may be hard for some Iowans to fathom, but for the Iowa Democrats who have met Edwards (multiple times), he reminds them of a whole lot of other things first.