Harkin Steak Fry Impressions

So, every year Sen. Tom Harkin puts on a fundraiser in a balloon field in his hometown of Indianola. For those of you wondering, a balloon field is a big grassy field. And there are a lot of steaks and beans and taters and plastic cups of free beer to be had. Six Presidential candidates came out to this year's edition, the 30th annual Harkin Steak Fry. I was there for the first time, here are a few disconnected thoughts.

• About 5 miles out you start seeing the signs. Each campaign puts up a bunch of signs on all roads leading into and out of the event. On the way we came in, Dodd and Obama were winning the sign wars. Apparently staffers get up around 4am to put these things in place.

• To get through the entrance, you have to "run the gauntlet" of various supporters screaming and whooping it up. They're also giving out signs and buttons and stickers. Hillary supporters had popcorn in a plastic cone that could be used as a megaphone when the kernels were all chomped.

• The steak was excellent. There's this photo-op for all the candidates where they appear in front of a grill and flip steaks. That's nowhere near anyone and is pretty much completely staged for the benefit of the cameras. It does allow supporters to congregate and cheer on their man (or woman). Edwards had the most support in the place, I'd say, but all the candidates had sizable contingents. All of the Biden people got down in front of the stage early so that they'd look good on TV, but they didn't follow Biden himself as he walked in. So it was kind of depressing when I was headed to the port-o-johns and saw the Senator just loping in from a side gate.

• There's very little retail campaigning. I saw Biden and Edwards out among the people in the balloon field, and I guess Obama came in from a different direction and did some handshaking, but the real event for them is a speech.

• I only got to see three speeches, delivered at a podium with a big American flag and some tractors and hay in the background. Of Obama, Richardson and Clinton, I thought Richardson actually got the best response among the crowd of 12,000 (a record for the Steak Fry). Of course, he was pandering up a storm, offering practically the moon and saying all the right things (his right-wingish position on taxes never came up). Obama's speech actually had the biggest news in it, because he called for no funding of the war without a timeline for withdrawal. That's a significant change, and puts him squarely in the progressive position on Iraq. Clinton continued the cynical trick of blaming the Iraqi government for their problems, which I find distasteful.

• Iowans seem incredibly knowledgeable about the process and are quick to question campaign promises. I think the campaign on the Democratic side is still fluid, and several candidates could get out of there with positive buzz.

That's all I've got for now.