Iowa Caucus Day 3: Decemeber 29, 2007

Eason and I had to wake up at 6am in order to leave for Cedar Rapids to coordinate a volunteer phone bank. Cedar Rapids is about a two hour drive from Des Moines and we had to be there by 10. We left the Fred office (which was quite empty due to the late night activities of the staffers) at 7:25. John, who has been suffering from nasal congestion and a slight flu, stole a box of Kleenex's from his hotel. However, the stolen box only had three tissues. Note to self: Check how many tissues are in a box before you steal them. Anyway, after about an hour on the road, we stopped by Iowa's most famous (and your mom's favorite) gas station - a Kum-N-Go. While John picked up his tissues and other cold remedies, I filled up my gas and we were off again. Despite being another boring drive, we did pass some very interesting places, such as an Adult Book and Video Store. Adjacent to that store was a huge Ron Paul 2008 sign. I'm not making any assumptions, but I'm just putting that out there.
Once we got to the Cedar Rapids Public Library, we encountered a County Chair - Peter Holme. We went into a small room in the public library and made calls with about six other volunteers. We stayed there from 10am-1pm and made over 400 calls. After this event, John and I ventured out onto Cedar Rapids stellar restaurant scene and went to the Chop House. I had the patty melt, he had the french dip and then we were back on the road to Des Moines.
At the Iowa office, we started making more phone calls upon request by Burger. We were now calling undecided voter lists and trying not only to get people to caucus for Fred, but also for them to speak on Fred's behalf at their local precinct. Overall, we made about 10,100 calls today. I feeling I get is that people seem to really like Fred - they hear his clear conservative policies and see in Fred a candidate that values the same things the American people do. The one reservation most people have is they are not sure Fred can win. So I spend most of my time on phone calls trying to explain to them how good of a leader Fred is, how his consistent record (as opposed to the major flip flops of Romney and Huckabee) allow him to be the best candidate against a Democratic one because he never has to play defense or apologize for who he is. I tell them to look at the Iowa Debate where Fred was the only one strong enough to stand up to an overaggressive moderator. If the other candidates can't step up to her, how do they plan to stand up against the leaders of Iran or North Korea? The one common theme I see between all the people I call is that they are still undecided and willing to look at all other candidates. That means the most important thing we have to do is call people and make sure they know who Fred is and what he can do, so that way on January 3, they come out and vote for him.
The Patriots became 16-0. Congrats to them, but I think the Titan's will take 'em out in the divisional.
Vandy won again. Go Dores!