Day 2- Two very different ways of handling student press

Well, we hit the ground running. We stayed up all night so that we could drive out to Creston to cover a 2:15 am caucus party for John Edwards and his supporters. We weren't able to make it to Obama's stop in Coralville, so we'll try to go to his rally tonight.

We went to the McCain headquarters just outside of Des Moines while we had a break before all of the rallies tonight. I was surprised by how many younger people were working the phones, calling supporters and reminding them to go caucus. The people in charge were very accomodating and helped us find college volunteers. We interviewed a volunteer (Lynn McRoberts) from Drake University, who seemed very passionate about politics as well as McCain winning the Republican nomination. Our interview of her should be sent to Fox shortly. We asked another volunteer what our chances might be of McCain asking one of our questions at his rally (since Edwards denied us this morning... only to answer questions from ABC reporters right after he told us he wasn't talking to the press), and she said that she thought McCain would be excited to see us there because he thinks it's important for younger people to get politically involved. I wondered if part of this might have something to do with how he did well in the MTV Debates, and then he increased in the polls.

For the rest of the day we plan to go around town to see why people are volunteering, and who for, as well as stop by some of the rallies.

Rachael