Wednesday, January 2, 2008

I'm having the hardest time with food here. It's almost inpossible to
eat healthy and everything is so bland. I'm a huge Mexican fan and I
just stopped at their Mex chain on a way to a story. It was awful! If
I were a canidate there is no way I could take this diet for so long.

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At Mccain headquarters again...lots of people we are going in to check
it out. -fallon

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I just talked to the person at kiss fm radio station in charge of ads.
She said theyve been running like this since October. I bet there is
big money in that.
Ben

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I just got done watching the news, and I've never seen so many
political ads in my life. They were back to back almost the whole show.
Ben

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Media center is amazing and overwhelming. Will have video later.
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Ugh video finally exports

After trying for over and hour to export a video from final cut pro, it works finally!! I kept getting error messages. I now need to upload it and post it on youtube. hopefully that won't take long. Crossing finger!

JT

Instead of sleeping in our rooms they've become our blogging work space.

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
At McCain headquarters...we will post video with interviews and info
soon. -Fallon

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Satellite trucks have taken over the city. This is out the hotel
window, which by the way is leaking and is now forming ice around the
edges.
Ben
Abort mission...headed to McCain headquarters in urbandale tovtake a
look

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We stopped at the mall to grab starbucks and there was a booth selling
campaign buttons. The keep track of whose buttons move fastest at
Usabuttonpoll.com. Right now the person running it, Malissa Van Lee,
says Huckabee is "leading hands down."
We finally got back to the hotel. I'm sorry my posts are so few and far between. It seems like the pre-caucus events are so hetic that you are constantly moving from one place to another, or on the phone setting up your next move. Before you know it, you've forgotten to eat, sleep or breathe. Sleep particularly in my case. I'm going on 1 and a half hours now.

But I've got some time to catch up. That means that for the next few hours, I'll be gluded to my laptop trying to get everything we've done up for you.
Ben

Right now we can't find the hotel. Everything is covered in snow and
looks just alike. It's all flat with no landmarks. The biggest
political event of the year is happening and we can't get off the
highway. Oh well at least last night at the Edwards event I saw that
his bus got lost also.

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2AM Meeting with John Edwards

Last night we departed for the Knock house to arrrive to see John Edwards speak. Jan and Carl Knock were hosting him. We arrived early to a packed house. John Edwards arrived and spoke for under 10 minuets. His wife Elizaeth spoke first and her words were very moving. I will try to have a clip of what she said up later on today.

Now lets move on to her husband John EdwardsHer husband. If Zack Efron was a 54 year old politican he would be John Edwards. He was very perfect looking almost like a Ken doll. He was so well manicured.

At the Knock house, he gave a few quick one liners about taking the white house back for middle america. I for one was dissappointed in Edwards speech. I thought he would at least have gone into depth a little about his plans for giving the nation back to middle america. I did not feel any sincerity in his speech. As someone who went in liking Edwards and is still undecided in the race, Edwards did not give me any reason on a personal level to give him my support.

Myself, Fallon, Rachael and Ben will try to have a few clips up of our 2AM trip. Right now Rachael, Fallon, and I are getting ready to head to Coralville for an Obama event. It's a 2 hour drive Ugh!

Until Then

Jia Thomas

Going to see Obama outside Des Moines at a high school... Hopefully we
will have more luck with him answering questions than we did with
Edwards.... -Fallon

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Sorry I did not text sooner. I just got up from a power nap after the
event. It was a full house for Edwards even though he only stayed
for10 minutes. We'll have video of his speech online soon.
Ben
It's 12:34am, and we're in the car trying to navigate our way around
the state in order to reach Creston in time for the John Edwards rally
at 2:15. I can't wait to see who stays up and comes out to support
him. I will text again soon.
Ben Briscoe