SMU Caucus Coverage

2008-01-04T12:57:00.001-06:00

I'm at the airport and lots of ppl who flew here for Hillary want
obama now.
Ben

Sent from my iPhone

2008-01-03T20:32:00.001-06:00

Romney wins Valley High School Republican Caucus...Huckabee 2nd McCain
3rd. -Fallon

Sent from my iPhone

2008-01-03T20:18:00.001-06:00

Obama got 6 delegates. Hilary got 3.
Ben

Sent from my iPhone

2008-01-03T20:13:00.000-06:00

2008-01-03T19:47:00.001-06:00

Chair calling Edwards Richardson and Biden not viable. Hillary is gaining
Richardson. Too.
Ben

2008-01-03T19:43:00.001-06:00

Edwards lacks 14 ppl right now. Biden and dodd group went to
Clinton.its a two way race here.
Ben

Sent from my iPhone

2008-01-03T19:24:00.001-06:00

Obama winning 2 to 1 here. Ben

Sent from my iPhone

2008-01-03T19:17:00.000-06:00

Edwards may not be a viable candidate here. They still need about 50
ppl. The obama group is massive.
Ben

Sent from my iPhone

2008-01-03T19:07:00.001-06:00

490 ppl in our room 233 are first time caucus goers.
Ben

Sent from my iPhone

2008-01-03T19:06:00.001-06:00

We are starting no one can believe how many ppl are here.
Ben

Sent from my iPhone

2008-01-03T19:05:00.000-06:00

Still at a Republican caucus they are saying record turnout. The
caucus shouldve started at seven but the line is still out the door. It
is much calmer than the Democrat side.-Fallon

Sent from my iPhone

2008-01-03T19:00:00.001-06:00

Ben and jia. Its a great shirt. All of the people our age seem to be
for obama.

2008-01-03T18:55:00.001-06:00

10 mind to caucus and standing room only. They said last time only
about 100 ppl showed up.
Ben
They say the turnout is over fire code.

2008-01-03T18:45:00.000-06:00

Right now I'm at a Republican caucus at a Des Moines high school. It's
not too crowded now but people are still coming in. A Democratic
caucus is in the same building...makes for an interesting environment.
-Fallon
Sent from my iPhone

2008-01-03T17:49:00.001-06:00

Our first traffic jam in Iowa. Are ppl on their way to the caucus?
Ben and jia

2008-01-03T17:41:00.000-06:00

You just saw the picture below. We had to leave bc the Internet in the
google lounge wasn't working. Go figure.
Ben

Sent from my iPhone

2008-01-03T17:07:00.000-06:00

Jia and I in the google lounge uploading video. Ben briscoe

2008-01-03T16:13:00.000-06:00

2008-01-03T07:33:00.000-06:00

Fred Thompson just feet away being interviewed by fox and friends.
Ben and rachael

2008-01-03T07:00:00.000-06:00

Its the Fox crew doing live shots for all across the nation.
B&R

2008-01-03T06:58:00.001-06:00

Rachael and I are waiting to go on air and just realized we've been up
the same amount of time as John Edwards. We are dying and can't
imagine how he feels.

Sent from my iPhone

2008-01-03T06:46:00.001-06:00

We're at the convention center and so
Is Mitt Romney and his band of sons. There is so many of then. They're
to the right in the pic. He is being interviewed with his wife.
Ben & Rachael

2008-01-03T05:57:00.001-06:00

Hey everyone. Its 550 and rachel and I are headed downtown yo do a
live shot for Dallas. I'm so tired. Last night I went to a sports bar
to talk to people about the race. Out of 53 people there zero are
going to caucus tonight. I'll TTY to upload some of that video before
this afternoon.
Ben

Sent from my iPhone

2008-01-02T19:59:00.000-06:00

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.

Sent from my iPhone

2008-01-02T19:44:00.000-06:00

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

Sent from my iPhone

2008-01-02T18:29:00.001-06:00

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

Sent from my iPhone

2008-01-02T18:18:00.001-06:00

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

Sent from my iPhone

2008-01-02T17:25:00.001-06:00

Media center is amazing and overwhelming. Will have video later.
Sent from my iPhone

Ugh video finally exports

2008-01-02T17:21:00.001-06:00

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!

2008-01-02T15:05:00.000-06:00

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

2008-01-02T15:00:00.000-06:00

Day 2- Two very different ways of handling student press

2008-01-02T14:38:00.001-06:00

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

2008-01-02T13:22:00.001-06:00

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

Sent from my iPhone

2008-01-02T12:59:00.000-06:00

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

2008-01-02T12:55:00.001-06:00

Abort mission...headed to McCain headquarters in urbandale tovtake a
look

Sent from my iPhone

2008-01-02T12:16:00.001-06:00

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."

2008-01-02T12:05:00.001-06:00

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

2008-01-02T11:17:00.001-06:00

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.

Sent from my iPhone

2AM Meeting with John Edwards

2008-01-02T11:00:00.003-06:00

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

2008-01-02T11:00:00.001-06:00

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

Sent from my iPhone

2008-01-02T08:32:00.000-06:00

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

2008-01-02T00:40:00.001-06:00

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

2008-01-01T12:54:00.000-06:00

We just landed, and Iowa is covered in snow. It was truly majestic to
see from the plane. I snapped this shot for you.

2008-01-01T09:03:00.000-06:00

We just got to the airport, and I'm so excited. Now were only a few
hours away from hitting ground central.

I've heard it's so cold that the canidates had to change some of their
stops to be inside instead of out in the elements.

It's time to go through security. Will text again when we land.
- Ben Briscoe

2007-12-11T14:48:00.000-06:00

Welcome to the FOX U News Iowa caucus project texting blog.