FOX_SMU_Rachael's Blog

So... I thought I deleted the other video updates post, and apparently I didn't. Now it's locked, and I can't fix the embed so... let's try this again.

 Here is a short explanation of ED '08. It was really loud at the McCain rally and I was filming with my PDA, so sorry if you miss out on anything she says!

 Here is a behind the scenes look at the convention center in Des Moines. You can see where candidates were interviewed and national stations did their shows in Iowa.

 Finally, here's an inside look at a republican caucus. First you see them counting the votes, and then you see them electing their delegates.

Here is a short explanation of ED '08. It was really loud at the McCain rally and I was filming with my PDA, so sorry if you miss out on anything she says!

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Here is a behind the scenes look at the convention center in Des Moines. You can see where candidates were interviewed and national stations did their shows in Iowa.

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Finally, here's an inside look at a republican caucus. First you see them counting the votes, and then you see them electing their delegates.

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Fallon and I covered the Republican caucus at Valley High School in Des Moines. The Republican caucus is the tamer version of the two... but it is still very weird to behold when you are used to the primary process. First, they elected the temporary caucus chair to be the permanent caucus chair (basically she fascilitated it). Then one representative of each candidate was allowed to speak for two minutes about why they should elect that person. I was struck by how everyone clapped after each one and laughed (but in a friendly way) when someone ran over time or the McCain guy walked up late and another guy went up impromptu... only to get about 30 seconds into his speech before the planned representative got up there. When they had to vote for platforms to send to further republican committees, they were still just as jovial (although probably only a fifth of the original people were still there since that happened after they got to vote.) They voted by writing the name down on these brightly colored pieces of paper and then put them in a rubbermaid bin. They were then counted multiple times while a representative from each campaign watched. Romney won with 170 votes, Huckabee had 105, and McCain had 88. Obviously, this didn't represent the whole state, but it was still really interesting to see how it all worked. Obama won with Edwards in second and Clinton in third in the democratic caucus just down the hall.

Well we leave tomorrow. I saw the crazyness and sort of archaic nature of a caucus. It makes sense for it to be so unusual after all of the media blitz and crazy campaigning that proceeded it. I was also blown away about how a state that doesn't really represent the nation very well (size and diversity wise) makes such a monumental impact on who could win the nomination. I will say one thing about that though, they do really take it seriously. I think that was shown in the huge numbers that went to the polls today. Every Iowan I talked to about them being the first state was sure to mention that they take it seriously, they think it's an honor, and they really like being the first state.

I'm uploading pictures of the caucus in action, so be sure to check out my photos!

Here is the raw interview with John Wilson, USAbuttonpoll.com kiosk salesman and political junkie. Check out the latest percentages of the poll at usabuttonpoll.com. It'll be interesting to see if it's accurate!

This morning Ben and I went to report life from the convention center in Des Moines. When we walked in Romney was being interviewed, with all five sons waiting beneath the platform. Then as we were on live Fred Thompson was getting ready to be interviewed by Fox and Friends only a couple of cameras away.

Ben and I are going to go back after lunch to work on editing and uploading video in the Google and Youtube lounge, and maybe more candidates will come and we can finally get a word from a candidate. The set-up in the convention center is pretty cool, with each stand up station just a few feet from the station (we were about 6 feet away from four ABC  stations. It was pretty sparse this morning, so it'll be interesting to see how busy it is later on today before the caucuses get under way.

I finally felt like I saw the campaigning I expected tonight. I was able to go to McCain and Obama's rallies. McCain was greeted warmly, but it was a little hard to tell the extent because of the location. It was in his headquarters in Urbandale (just outside of Des Moines) and I can't believe it managed to hold 200+ people. McCain arrived late (they said because of traffic) and when he was ushered in he didn't answer any questions and instead responded to my question by saying "Thank you for coming out tonight." I was disappointed again, but at least he didn't say no to me and then yes to the next person.

 

Obama's rally was exactly what I pictured they would be. There was a definite intensity, with a crowd of I'm sure handpicked people to represent who his voters are cheering "We Want Change" and "Obama." It started on time (to which a Chicago supporter told me that it might have been because Chicago CBS was there and he might have wanted it on the 10 o'clock news), which didn't happen at our other two stops today. It was in a high school, which allowed the entire group of supporters and media to be seen. I think a set up like that might be more electrifying. I was able to interview George Stephanopoulos earlier this year when he came to speak at SMU, and I ran into him at the Obama rally. I told him that we hadn't been able to get candidates to give enough time to answer one question and asked if he had any advice. He said that these were pretty much chaos, and I agree. They're being ushered in so fast because they have so many stops in their campaigning that it would of course take forever to answer every reporter's question, but I do wish they would give some time to people who come to cover these events... and not just to big shots who ride in their buses or interview with them privately. It's easier to get what you want to say out to that part of the media, though, since a wider audience will probably see it... and we're just going to have to deal with it.

 

I was pretty content getting to talk to people who came to the rallies though. I know I keep saying I'll post some video soon, and I will! Tomorrow I'm waking up early to be on Fox 4's Good Day, and after that I should have plenty of time to get all of that video on my computer and then on the web. At the McCain rally we met two men who were going to all of the rallies wearing shirts that said "Make Global Warming a Priority." One girl I met was wearing an "Ed '08" shirt. At first I thought, who's Ed? It stood for education, and this group was going to candidates' campaign stops to get their responses about education questions and were trying to promote awareness and get education to be a priority in the candidates' campaigning.

 

The campaign was already interesting, and tomorrow will obviously make it even more interesting. It'll be a hectic day, so check back for videos, as well as behind the scenes of what a caucus is like.

 

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.

Fallon and I checked out the USAButtonPoll.com kiosk again, and now it shows Obama and Edwards tied for the Democrats and Huckabee winning for the Republicans. The salesperson had some interesting facts, including that democrats are buying more buttons than republicans and Ron Paul button buyers are mostly young people. I'll be sure to upload the interview as soon as possible! 

Well, I just woke up from a nap after driving back from Creston, Iowa. John and Elizabeth Edwards came to the Knock family's home and gave short speeches to supporters. There was one lady there who was going to be caucusing for the third time, which is her second time for Edwards. She said she felt a connection with them everytime she sees them on TV because she's met them before. "He's my man," she said, when we asked her why she was caucusing for Edwards and why she was there at 2 in the morning. Ben is putting a story up on his blog later, and Fallon might put some soundbytes from it on hers.

I was left unimpressed after Edwards' speech. He said he was grateful that they were all out there in the middle of the night, and he talked of getting back the White House because they own it, but I didn't feel like there was a real message there or centerpiece of his campaign. The speech didn't need to persuade, after all they must be some real supporters to be up at that time at night, and while it might have enstilled a need to go and caucus (which I'm sure is the point of having the party since the supporters would be voting for him anyway), I didn't feel there was a message that could really unite or rally a bigger group of people. The video of his and Elizabeth's speaches will be posted in my blog later, and you can see if my sleep deprivation was just getting to me instead and maybe it was just because it was for a smaller group in the middle of the night.

 

Next Jia, Fallon, and I are off to an Obama event. On the drive up, I will try to post some video I shot last night at the Knock house.

Happy New Year!

We haven't been in Iowa for a whole day yet, but we've already gotten a sneak peak into what it's been like. First of all, it was just as cold as I suspected. We went to the Jordan Creek Mall in Des Moines to get some Starbucks, and while there we were able to talk to some locals. I asked one lady if she was sick of the press coverage and the frenzy surrounding Iowa and she said, "It's been... interesting, but it's fun. I've really liked it." I thought we might be able to find some people checking out the politics section in Barnes and Noble, but there was no luck there.

However, we did run into a political button kiosk that sold buttons, stickers, apparel, and gag gifts revolving around the 2008 candidates. The salesperson said the kiosk had been pretty busy, and Mike Huckabee stuff was selling like crazy (and I definitely believe her, there was hardly any left!) What about the democrats? Well, she said they were practically in a three-way tie with Clinton, Obama, and Edwards. She did say that she thought Clinton was splitting the party and the sales. The kiosk was doing a neat poll where everytime someone buys a button they write it down and then post it on an online poll. Currently Huckabee is ahead (34%) with Romney a little behind (27%) in the Republican race while Obama is head (31%) followed by Edwards (27%) and Clinton (24%). Check out how the poll and sales race is going at usabuttonpoll.com! And if you're in the Des Moines area, you can stop by the kiosk... and even see the cut-out of Hilary Clinton. For pictures, check out Ben's blog.

The most eventful part was our own version of a high speed chase, which involved us following Fred Thompson's bus (not at high speed) from the access road by the mall to the highway and finally to a truckstop. We were pretty excited at the chance to maybe interview our first candidate, but it didn't work out as plan. We got out at the truck stop and talked to the bus driver as he filled the bus with gas, and found out that Thompson was campaigning in another town and being driven in cars that day. However, he'll be back on his bus tomorrow, so if we see it we'll be sure to follow him along again. For video, check out Jia's blog!

We'll probably go scout out around the town tonight, so hopefully I can make another post tonight about what else we saw today!

Well, it might be a few more days until the caucus, but this is our team's last day of Winter Break vacation before going to Iowa, and I couldn't be more excited! I've been trying to get all of my last minute things in today.

 

I think I have all of the equipment I need, the only thing left to get was hand warmers. I'm at home in Tuscaloosa, where it was a very nice 61 degrees outside today. Tomorrow will be a shock though, because the high in Des Moines is supposed to be nine degrees!

 

I think I can make it though, especially since I'm so excited to see the behind the scenes of the caucus. I even have some friends who will be caucusing in Iowa, so I really want to see how many other college students will be there. With the caucus being so early this year, it will be interesting to see if having it during college students' winter breaks will affect the amount of college-aged voters.

Sure, getting up at 5 am to drive to Birmingham and get on a flight to Dallas so I can then fly to Des Moines doesn't sound too fun, especially when that means I have to cut my New Years plans short, but I know the next few days will more than make up for it.