FOX_SMU_Rachael's Blog

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!