UI Homecoming parade: politics as usual

What would the University of Iowa’s homecoming in Iowa City — or the Peoples’ Republic of Johnson County — be without an infusion of politics in its annual parade?

For starters, it would be 30 minutes shorter.

But with less than two months remaining before a presidential-election, droves of political aficionados hit the streets and marched on downtown Iowa City. Sporting the political primary colors – red, white and blue – candidates and their legions of staffers and volunteers, who vowed they bleed black and gold, used the parade to capitalize on the free advertising

Ironically, the number of political entries this year dwarfed the traditional floats from the Greek community, whose floats appeared to be more of an afterthought than a well-planned, thematically based plan that came together the night before.

I’m confident I was not the only one who yearned for an unauthorized, last-minute entry reminiscent of the wayward boys from “Animal House” – Bluto and D-Day – to swoop into the parade and wreak havoc on an unsuspecting community in order to save the parade from itself.

But to no avail. Unfortunately Bluto’s whereabouts are still unknown.

Nonetheless, families gathered up-and-down the streets to watch the advertisement-on-wheels roll by, while children participated in government-sanctioned panhandling, second only to Beggars’ Night, and begged for candy on the sidelines.