U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, says GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is running a “People magazine” campaign short on substance. The Iowa Democrat wonders how long that can last.

In a conference call with reporters Thursday, Harkin said Palin reminded him of artificial flowers. To the eye they seem to accomplish the job, but by definition they lack realness.

This thought jumped to Harkin’s mind as he learned more about Palin, the first-term Alaska governor tabbed as a running mate by GOP presidential candidate John McCain.

“I remember walking into a hotel, kind of a fancy hotel, and I saw this big bouquet of wonderful flowers,” Harkin said. “They just looked beautiful, gorgeous. I walked up to them to, you know, smell the flowers. There wasn’t any aroma. All of a sudden I reached up and touched them and found out they were fake. From a distance it looked great. But once I got closer, it turned they weren’t real after all. I think this may happen to Governor Palin, too.”

As the pages turn on the political calendar, Palin’s going to have to get more serious, show more substance, Harkin said.

“More and more as we get into this people are going to be asking serious questions about Gov. Palin and the fact that she keeps saying things that are just not true and somehow seems to get by with it,” Harkin said.

As an example, Harkin raised one of Palin’s biggest applause lines at the GOP National Convention and on the stump: her alleged opposition to the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” — a $400 million structure that would have connected the little town of Ketchikan, Alaska (pop. 7,500) to an airport on Gravina Island.

“The fact is Congress stopped the bridge to nowhere,” Harkin said. “It was Congress that did that. Plus she kept the money.”

The Wall Street Journal notes that Palin’s claim comes with what the newspaper calls a “serious caveat.”

“She endorsed the multimillion dollar project during her gubernatorial race in 2006,” The Wall Street Journal reports. “And while she did take part in stopping the project after it became a national scandal, she did not return the federal money. She just allocated it elsewhere.”

Harkin said he was outraged at Palin’s billing of taxpayers for more than 300 nights she spent at her own house in Alaska. Those “per diem” charges are generally regarded by public officials as being fore travel expenses “” not for staying in your own home, Harkin said.

“I go to Iowa a lot,” Harkin said. “I stay in my house in Cumming. I don’t charge the Senate per diem and the government per diem when I’m staying in my house in Cumming.”

He added, “What kind of reform is that?”

Harkin said he expects the focus of the presidential contest to shift quickly back to the major issues of the day and away from Palin and the McCain campaign’s efforts at creating distractions with meaningless personality issues.

“I think we’re sort of in the silly season right now and I think because of what Rick Davis, his (McCain’s) campaign manager, said, you can see that’s what they want to do. They just want to do this personality kind of thing — sort of run a ‘People’ magazine kind of campaign, you know. There’s not much substance. There’s just a lot of fluff, a lot of pictures and that kind of thing.”

Davis just days ago said “this election is not about issues.”

“What could be more of a public-be-damned statement than that — that we can’t trust the American people to talk about issues,” Harkin said.

Harkin said the November election can be boiled down to one question:

“If you like Bush, you’ll love McCain,” Harkin said.

For many “Doonesbury” readers, the war in Iraq hit home in April 2003, when Trudeau decided to blow up B.D’s leg while B.D. was serving in Iraq. B.D.’s leg had to be amputated and his injury, coupled with the psychological effects of his experiences, helped inspire more than 220 strips. It also resulted in two books: “The Long Road Home” chronicles B.D.’s journey home and transition into the civilian world, while “The War Within” captures B.D.’s internal struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder.

In addition to bringing the war home through “Doonesbury,” Trudeau has helped capture the day-to-day experiences of soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan through his milblog (military-blog), “The Sandbox.” Lightly edited by longtime editor David Stanford, “The Sandbox” features dispatches from milbloggers deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, who share their observations, comments and anecdotes with readers at home.

The Sandbox was conceived in October 2007, after Trudeau had spent a great deal of time interacting with soldiers at Walter Reed Hospital and reading milblogs online. During a telephone interview, Stanford stressed to Iowa Independent that “The Sandbox’s” focus is nonpartisan and nonpolitical and that it provides an outlet for soldiers to share the details of their experiences, minus any classified information, of course.

Click below the fold to read an exclusive Iowa Independent interview with Garry Trudeau.

Lowe was born with a cleft palate and had a simple operation at age fifty that enabled him to finally talk.

Edwards is usually incredulous that James Lowe lived for fifty years without a speaking voice and has frequently illustrated his condemnation of the U.S. health care system with Lowe’s story.

Edwards brought Lowe to Iowa to speak on his behalf. He introduced the former coal miner and said “When he told me his story, I sat there listening to it and thinking to myself, ‘How long are we going to let drug companies and insurance companies and their lobbyists run this country?’ … James Lowe got his voice back, isn’t it time for you to get your voice back?”

Lowe praised Edwards and recalled the first time they’d met: “I knew right off, I felt the love and kindness this man here has in his heart for people like me and you all.  And if we want something changed in this world, there’s the man to do it.” 

A video of James Lowe’s speech is below the fold.James Lowe was introduced by presidential hopeful John Edwards at a presentation in the Lisbon School library in Lisbon, Iowa.

Both men received sustained applause before Edwards launched into a tirade on the disparities between corporation profits and the incomes of middle and lower class Americans.

Following this event, Edwards responded to questions about a 527 political group run by his former campaign manager Nick Baldick. Baldick now works for Alliance for a New America.