Wednesday, several close aides to Vilsack told [KCCI] the rumors are not true. One said that Vilsack is in Washington, D.C., interviewing candidates for future staff positions.

The New York Daily News first reported the story Monday, saying Vilsack could be tapped to replace New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson after he withdrew his name from consideration for commerce secretary.

A well-placed source says one option under consideration in filling the now vacant commerce secretary’s slot is to tap ex-Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack for the job. Vilsack already has been named to serve as Barack Obama’s agriculture secretary, and easily could move into the commerce position.

The story doesn’t elaborate any further, and the liklihood of moving a former agriculture state governor away from the Ag department seems remote (I don’t recall any talk of Vilsack as Commerce Secretary before), but not completely out of the question. The theory goes that the Democrats have a deeper bench on the agriculture side. Not so much on commerce. So while it would be hard to find another person qualified to serve in commerce, there are plenty of Dems lined up to run the USDA.

Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin said Tuesday that Vilsack’s confirmation hearing has already been set for next week.

Sarah Palin at a rally in Sioux City. (Photo: Douglas Burns)

And the exclusive story is no longer the exclusive domain of the traditional media. In many cases, it’s the small, independent media that are breaking stories and driving the news these days.

With that in mind, the Iowa Independent would like to share the best of the stories that you read here first.

1. Why John McCain will select Sarah Palin as running mate by Douglas Burns (June 29, 2008)

Sarah who?

That was pretty much the reaction in June when the Iowa Independent’s Doug Burns not only said the one-term governor from Alaska should be John McCain’s vice presidential pick, but that she would be his pick. By late August, McCain actually did choose Palin to be his running mate, and Burns (and his crystal ball) were vindicated.

2. Agriprocessors official who sold used cars and favors has fled the country, residents say by Lynda Waddington (June 20, 2008)

If a scoop is defined as getting a story before any other news organization, then Lynda Waddington’s story about Hasom Amara, a former supervisor at Agriprocessors, can be counted as a super scoop. That’s because she not only broke the news to the public that Amara had fled the country, she broke the news to the Department of Justice and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Division.

3. Dems’ coordinated campaign largely disbanded, replaced by Obama staff by Jason Hancock (July 3, 2008)

In a year that saw Democrats expand their majorities in both chambers of the state legislature, you wouldn’t think there would be much talk of missed opportunities. But in the months leading up to Election Day, Democrats were predicting (and Republicans were bracing for) huge gains that never came. This despite the fact that Obama overwhelmingly carried the Hawkeye State with his army of volunteers and paid staff blanketing the state and turning out supporters.

So are Iowans just notorious ticket-splitters, or was there something else to blame? Many point back to one of Obama’s first post-primary decisions, to forgo participating in the state party’s coordinated campaign and instead focus all efforts on his own election, a story we broke in Iowa. Many predicted at the time that this could make legislative races tighter, a hypothesis that seems to have panned out.

4. Fallon faces campaign finance questions By Chase Martyn (March 30, 2008)

Former state Rep. Ed Fallon

The Democratic primary for the Third Congressional District between incumbent Leonard Boswell and Ed Fallon garnered national attention and was widely expected to go right down to the wire. In the end, Boswell cruised to victory. Two major factors seemed to pull Fallon’s support down in the months leading up to the primary vote. The first was his outspoken support for Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader in 2000, something Boswell repeatedly used to try and show Fallon was somehow less of a loyal Democrat. The second was a report by the Iowa Independent calling into question the campaign finance ethics of Fallon’s for-profit political advocacy organization “I’m for Iowa.”

One of Fallon’s major lines of attack was Boswell’s stance on campaign finance reform, calling the Blue Dog Democrat a pawn of corporate America due to his willingness to accept millions of dollars from corporate political action committees. So when Fallon revealed that his for-profit advocacy organization accepted contributions that would never be disclosed, cries of hypocrisy quickly followed, whether justified or not. His campaign never seemed to regain traction.

5. Iowa’s intelligence fusion center ‘connects the dots’ By Jason Hancock (July 29, 2008)

In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the federal government began creating a nationwide intelligence network with a headquarters in every state. The fusion center concept was born. Here in Iowa, very little was known about the organization, even though its major structure had been in place for years and its director, Russell Porter, was a well-known figure in the national intelligence community. As part of a nationwide series including the Iowa Independent and its sister sites in Minnesota, New Mexico, Colorado and Michigan, the doors of this secretive organization were flung open. Soon after our coverage, the story of the Iowa Intelligence Fusion Center was being told on national television.

6.  The invocation that stole the show from Sen. John McCain by John Deeth (Oct. 11, 2008)

John McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin, had not yet arrived at an Oct. 11 Davenport event, so naturally very few media members had bothered to show. Luckily, the Iowa Independent’s John Deeth is much like a Marine -– first one in, last one out, which meant he was practically the only one there to file the following report:

Before McCain’s arrival, a minister delivering an invocation said, “There are plenty of people around the world who are praying to their god, be they Hindu, Buddah, or Allah, that (McCain’s) opponent wins. … And Lord, I pray that you step forward and honor your own name.”

The story quickly made its way across the Internet, and the preacher who made the remark, The Rev. Arnold Conrad, past pastor of the Grace Evangelical Free Church, was later “honored” as Keith Olbermann’s “Worst Person in the World.”

7. Obama/Richardson Caucus deal by Chase Martyn and Lynda Waddington (Jan. 2, 2008)

There is a lot of wheeling and dealing on Caucus night. One day before Iowans rocketed Barack Obama to front-runner status, the Iowa Independent reported on possible deals between New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and the Obama campaign that directed Richardson supporters to caucus for Obama in the second round of voting.  Both sides (and nearly every other Democratic candidate) denied the deal, but we found plenty of evidence on the ground.

8. GOP platform calls for end to ethanol mandate By Jason Hancock (Sept. 3, 2008)

It was a move that received very little attention on a night when most of the Republican National Convention was cancelled because of concerns over Hurricane Gustav, but for farm states, it was a big deal. The GOP’s national platform for the first time called for an end to a mandate that gasoline contain a set amount of ethanol. Overall, the 2008 RNC Convention was not kind to the ethanol industry, with Sen. John McCain and his vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin hardly mentioning biofuels as part of the energy mix of the future. The move was seen as a putting the party in line with its presidential candidates, but many observers said at the time that it would cost Republicans support up and down the ballot in agricultural states like Iowa.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama speaks at a rally in Des Moines last Friday.

Langston, a Democrat, scouted the full field, arguably the deepest ever for her party in terms of resumes and star quality, before picking U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., as her candidate — a choice she made during a ride to the Cedar Rapids airport with Obama amid discussions of the state’s understated beauty.

She saw something within Obama that helped her to make what was a personal decision to support the first-term senator.

“As we were talking, we just became four people,” Langston said. “At that moment in time what I saw was that Senator Obama still had a piece of his humanity. Running for president and all the challenge and hoopla can really put you into a very unusual atmosphere.

“It can change you. I had at that moment, and I continue to have, a sense of Obama as a person. That’s also certainly true with (his wife) Michelle. There is a humanity that still exists within that family that has not been subverted by running for president.”

It’s that unflappable quality and connection to people that Langston believes helped Obama win the nomination.

John McCain speaks to a crowd in Le Mars during the Iowa caucuses. Immigration dominated that forum in northwest Iowa.

While insiders spent time recently thinking about what has made Obama’s campaign successful, most talk of the McCain campaign was more about its missteps than its successes.

Many see McCain’s choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running-mate as a turning point in the election.

Former GOP gubernatorial candidate David Oman, a top staffer for Iowa’s last two Republican governors, says McCain would have been better served by picking former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

“I’ve thought a handful of times the past month that he would have helped, perhaps a lot, in energizing GOP base, appealing to folks deeply troubled by downturn and so-called bailout, and in several southern and border states now close,” Oman said.

He said that Palin has not benefited the Republican ticket.

“Look at the [Des Moines Register] Iowa Poll breakouts with 60 percent of people feeling she is not qualified to assume the presidency,” Oman said.  “Huckabee would have passed that test. Romney, too, though he would have cemented many peoples’ classic impressions of the GOP brand — wealth — and probably not turned around a single state, including Michigan.”

Oman said that if Obama is elected Tuesday he will have to remember where his journey initially received traction.

“It wasn’t in Pennsylvania, or many other states,” Oman said. “It was in Iowa, first.  Lack of success here followed by second in New Hampshire would have shut down his campaign for the nomination.”

Oman said Obama clearly will have higher priorities that need to be addressed before he can focus on a more specifically rural agenda.

“I suspect Obama will focus first on the mega problems of the economy, energy, and health care, not to mention national security with or without the incident [VP nominee Joe] Biden forecasted,” Oman said.

Former Iowa Democratic Party chairman Mike Peterson, now an executive with AT&T in St. Louis, Mo., says at this point, it seems as if the presidential race is all about margin of victory.

“I will be surprised if Obama receives fewer than 350 electoral votes,” Peterson said.

Peterson said he still believes that Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty would have made a stronger running mate for McCain than Palin.

In terms of governing following the election, Peterson said an Obama win is good for rural Iowa.

“I am told that Obama’s first legislative package will be an infrastructure bill,” Peterson said.  “Iowa’s seniority should be a plus there.”

Veteran Iowa writer Chuck Offenburger runs a popular Web site and churns out prolific articles for a variety of publications from a renovated farmhouse outside of Cooper in Greene County. He sees Obama as a stronger leader for rural Iowa than McCain.

“Rural Iowa will fare much better under Obama than it would have under McCain,” Offenburger, a Republican, said.  “Obama understands the Midwest. He understands agriculture and what a huge role ag will play in the new energy era. And he will never forget the huge role Iowans played in enabling his candidacy.”

On the eve of the election State Rep. Tom Schueller, D-Maquoketa, recalled the early days of the Iowa caucuses when he was receiving call after call from candidates.

“I supported Joe Biden in the caucus,” Schueller said. “I thought he would have done better. To be honest with you, I really blame the media for that. They picked up on who they thought was the front-runners and that’s who ended up being the front runners. The other ones didn’t get hardly an honorable mention. Those folks — Biden, (New Mexico Gov, Bill) Richardson and (Connecticut Sen. Chris) Dodd — had a lot of good things to say too.”

Al Cross, director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues in Lexington, Ky., puts it flatly.

“I see no chance for McCain,” Cross said. “Hindsight is always 20/20. Romney would have brought the base around, though not stimulated crowds and volunteers like Palin. He would have been viewed as qualified, and could have probably made more coherent arguments than McCain, so the election would have been closer.

“But this is all a parlor game because McCain wasn’t about to pick someone he couldn’t get along with, and I agree with that approach. You have to think about governing, not just winning. Obama did that with Biden, an example of his better judgment.”

Down in southern Iowa, State Sen. Jeff Angelo, R-Creston, says McCain has a chance when one looks at the internals in a lot of the state polls.

“Right now, both the Democratic base and the Republican base are fired up,” Angelo said.  “So you assume in a record turnout that the bases are cancelling each other — sorta like my wife and I — you then look at the number among if McCain can swing some of them and the undecideds in the battleground states, he pulls out the electoral win.   Obama was hoping for a blowout based on the participation of new and infrequent voters — but early returns indicate that the early voters are mostly the same voters who always vote early.”

Angelo said McCain’s selection of Palin brought passion to base and delivered a middle-class relevancy.

There is a reason that “Joe The Plumber” became a central figure in this campaign, Angelo said.

“With Palin and Joe’s involvement, McCain got his campaign groove back by realizing that there are a large group of middle class voters who didn’t believe their concerns were being addressed in the campaign,” Angelo said.  “Romney doesn’t have that power to harness the energy of those voters and get them to the polls. Palin does.  She’s ‘one of us.’  In short, I don’t think the race is close without Palin.”

Sarah Palin at a recent rally in Sioux City.

Offenburger thinks McCain’s problem wasn’t in choosing Palin, but in shackling her to a script and cocooning a natural campaigner.

“Let me admit that I still think Palin was a good choice, especially given where the McCain campaign was in August” Offenburger said  “And that leads me to what I think is the biggest mistake McCain made — letting his campaign staff mismanage Palin from the moment she said ‘yes.’  They should have let her talk one-on-one to every reporter, columnist and broadcaster who wanted to talk, instead of packaging her up for those huge exclusive interviews with Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric — under the glare of the brightest lights and widest audiences imaginable.  That was unfair to Palin.

“If the rest of the press corps had been getting frequent access to her immediately, one-on-one and in small gatherings, she would’ve learned quickly to relax and be herself.  I think she would have then shown people the knowledge, ability, personality and savviness that have helped her become governor of a huge, complex and important state.  By the way, I think she would do very well in the kind of retail politics that the Iowa caucuses require.”

For his part, Schueller said Obama has picked a running mate who understands the middle class.

“Look at how he gets to work everyday and look at what he’s done since he’s been there,” Schueller said. “Second of all, Obama has some Midwest roots, being from Illinois and all. So, he’s going to understand our needs a little better than McCain ever would or could. And he’s going to have a better grasp of agriculture than McCain ever would or could. That’s been reflected in Obama’s campaigning. McCain’s record reflects what he thinks about ethanol, renewable energy and so-forth.”

Langston said she knew McCain was in trouble when she saw him speak during the caucus campaign season at a Cedar Rapids Rotary Club meeting.

“That’s a rather large group of over 200 significant business people,” Langston said. “Really, [McCain’s] presentation was not good. By my estimation, it was appallingly bad. While the campaign was talking about having no money, they came into the meeting with drapes and curtains and tele-prompters. I thought, ‘Oh my.’ I mean if you can’t stand up in front of an Iowa Rotary and give a speech without all of this.”

In an email to supporters on Friday, the Obama campaign provided detailed information based on county of residence as well as a link to a page with additional information on each county.

If you were selected as a delegate or alternate at the Iowa Caucus, Barack needs your help in the next stage of the process.

County conventions will be held across Iowa on Saturday, March 15th, and the number of delegates for each presidential candidate depends on our delegates and alternates turning out to support Barack.

Together we won a historic victory on January 3rd, but that was just the first step.

The Obama campaign has identified supporters in most of Iowa’s counties to serve as delegate chairpersons. These individuals — nearly 60 percent of whom are women — are resources for Obama’s county convention delegates who need to find replacements as well as outreach coordinators. Above all else, the job of the chairpersons is to ensure that those who committed on caucus night to support Obama as a delegate to the county convention show up and are counted once again.

Although Democrats attending the Iowa caucus on Jan. 3 divided into preference groups according to presidential candidates and each preference group selected delegates and alternates to the county conventions, those attending the county conventions are not beholden to their caucus night choice. For instance, several delegates and alternates were elected throughout the state as representatives of former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards. While some may choose to remain loyal to that particular candidate, there is no requirement that they do so.

At county convention, seated delegates will once again divide into preference groups. Any group that does not meet a 15 percent threshold will be given an opportunity to realign with the viable groups. It is from the remaining viable groups that delegates to the five district and the state convention are selected.

Although the Iowa caucus receives massive attention as the first real pulse of the nation in terms of presidential candidate preference, awarding of national delegates takes place at conventions. For instance, on caucus night in Linn County — the second largest Democratic county in Iowa — Delaware Sen. Joe Biden and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson each earned three county delegates, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton earned 173 delegates, Edwards earned 174 delegates and Obama earned 262 delegates. Due to the 15 percent threshold for viability at the county convention, delegates for Biden and Richardson will be forced realign into other groups.

The final make-up of delegates from the county conventions to the five district conventions in April will be determined by both the numbers of delegates that turn out for each specific group and the loyalty of the individual delegates to their caucus night preference group. Edwards delegates could move as a group to either Clinton or Obama, could split between the two or could attempt to move through the process with their loyalties to Edwards intact. Since roughly a third of all county convention delegates throughout the state are aligned with someone other than Clinton and Obama, the upcoming conventions are venting new political excitement in the state.

The Democratic numbers reported on caucus night were a true representation of those Iowans who attended the caucus. Those numbers, however, were not a final tally of the make-up of Iowa’s 57 delegates to the Democratic National Convention in August.

With only seven days remaining before the county conventions, the Obama campaign has been the most active of the formerly commonplace presidential hopefuls in the state — both in terms of communicating with their own supporters and in terms of outreach to possible delegate pick-ups from those in the Biden, Richardson, Edwards and uncommitted delegate pools. Because the national race between Obama and Clinton has remained narrow, it is quite possible that a few more national delegates from the Hawkeye State could make a difference in Denver.

Obama, who announced his candidacy in the shadow of Abraham Lincoln and who is pledging a governing style straight out of Doris Kearns Goodwin’s landmark Lincoln book, “A Team Of Rivals,” will look in predictable places for his running mate but may surprise the nation with an unknown, or dare we say, perhaps even a Republican.

Having followed Obama closely for more than a year, here is my Top 10 list of vice presidential candidates Obama should consider:

1. Chris Dodd. I have had the theory that Dodd would make a strong running mate for Obama should the Illinois senator get the Democratic nomination — even though this would run counter to conventional wisdom about picking a vice presidential candidate from a key state (Florida or Ohio) or going with a Southerner or Latino.

As I reported earlier, Dr. Steven Kraus of Carroll observed something several weeks ago at the Jefferson-Jackson dinner: Dodd, a U.S. senator from Connecticut, and Obama clearly have respect for each other.

Dodd is simply a classy senator who can answer questions with reliable competency. Yes, the Southwest likely will determine the 2008 election, and sure, a Richardson vice presidential nomination makes sense because of this. But Dodd is fluent in Spanish as I saw firsthand when Lorena Lopez of La Prensa and I conducted a joint interview with him. If Obama gets the nomination, Dodd complements him in a number of ways as a running mate — including his ability to campaign in Spanish.

Dodd won’t make mistakes out there and with his reassuring white hair, the elder statesman would be a nice balance for Obama. Youth and wisdom. Age and experience.

2. Richard Lugar. Yes, Lugar is 76, and obviously, he is a Republican. But Obama mentions him frequently as Lugar, a Hoosier State senator, has served as something of a mentor to Obama, 30 years his junior. With serious foreign policy credentials and ice-veined competence, Lugar would signal that Obama is governing in the here and now — or the “fierce urgency of now,” a quote he often borrows from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Obama could reach to the GOP and independents with the argument that he’s not looking to set up succession for the party.

3. Ed Rendell. The Democratic governor of Pennsylvania makes sense from several strategic angles. He’s in a swing state. He’s an effective campaigner so he could knock heads around while Obama stays on the high road. Then there are the optics. With a paunchy countenance and the old-school girth of gut, Rendell, who is white, is the perfect counterbalance to Obama. Finally, Rendell has a major advantage over many white potential VPs. He understands racial politics as he has experience dealing with Philadelphia and large cities with high minority populations so he is less likely to walk into a racial minefield (or take Obama into one) than, say, former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, who just didn’t have that much experience dealing with diversity.

4. Warren Buffett. The Oracle of Omaha is 76, but as the economy becomes a bigger issue, why not select the smartest guy in the room when it comes to money? Buffett is beloved by Republicans (for helping make them money) and liberals (for giving his away). Late last year, Forbes magazine reported that Buffett was worth $52 billion. This means that if he didn’t get funding for one of his initiatives he could conceivably just do it himself … which raises issues both fascinating and troubling.

5. Kathleen Sebelius. The two-term governor of Kansas (that’s “What’s The Matter With Kansas” Kansas) has done well with Republicans and independents. She’ll deliver the response to George W.’s State Of The Union speech on Jan. 28. There’s a personal angle here that’s intriguing. Obama’s family is from Kansas — on his mother’s side. The full circle element of Obama selecting a Kansas woman as his running mate is a marketing dream. Plus, an Obama-Sebelius team would be a ticket of true change — as well as one that is Plains States-Midwest friendly. Look for this pick to move higher.

6. Wesley Clark. When the retired general was in Carroll, Iowa, stumping for Hillary Clinton a few weeks ago, I spoke with him for about 45 minutes. He should have campaigned here in 2004. He likely would be president now if he had. Clark is as whip smart as Obama and has the foreign policy and military credentials to burnish this ticket. The only issue: they are both similar in personality. Could clash.

7. John Edwards. Could he do for Obama what he couldn’t for John Kerry? You have to keep Edwards on the list if for no other reason than a future political (FDR-Truman-like) deal may make this selection a quid pro quo. Both Edwards and Obama are saying no to PAC money and could run as a ticket not wedded to special interests. Edwards also seems to relish the role of attack dog, and surely will not make the same mistakes he did in 2004 when he was easy foil for Dick Cheney.

8. Bill Richardson. Isn’t he vice president already? He’s been referenced so many times that Richardson could be forgiven for adding this to his resume. Yes, the Latin vote is vital, and the election may be decided in the Southwest. Can America accept a black man and an Hispanic on the same ticket? I think the answer is yes. He’s great on the stump and appeals to white rural voters. I see that up close and personal here in Iowa. He’s also damned funny.

9. Ken Salazar. Continuing on the Latino angle, we have to include U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado, a Democrat who can appeal to white rural voters. (He ranches). He’s a former state attorney general and could make an excellent point man on the environment.

10. Bobby Jindal. The new Republican governor of Louisiana, at only age 36, is the son of Indian immigrants and the first Indian-American elected as governor. He has been compared to Obama for the obvious barrier-shattering reasons but also because of his intellect and spectacular educational pedigree. He is much more likely to be Obama’s opponent (should there be an Obama presidency) in four years than a VP now. But the possibilities are intriguing should Obama reach out to a Republican. This ticket would excite young voters, win over never-before voters, draw in Republicans and independents — and very likely do a great deal for Obama with Latinos. If I’m Jindal, though, I spend the next decade rebuilding my state and then run for the presidency myself, on my own terms.

Still, this is the most thought-provoking selection to consider.

Here is what The New Orleans Times-Picayune says about Jindal:

Every inauguration begins with lofty language but few hold as much promise as Gov. Jindal’s. The 36-year-old, Oxford-educated chief executive is a new generation of leader. Unlike most recent governors, he is not a product of the Legislature. He has worked inside state government but has been in Washington representing the 1st Congressional District.

  And a Yahoo message board dealt with the potential of him running as a Republican VP candidate.

Two well-placed sources told Iowa Independent last night that Gov. Bill Richardson’s campaign plans to direct their supporters to Sen. Barack Obama in precincts where their candidate does not reach the 15% threshold for viability.

Today, more sources have come forward to tell Iowa Independent that some supporters of Sen. Barack Obama have been directed to swing delegates to Gov. Bill Richardson in certain counties and precincts.  Sources confirm that in at least three counties, Obama campaign field organizers have told their supporters to drive support to Richardson. The three confirmed counties are all likely Obama strongholds, and each county will assign a relatively high number of delegates tonight.  We have decided not to list the counties by name to protect sources’ anonymity.

Obama activists in certain other counties denied receiving instructions for Richardson-Obama vote-swapping.  We have heard similar rumors about precinct-specific deals between Obama and Sen. Joe Biden, although we have been unable to confirm them.

As more reports come in, we will continue to update this post with new information.  That said, the deal is likely to manifest itself in ways that will be difficult to detect, even after the caucuses are over.  So what exactly happens in the 1,784 precinct caucuses across the state may be difficult to explain for some time.

The Richardson campaign continues to deny our reports.

If you know anything please email us tips, anonymity assured.

“If Iowans are independent enough to have chosen me from the field of candidates, I’m quite sure they have the ability to make an independent second choice as well,” said Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd.

The campaign for Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, offered similar sentiments.

“The rumor mill is hard at work,” said Olivia Alair, a campaign spokeswoman. “We are encouraging our supporters to stand tall and stand tough and have every reason to expect that they will.”

Robert Becker, Iowa director of the Bill Richardson for President campaign, took particular offense with reports circulated this morning that his campaign was encouraging non-viable supporters to switch to Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.

“Here we are the day of caucus and there are all these rumors about deals being made,” he said. “I’m just sick of it. We have not directed our supporters to caucus for anyone other than Bill Richardson.”

All the campaigns agree that in these final days, there have been internal discussions as to strategy. All are equally adamant that they have not and will not issue a blanket statement to their supporters to move to an opposing campaign.

“All the campaigns know where they have their strongest support,” Becker said. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure these things out.”

Danny O’Brien, state director for Biden for President, said the campaign is confident going into tonight’s caucus.

“There has been no discussion — there will be no deals,” O’Brien said. “We feel we have momentum going into tonight’s caucus.”

Dodd said the most important things campaigns can do now, at this late hour, is trust Iowans to make the best choice.

“Of course, I think the best choice is me,” he said. “I want Iowans to caucus for me and to support my candidacy. But we’ve all been in the state and we’ve all had opportunity to bring our message to the people of Iowa. Now it is up to Iowans — and I trust them.”

With the Iowa caucus just around the corner, there is cause for both celebration and angst in the feminist community. Without a doubt, this election has been as much about women as it has been about any other group or collective of issues. Early on, candidates from both sides of the aisle — but especially the Democratic contenders — announced their women’s leadership committees. Due in large part to the fact that a viable woman had entered the race, campaigns were quick to tout their feminist credentials and female staff members. Official campaign press releases were issued when a candidate gained the support of a particularly well-known or well-respected woman.

Women, however, weren’t content with platitudes, and, as the contest continued, it became clear to the campaigns that horse races listing female supporters and sound bites were not going to be enough. For this to be the political year of the woman, candidates were going to have to become serious about courting women — the largest population voting block — by speaking in detail about their core issues of concern. As any good campaign strategist will tell you, details do not a good sound bite make.

The Clinton Effect

Despite all the promise that New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton brought to the race and all the effort put into her candidacy by prominent women’s groups such as EMILY’s List, many women have ventured to other campaigns. The exact reasons are as varied as there are women, but the phrase of “I’m not going to vote for someone just because she has the same internal plumbing that I do” is one often heard in Iowa political circles. For these women, most of whom are between the ages of 18 and 50, there is no urgency of the moment — no feeling that this might be their last chance to do something for the overall betterment of women.

Conversely, there are women entering or in their golden years who mince few words when describing how Clinton’s “internal plumbing” was one of their main deciding factors. “I’m not young,” they say. “In my lifetime, I want to see a woman in the White House.” Implicit in such statements is the fact that many of the women in this age group have either had to forge their own path to success or have helped female friends and family forge one. For them, Clinton’s candidacy has become a culmination of a lifetime of working on behalf of women’s issues.

Only time will tell how such stark contrasts within the Iowa women’s movement will play out. Some are not taking chances that the emerging gender gap might keep them from female mentors.

“Of the women I admire — those I know that could help me and that I could learn the most from — they are supporting Clinton,” a friend recently said in a phone conversation. “I hadn’t found much of a difference between the candidates, so I went with Clinton too. It’s a common thread, another way for me to connect with these women.”

The internal politics of Iowa politics described in the above statement may be somewhat distasteful, but it is upheld by the comments of some women who have found their home in a campaign other than Clinton’s.

“When I tell people who I’m supporting — even women I’ve considered close friends for years — they look at me with this quizzical look and ask, ‘But aren’t you a feminist?’” said one eastern Iowa county official. “When I tell them I do consider myself a feminist, they often ask if I’m sure. There seems to be a real belief, especially from some of our older women, that in order to be a feminist, you must support the woman running, even if you don’t think she is the best person for the job.”

Women Supporting Men

Historically, as women have moved up career ladders, they’ve learned that one of the ways to judge the character of a male co-worker is to meet his spouse or other women in his life. This tactic, often whispered in corporate bathrooms and during lunches away from the office, was brought into the political conversation by Roxanne Conlin, a prominent Iowa attorney and staunch supporter of former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards.

“I spent all my life in the company of men,” she said during a campaign rally in Cedar Rapids. “When I first became a lawyer, there were very few women. … The reason I say that is one of the ways I have traditionally judged my male colleagues is by the women who chose them.”

Elizabeth Edwards, Michelle Obama, Jackie Dodd, Jill Biden, Ann Romney, Valerie Biden Owens, Barbara Richardson, Carol Paul, Mary Romney, Cate Edwards, Marion Robinson, Maya Soetoro-Ng, Ashley Biden, Janet Huckabee, Carolyn Dodd, Sarah Huckabee, Jeri Thompson and Martha Buonanno are just a few of the women family members who have been in Iowa on behalf of the male candidates. In addition, there has been a parade of women who are political or social celebrities here to spread the good news of the male candidate they have chosen.

“If nothing else comes of this, we know now that our nation is full of strong women who are taking an active role in the political process — it’s just too bad that more of them don’t actually run for office themselves,” said a male Obama supporter. “I’d vote for Michelle in a heartbeat — Elizabeth Edwards too.”

Such sentiment isn’t isolated and campaigns know it. In an interview this fall, Mary Romney, a daughter-in-law of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, said, “We like to think that we are traveling the state, campaigning for Ann for First Lady.”

Issues & Sound Bites

Last spring, in the midst of the whirl of the campaigns’ attempts to one-up each other with women staffers and supporters, a request was sent from BlogHer, an Internet community of more than 7 million techno-savvy women, to the leading Democratic and Republican presidential candidates. To date, not one campaign has agreed to participate, and, sadly, the BlogHer community is not alone. There are other organizations and blogs devoted to women who also feel they’ve received the cold shoulder from presidential hopefuls.

In response to the candidates’ nonresponse, BlogHer announced a user survey that has shown that the vast majority — well over 90 percent — of women in the community want the group’s editors to speak directly with the candidates and not rely on surrogates to address issues of concern. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the survey, however, came in response to the question of whether women bloggers are turned on or off by tactics to reach women and moms specifically. Fifty-six percent of those surveyed indicated that they found tactics such as “Women for Obama” and “Moms for Hillary” distasteful.

Just over 25 percent of women surveyed by BlogHer refused to give a one-word answer and instead opted for “other” and leaving a personal response. Comments such as “If it smacks of being patronizing or phony, it’s a huge turn off for me” and “They seem to only want to talk to women on their terms and with their framing” were par for the course — and are on target with what’s being said daily by women in Iowa.

Listen to the national media long enough and you’ll soon be convinced that I’m one of the hottest commodities available in this presidential election. First, I’m a resident of Iowa. Second, I’m a woman. It is true that I was contacted by every Democratic campaign (and a couple of Republican ones as well) and asked to join their “Women for …” group. Over the summer, I spent hours in small meetings, visiting with leadership of said women’s groups. Those who participated were told that the feedback garnered from those meetings was invaluable, that the views expressed by the women involved were going to be taken back to the top of the campaign and integrated into the messaging, plans and forthcoming white papers. Some of it was. Unless the other meetings held across the state of Iowa were drastically different from the ones I attended, very little of the substance of those meetings was converted to policy.

Women who attended the meetings, even those who remain firmly committed to the candidate hosting the meeting, still sometimes wonder where that information went or if it went anywhere at all. We asked to hear about reproductive health — not just abortion, but the full gamut of reproductive health issues — and have yet to see one white paper with that title. We asked for details concerning everything from early childhood learning to veterans’ benefits to protecting family farms. We asked for a great deal. We gained very little.

Who would have guessed that the elderly woman on the Wendy’s commercial who demanded, “Where’s the beef?!” so many years ago would be so in tune with women today?

Contrary to radio entertainers who fill the day with notices of the “chickafication” of everything from the economy to the media, the best-kept secret of the women’s community is that women’s issues are human issues. We don’t just care about families, contraception, security or education. Our key concerns are most likely your key concerns, and that fact, above all else, points to why this election cycle has been a disappointment.

Women want more than 30-second marketing spots and three-second sound bites on the evening news. Women, just like all Americans, are looking around the nation and finding room for improvement (if not full-fledged overhaul). From the economy to national security to health care, women are looking for answers. And it has been that quest for details, that want for something of substance, which has turned out to be the downfall of what could have been not only the political year of the woman but the political year of the citizen.

[Exclusive] Gov. Bill Richardson’s campaign is expected to direct its supporters to caucus for Sen. Barack Obama in the second round of voting at Thursday’s caucuses in precincts where he is not viable.  Two sources familiar with the plan told Iowa Independent that the New Mexico governor’s organizers have been instructed to direct supporters to Obama in the places where they have not reached the 15 percent threshold for viability.

Richardson, whose poll numbers in Iowa have hovered near 10 percent since June, may need a solid fourth-place finish in the caucuses to continue his campaign.  And he is best served by directing support away from former Sen. John Edwards, who consistently polls between him and the two national front-runners, Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton, in national and early state polls.

But Richardson’s modest gains from diverting second-choice support away from Edwards may be eclipsed by Obama’s potential success on caucus night, should everything go as planned.  If Richardson’s field organization manages to direct a significant number of supporters to Obama, it could be enough to win him the Iowa caucuses.

And if Edwards loses a large block of second-round voters, a group he seems to be relying on to break in his direction, it could irreparably damage his campaign.

Richardson would prefer an Obama victory over Clinton because a Clinton victory could end the campaign before New Hampshire voters even head to the polls.  And if Edwards’s numbers look weak, Richardson could head to New Hampshire as the best alternative to the top two contenders for the Democratic nomination.

Still, sources caution that plans can always change, and once the doors lock Thursday evening, anything can happen.  Whether the Richardson campaign’s strategy is implemented on the ground remains an open question and, because this directive is not expected to be confirmed publicly, it will be difficult to prove.[Ed. note: For about ten minutes when this story was first published, it asserted that there was a mutual agreement between the Richardson and Obama campaigns to swap supporters in precincts where one was not viable.  This, it turns out, resulted from a misunderstanding that has since been cleared up.  There is no deal between the two campaigns; there is only a strategic decision -- one which makes complete sense -- on the part of the Richardson campaign about where to direct its supporters if their group is not viable in certain precincts.]

Update: Joaquin Guerra, Richardson’s national Online Director, denies that any plans are in place to direct supporters to Obama on the second round of voting.  Still, our sources remain sure of what they told us, and we are confident that they do not carry ulterior motives that would cause them to lie.