Now, throw former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee into the mix.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in Des Moines last year promoting another book (Jason Hancock/Iowa Independent).

The winner of the 2008 Iowa Caucuses make three stops in Iowa Sunday, Nov. 8, to promote his latest book, “A Simple Christmas: Twelve Stories That Celebrate the True Holiday Spirit.” Huckabee will be in Davenport at 2:30 p.m.,  Cedar Rapids at 5 p.m., and Des Moines at 8 p.m., a day after Pawlenty gives the keynote speech at a Republican Party of Iowa event in Des Moines.

It will be Huckabee’s second appearance in Iowa this year. In May, he spoke at the Iowa Association of Business and Industry’s annual convention before holding a fundraiser for GOP gubernatorial candidate Bob Vander Plaats.

After Pawlenty and Huckabee leave town, Republican U.S. Rep. Ron Paul will return to Iowa for the first time since the 2008 Caucuses, where the Texas lawmaker finished fifth. Paul is scheduled to speak at Iowa State University in Ames on Nov. 13 at 7 p.m. The next morning he will headline a fundraiser for state Rep. Kent Sorenson’s Iowa Senate campaign at the Des Moines Airport Holiday Inn.

In an article that focuses on whether he should make a run for governor of New York, Giuliani, who finished a distant sixth in the January 2008 caucuses, told the magazine it was his advisers that developed the campaign strategy of skipping Iowa to focus on later, larger primaries.

And then there was his cockamamy campaign strategy, in which he sat out the Iowa caucuses, skipping a contest that riveted the world for a month, and competed halfheartedly in New Hampshire and South Carolina. By the time he made his infamous last stand in Florida, hoping that weeks of appearances at NASCAR tracks and Little Havana parades could make up for the ground he’d lost, it was too late.

Today, Rudy Inc. offers myriad excuses for the debacle. Giuliani says fundraising in the crowded field was harder than he expected: “I wish I had figured out that we weren’t going to raise $100 million.” Giuliani also wishes he hadn’t skipped Iowa, a decision he attributes to advisers. “My instincts originally were, if you lose, you gotta go down fighting. You can’t allow yourself to lose a primary. I think I should’ve fought Iowa harder. That was the beginning of becoming irrelevant.”

After Iowa, Giuliani went on to finish fourth in the New Hampshire primary and third in the Florida primary before bowing out and endorsing eventual Republican nominee John McCain.

Giuliani’s message could be a lesson for presidential aspirants in 2012, as pundits from around the nation have begun questioning the wisdom of competing in 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.”

Gov. Sarah Palin

ANALYSIS
While being careful to tell us up front that he thinks the question is a bit premature, Republican David Oman, a key figure in the last two GOP gubernatorial administrations in Iowa, says Sarah Palin has the makings of a frontrunner in the 2012 Iowa caucuses.

“Clearly, she has connected with people in the Republican base and, if the ticket is not successful next month, people will encourage her to aim for the brass ring in four years,” Oman tells us. “After one campaign stop in Iowa, it is too soon to measure her standing in this state, but it would be fair to say Republicans here would welcome learning more and meeting her. The retail nature of caucus politics would play to one of Gov. Palin’s strength –an energetic personality.”

Oman quickly notes that “very few people are looking over the horizon at 2012.”

But there is speculation that the Alaska governor — who already is distancing herself from McCain in some areas — is well-positioned for Iowa in 2012.

Whether she would make a competent president is a different thing altogether — and a seriously debatable point in 2008.

In the universe of Republicans, she is the only star with any true shine — although a meteoric rise from another little-known candidate can’t be ruled out over the next few years. And depending on economic fortunes, Iowa Republicans, who for months flirted with Mitt Romney, may be ready for a known candidate with some burnished business credentials.

Of all the candidates in the scrum for 2012 (assuming John McCain loses) Palin would have the most appeal with the people that matter in the Iowa caucuses.

She has all the assets that can’t be taught — the charisma (at least the sort that appeals to the Christian right) and stump-speaking skills.

Iowa is a state of small towns, and people in these communities increasingly see divisions based in rural-urban terms more than anything because modernity is literally swallowing once-thriving farm towns.

Her small-towns-folks-are-better-Americans speech is a brilliant appetizer for Iowa 2012. Palin speaks to a key segment (in terms of voting) of small towns in the same way Barack Obama appeals to many constituencies — including rural folk (as the Iowa caucuses proved)..

Moreover, the life of Iowa communities is the family. The Hawkeye State, and in particular its rural parts, is not a friendly places for singles — unless they are widowed in nursing homes. Palin’s appeal to those who want to see their candidates as they would like to see themselves — with kids and family in full-bloom — is unrivaled. Keep this in mind: Iowa is a state in which many families own more than one crockpot. It doesn’t get more family values than crockpots.

Palin has some other factors working for her in 2012.

Tony Harnden, the U.S. editor of London’s Telegraph newspaper, refers to Palin as the John Edwards of 2012.

Call her the John Edwards of 2008 – an attractive, well-groomed vice-presidential candidate with a popular spouse, pretty hair and a tanning bed and who shows little loyalty to the top of the ticket. Sarah Palin is clearly looking beyond this election, which most Republicans privately concede John McCain will probably lose, and positioning herself for a possible White House run next time. Edwards did the same thing to John Kerry in 2004.

Mitt Littman at The Huffington Post gets right to the point saying, “Iowa, here she comes.”

It’s a pretty jarring sight. But even though not every right-wing audience reacts to each part of Palin’s script with the same enthusiasm, one thing is clear: the far right really likes Palin. And let there be no doubt about this: in 2012, Sarah Palin does not want to debate VP Joe Biden. She wants to debate President Obama. She wants to be the Republican Party nominee for President.

Now, many of you reading this blog just threw up on the computer screen, so please, take a moment to clean up. You are saying to no one, “That’s insane! She’s not competent!” I am not here to remark on the sanity of Palin’s plans. I’m not saying she will be the nominee in 2012. I am saying that she will run. She may be one of those people who gets two percent of the vote in Iowa, and quits the race. Or, she may fare better. Mike Huckabee won Iowa, let’s recall. While recently voted the Funniest Celebrity in Washington, D.C., Mr. Huckabee, a charming guy, is not on the same page as I am in regards to policy and whether or not we roamed the earth with the T-Rex. Sarah Palin is already adored by the religious right; Iowa, here she comes!

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin speaks to the Republican convention in St. Paul (Photo: 2008 Republican National Convention and Reflections Photography)

Palin’s speech to accept her nomination used the words “small town” five times.  “I had the privilege of living most of my life in a small town,” she remarked.

“I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities,” she continued, ripping into one part of Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama’s biography.

But while highlighting her small-town past might make some rural voters like Palin, it is too simplistic to assume that such statements will make them vote for her.

When Iowa’s then-Gov. Tom Vilsack launched his short-lived presidential campaign shortly after election day in 2006, pundits wondered aloud whether his candidacy would take his state’s first-in-the-nation caucuses off the table for other candidates. It took only about a week before it was clear that it would not.

I heard Iowans in coffee shops say things like, “I liked him as governor, but he thinks he can be president? Really?”

In the folksy corners of our state where retail politics reigns supreme, voters get to know their local political leaders. In many cases, they like them. They are proud of them when they succeed, and they call or stop by to comfort them when they lose.

But because of their closeness, they also know what being a small-town mayor, county supervisor, or state legislator entails. Glamorous, high-minded, and sophisticated work, it ain’t.

As Sen. John McCain’s campaign attempts to win rural votes by claiming that criticism of Palin exhibits a lack of respect for small towns, Iowans will begin to ask themselves, “Do I want my mayor to be a heartbeat away from the presidency?” If they had trouble wrapping their heads around the idea of their governor leading the free world, then the thought of the local mayor commanding the world’s strongest military, running the world’s largest economy, and setting the national agenda won’t likely hold much appeal.

It is true that in Iowa’s shrinking, economically depressed small towns, there exists a resentment of big city politicians who try to run their lives. Both Republicans and Democrats have used the divide to their advantage when it suits them.

Recall now-Gov. Chet Culver’s series of 2006 campaign ads proclaiming that GOP rival and former congressman Jim Nussle had “gone Washington” and Culver’s slogan: “Iowa Common Values. Iowa Common Sense.”

But Culver’s small-town bona fides were relatively thin, even when stacked up next to Nussle’s. It was Culver who spent some of his childhood near the Washington, DC, beltway. His attacks on Nussle were not based on where the Republican had lived; they were based largely on claims that Nussle, as part of the Washington establishment, had been fiscally irresponsible in his role as chair of the House Budget Committee.

The rural-urban split doesn’t turn on identity politics. It isn’t simply a question of where the candidates were born, or where they live now. Rural elections are influenced by all the same factors as elections everywhere else. Small town voters question candidates on economic policy and social issues. They hear ads on the radio and read the glossy attacks that hit their mailboxes.

To the extent that rural voters support different candidates than urban voters, it’s because they have different policy interests and priorities. If there’s anywhere that identity politics — questions like “Where is he from?” and “What is her ethnicity?” — have determined the outcome of elections, it is in America’s urban centers, not out in the country.

To win rural America, campaigns must shoot straight and stick to the issues. More often than not, voters will see through the rest.

There is much to be learned from the Iowa experience for Obama when it comes to narrowing that margin. He can start by talking with more community newspapers in certain states.While the “media” ranks with lawyers and telemarketers on so many America’s Most-Hated Lists, weekly papers and small dailies — the ones that still run so-called “chicken dinner” stories and engage in unabashed boosterism for the local hospital or high school sports teams — often retain great standing in rural areas.

The reporters and editors Obama talks to at these newspapers are the same ones who field calls from loved ones after the untimely death of a teen or for the reporting of a quick announcement on an 80th birthday or a new business opening or for help about fixing up the local cemetery or even getting someone to clean up the junk from an unsightly yard (all things I talked about with people in just the last week in Carroll, Iowa, where my family runs a small daily newspaper). In short we are old friends on the town square. Readers know us personally. We are in the next pew at church or just a few stools down in the tavern. People trust us more than the bigger papers.

“There’s actually some research to prove that,” Al Cross, director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, tells Iowa Independent. The institute publishes the Rural Report.

Our newspaper has a decidedly different role in life in Carroll than The New York Times does with its readers. Jeff Zeleny of The New York Times (who used to write for The Des Moines Register) understands this.

“There is, perhaps, no better way to give an hour-long presidential visit far greater staying power than appearing on the pages of the weekly newspaper,” Zeleny wrote before the Iowa caucuses.

The Washington Post’s Peter Slevin — who spent several days in Carroll — wrote a piece on caucus night chronicling the Obama communications team’s effort to cultivate working relationships with rural journalists months before the Illinois senator’s 8-percentage-point win here.

Faced with a well-documented challenge to court rural voters, does it make sense for Obama to use a strategy of reaching out to smaller papers as a way to get more punch for his time in rural areas?

“I think it would be useful around the margins,” Cross said.

Cross said Obama doesn’t have the luxury of being able to zero in on just one state, as he did with Iowa, where he used many angles to get that win, including a strategy to grant access to the more influential small dailies and weeklies.

“The thing that is most valuable to him right now is time,” said Cross, a former 16-year political writer for the Louisville Courier-Journal.

That said, using some variation of his rural newspaper outreach strategy may pay off for Obama in some Southwest states like New Mexico or in New Hampshire, Cross said.

“It would depend on the degree of penetration,” Cross said.

In the latest issue of Newsweek, dated today in fact, former U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr. of Tennessee, an African-American who nearly won a seat in the U.S. Senate (and likely would have were it not for an 11th-hour, racist smear television ad), advises Obama that the white voters of much of the nation’s rural areas just need to get to beyond the celebrity.

Here is Ford:

Obama has run a first-rate primary campaign, energizing countless new voters. Now he’s got to get off the big stage more often and meet with people where they work, play and pray. That means getting out to schools and factories, coffee shops, fairgrounds and houses of worship. He needs to earn their trust.

Bill Bishop, an editor with The Center For Rural Strategies Daily Yonder Web site, writes that the rural, white, working-class gap Obama must overcome is less about the color of Obama’s face than it is about the face time on his schedule in wide open spaces.

If he takes Ford’s advice, Obama would be well advised to roll out the Iowa media plan and schedule stops at community newspapers. Sitting down for interviews with those editors and reporters will do more than just provide him with the ink in publications that are about far more than just news (people really do rely on us for grocery ads and keep the paper around for a while as a result).

Residents of small towns, who interact with the editors of papers like my family’s at church and in the Rotary Club or at a pancake fund-raiser for a sick child, pull us aside with some frequency and ask what the candidates were like up close and personal. Are they something more than talk-radioed and MSNBC-ed caricatures? They hear Chris Matthews. But they believe us.

“I’m a Pollyanna, but I still have some hope that after we finish on June 3rd, in the next couple weeks after that we’ll have some clarity, and I’ll never have to make that decision,” said Brennan.Part of Brennan’s reticence is his wish to protect Iowa’s first in the nation role. “Part of the reason I think Iowa remains first and why we attract candidates is that we been an honest broker,” e said. If he did endorse, “the unhappy candidate is going to identify every little thing and think there was a cabal by the state party. But I agree with Senator Harkin at this point, why not let the contest play out?”

Brennan noted that a Republican plan that recently won approval keeps Iowa and New Hampshire first. As for attacks on caucuses being low-turnout events and Iowa’s relative lack of diversity, he pointed to the record turnout and Barack Obama `s win and said, “It’s pretty clear that Iowans are open minded. We’ve refuted those two arguments pretty well.”

  “I live in Happy Land” about the ongoing nomination fight between Obama and Hillary Clinton, said Brennan, noting that in Iowa, as in the rest of the country, the contest has led to a Democratic voter registration surge. “We had 60,000 new Democrats who cam out to caucus. And the other piece that goes with that is we have an 85,000 voter registration advantage over the Republicans.”

“You saw the exit date from Pennsylvania, you saw X percentage op Clinton people wouldn’t vote for Obama and vice versa,” Brennan acknowledged to activists still fretting about mending fences. “But they had been subjected to a heated campaign for weeks.  I think when we have our nominee, and people compare our nominee to John McCain, those people come home.”

Brennan offered a strong critique of McCain’s Thursday visit to Des Moines, noting poor attendance.  “He came in tenth in the straw poll, fourth in the caucuses. I don’t see much enthusiasm on their side.”

“John McCain’s making enough mistakes by himself, I don’t know if we need a nominee right now,” Brennan added.

Brennan is also confident about Iowa Democrat’s chances on the rest of the ballot, starting with Senator Harkin. “Chuck Grassley only ever cared that Grassley won, so I doesn’t have coattails,” Brennan said of the popular Republican senator who isn’t on the ballot for two more years.

“But Tom Harkin would like every dogcatcher to be a Democrat. Harkin doesn’t have much of a challenge this year. He doesn’t have to worry about himself. So he can get out and do things in parts of the state that normally don’t get much attention.”

“Congressman Loebsack’s got opponents, but I haven’t seen much out of them so far,” Brennan said. “(Congressman Bruce) Braley doesn’t have much of an opponent. I think we’ve got a decent shot in the 4th District.  (Republican incumbent Tom) Latham doesn’t make anybody mad, but that’s because he doesn’t do anything.”

Brennan said he expects Republican efforts will focus on the state legislature. “(Senate Democratic leader Mike) Gronstal’s got a 30-20 advantage, he’s going to pick up a few more Senate seats.” In the House, Brennan said, “that’s where the Republicans are going to fight the hardest, that’s the one place they even have a glimmer of hope.”

In an opinion piece in today’s New York Times entitled “Rules Count,” she reminds Michigan and Florida of some of the earlier statements and ugly tactics involved in trying to line jump in the Democratic presidential nominating process.

Giddins, who is now a Washington, D.C.-based communications consultant, concludes:

Florida and Michigan must face the consequences of their decisions.

That said, because millions of people from Florida and Michigan should not be punished for the short-sighted acts of their state’s Democratic Party leaders, the states’ delegates should be welcome at the national convention in Denver. But the delegates “won” in those noncompliant elections in January should be split 50-50 between the two remaining candidates.

There is no such thing as a do-over. Do-overs are what you get when the end results don’t matter. Do-overs are what children do on a playground. Adults accept their mistakes, learn from them and move on.

Before she volunteered for Sen. Joe Biden’s campaign, Karen Nichols of Coralville was an Obama supporter. She served as the precinct captain for Joe Biden at her caucus in January. But when there weren’t enough Biden people to send a delegate, Edwards, Dodd and Richardson supporters threw their support behind her, so she could become an uncommitted delegate at the county convention.

She wore a wireless microphone for the Iowa Independent during the Johnson County convention to give an insider’s perspective of the process.

In part 1, she registers, meets other non-viable delegates, and talks with Edwards, Clinton and Obama supporters.

In part 2, Nichols makes her final choice. Did she go with Obama, Clinton or Edwards?

Edwards delegate Will Jennings explains his support for the second-place Iowa finisher in this video:

Jennings predicted that Edwards delegates would split evenly between Obama and Clinton.

Husband and wife delegates Amish and Jennifer Trivedi of Iowa City are also Edwards supporters. They describe some of the issues Edwards brought to the presidential campaign in this video:

The county convention is also a chance to create a party platform. DeDe Dancing was gathering delegate signatures to add an amendment to the platform that would make possession of small amounts of marijuana a misdemeanor crime. She said this would help keep jails from overcrowding.

Here is a short interview with the party activist:

Room assignments for county delegates.

Edwards supporter Tom Carsner smiles for the camera at the Johnson County convention.