But Kate Bosworth, for much of final part of the movie, waits in the calm spots of the Pacific Ocean, watching others pipe through walls of water off the Hawaiian coast.

She just can’t catch a wave.

And that may just be the epitaph on the tombstone of Iowa’s 5th District Democratic congressional challenger Rob Hubler’s 2008 campaign.

Hubler is without question the underdog in his bid to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Steve King.

Rob Hubler

First, there are the numbers.

There are 143,802 registered Republicans in the district, compared with 99,641 Democrats and 126,145 people registered with no party.

King, the incumbent, enjoys cult-hero status with the formidable Christian right in western Iowa. (Conservative provocateur Ann Coulter even calls King “one of her favorites.”)

And, perhaps most important, there is the money.

King has built a war chest, while Hubler has collected what amounts to a financial slingshot. Open Secrets.org reports that King has raised nearly $900,000 while Hubler has pulled in about $220,000. Late last week, Hubler told me he had about $40,000 in cash on hand to spend in these remaining days.

Months ago, there seemed to be more potential for Hubler to raise money over the Internet, using King’s famously controversial remarks to stoke up dollars from the many people King has offended in his three terms in Congress.

Hubler had dozens of outrageous comments from King to leverage for dough.

So why hasn’t Hubler been able to do with King’s slew of remarks what Democrats in Minnesota have done with one comment from Republican U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, who told Chris Matthews on MSNBC that the media should investigate “the views of the people in Congress [to] find out: Are they pro-America or anti-America?”

That McCarthyeseque language ignited a flood of contributions from across the nation: more than $1 million in just days for her lesser-known opponent, Democrat Elwyn Tinklenberg.

King himself called Sen. Joseph McCarthy a “hero for America” only a few years ago.

“We have not capitalized on that,” Hubler said. “But I’ve never been on MSNBC.”

Hubler understands what getting King’s comments into the fund-raising mix could have done for the western Iowa race. “We have worked everything we can think of to conceivably do that,” he said.

Hubler — who is insistent that he will still win in a stunning surprise — said some of the failure (so far) to capitalize on King’s stream of provocations is his own fault for failing to find an effective Internet strategy, even with the one of the pioneers of Web politics, Joe Trippi, on board with his campaign as a consultant.

“Obviously we’ve got to take some of the blame for that,” Hubler said.

But much his troubles lie beyond his control, as the sprawling rural 32-county 5th District has no dominant, district-wide television.  And even in the Internet age, TV is still the mother’s milk of politics — as evidenced by the Bachmann-MSNBC episode.

“That’s exactly right,” Hubler said. “I 100 percent agree.”

Less than a week from Election Day, Hubler’s chances for an October surprise like the one that hit Bachmann have dwindled.

The last remaining question is, with time running out, can he make like Kate Bosworth and catch one of the waves that appear to be hurtling with fury toward once-tranquil Republican shores?

Rob Hubler

Western Iowa Democratic congressional candidate Rob Hubler has inked a comprehensive consulting agreement with high-profile strategist Joe Trippi, a chief architect of modern Internet politics who four years ago helped to propel Howard Dean from relative obscurity to leading presidential contender.

Hubler told Iowa Independent just moments ago that the deal is now final and that Joe Trippi & Associates, based in suburban Washington, D.C., will serve as the primary media consultant and assist with crafting television, print and radio messages in the sprawling 5th Congressional District. Trippi’s team plans to be on the ground in Iowa — and aggressively reaching out over the Internet to raise money for Hubler’s challenge to U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, a provocative conservative.

“Our campaign has begun to attract national interest and support on the internet and Joe Trippi’s counsel is sure to help us increase our visibility and fundraising through the internet,” said Hubler.  “We are delighted that Joe and his staff will be working with us as we offer western Iowans new leadership and real representation in the House of Representatives.”

Hubler and Trippi met in Washington, D.C., in recent days to iron out details of the agreement.

“The American people are hungry for change, but more of the same divisive rhetoric and embarrassing headlines by Washington politicians like Steve King is not the answer,” said Trippi.  “If we want real change, we need grassroots candidates like Rob Hubler who will always put the people’s interests first.  From creating new, good-paying jobs right here in Iowa to lowering gas prices, Rob Hubler is a new kind of leader who will deliver real solutions and real change for Iowa and America.”

Far from the national media, loud music, hoopla and sign wars of Saturday night’s Jefferson Jackson dinner, John Edwards stepped into a quintessential Iowa caucus setting Sunday afternoon.

A lone acoustic guitar player was playing Eagles songs at the Eagles Lodge in Iowa City in front of a bingo board at a fundraiser for two courthouse officials who’ve endorsed Edwards – Supervisor Terrence Neuzil and Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek.  Sara Baird of Iowa City sported a Neuzil sticker, but not one for Edwards.  “I’m wavering between six candidates,” she said, and that’s still a common comment.  Postal worker Mel Stahmer of Coralville was an Edwards supporter in 2004, but is undecided this time.  “I was disappointed in his debate with Cheney” as the `04 vice presidential candidate, and he wishes Edwards – or anyone – would join Dennis Kucinich in backing single payer health care. 

An Edwards sign is taped to the Eagles’ podium – it’s labeled PRESIDENT vertically – as Neuzil introduces Pulkrabek. 

Joe Trippi talks with Edwards before the speech.

Joe Trippi, the Edwards adviser who seems to be traveling with the candidate more and more lately, notes Barack Obama’s good reviews.  “I think most people would agree that Obama and Edwards did really well,” Trippi tells me.  I note that from my seats, just in front of the Hillary Clinton gallery, her supporters seems rock solid, and ask how Edwards can peel those people off.  “It’s way too early to make that kind of judgment.  You and I would have said the same thing about Howard Dean right now,” he says, bringing up a painful memory for both of us ex-Deaniacs.  “Even if they look like rocks right now, you still have to make your case.”

Neuzil is a member of a large Johnson County political tribe that’s well known for putting on a good feed, and though the food at 3 p.m. was only snacks, it was plentiful, filling, and meat-oriented.  Some supporters of other presidential candidates showed up as a sign of support for the two local officials (including State Senator Bob Dvorsky, an early and enthusiastic Obama backer). But most of the crowd was either Edwards or uncommitted.

As a whole Edwardians though well of their candidate’s JJ performance, but they also offered surprising, unsolicited praise of Barack Obama’s speech.  No one volunteered any praise of Hillary Clinton.

The sheriff, first elected in 2004, is a very popular figure among the hell or high snowdrifts party activists who are guaranteed caucus goers.  His predecessor openly shunned the party – in 14 years, I never saw him at a party event – and the sheriff before that was a Republican, the last Republican elected to anything in Johnson County.  So Pulkrabek is the first sheriff in three decades who’s active in the Democratic Party.  His endorsement is a big get, and he gets the privilege of introducing the candidate.

I’m at a loss for ways to describe the Edwards speech, having heard it three times within 24 hours.  Latest health bulletin: Elizabeth is still fine.  Other than the introductory reference, included in almost every Edwards speech where she is not present, the only other references comes late in the speech.  Edwards briefly describes the bad medical news, says he and Elizabeth decided together “to keep fighting for what we believe in,” and then he mentions other women who don’t have health care who have discussed their own cancers with him and Elizabeth.  Edwards supporter Aletia Morgan, a former school board member, wonders how that plays.  On the one hand, she muses, it may look like a play for sympathy, but on the other hand Elizabeth Edwards is popular in her own right.  After the speech, some of the autograph seekers hold Elizabeth’s book, rather than one of John’s.

The Speech works well toned down from last night’s oratory for 9,000 to the afternoon’s more intimate crowd of 200.  After speaking, Edwards shares the stage with Neuzil, Pulkrabek, and Neuzil’s brother Wayne, a classically trained opera singer who leads the crowd in a Veteran’s Day “God Bless America.”

A different dynamic is developing around Edwards.  Earlier in the cycle, as people approach candidates, they are often trying to squeeze in that question that just didn’t get covered in the Q & A session.  But even though there was no Q & A Sunday, no one was trying that.  Instead, people just wanted their moment – a handshake, a trophy photo.  Not quite the touch the hem of the garment dynamic you see around Clinton and Obama, but you can sense people imagining him as president and telling the kids about the day they met him.

Edwards departs to applause, the local TV crews leave and the music resumes with “American Pie.”  Family patriarch Ralph Neuzil, himself a former county attorney, urges everyone to eat more and take home leftovers.

In a speech billed as a “major foreign policy address,” John Edwards offered as much criticism for Democratic rival Hillary Clinton as he did for the Bush Administration.

“Hillary is voting like a hawk in Washington, D.C. and talking like a dove in Iowa,” Edwards told a crowd of 200 on the University of Iowa campus, continuing the aggressive critique of the Democratic frontrunner that he launched at last week’s debate. Lines from the debate, such as mocking the concept “general election mode” with “we only need one mode, tell the truth mode,” appeared again.

“Senator Clinton once again sided with Bush and the neocons” on the recent vote branding Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization, Edwards said. Winning some of the 20 minute speech’s first applause for again saying his vote for the Iraq War was wrong, the former senator said “Senator Clinton and I learned very different lessons from the run-up to the Iraq war.”

“We have seen this movie before and it doesn’t end well,” he said, noting the Bush Administration’s repeated references to weapons of mass destruction, this time in Iran. “In Iraq, it doesn’t end at all.”In addition to the “compare and contrast” with Clinton, the policy meat of the speech (handily outlined in advance) was a five-point Iran plan complete with bullet points: