From Hayworth’s blog:

Additionally, I asked Bachmann if she is being prodded to seek the 2012 presidency, given her growing national profile. She said she has no doubts the GOP will produce a good crop of  presidential candidates, and threw out King as a name of interest.

“Steve King is mentioned as a potential nominee. I have a very high opinion of Steve King and his ability, so I would encourage him to consider any position for higher office,” Bachmann said.

As for herself, Bachmann said, “Goodness, I’ve only been in the House for three years, so, no, I’m not considering anything like that.”

John and Jackie Norris at Invesco Field in Denver during the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

“I love the fact that [The Des Moines Register] called us a ‘power couple,’ because at six o’clock in the morning the kids still wake us up and we change poopy diapers,” she said.

For two years Norris worked to elect Barack Obama president, first as a senior adviser during the Iowa Caucuses, then as his state director for the general election. Now she’s heading to Washington to serve as chief of staff to the country’s new First Lady, Michelle Obama.

But this isn’t Norris’ first go round in politics. She served as political director on Vice President Al Gore’s 2000 Iowa Caucus campaign and as finance director of Tom Vilsack’s 1998 gubernatorial bid. She worked in Washington, D.C., for 7 years on Capitol Hill, in the White House as a scheduler for Vice President Gore and at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

While it’s still unclear what her husband’s plans are, he’s no stranger to Democratic politics, either. He is a former chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party, a one-time Congressional candidate and was chief of staff to Gov. Tom Vilsack. He currently serves as chairman of the Iowa Utilities Board.

In a phone interview with the Iowa Independent conducted before the announcement of her new job, Jackie Norris talked about what it was like to be a part of the historic campaign that elected America’s first black president, what lessons can be learned from the organization and what the future may hold for the political couple who got engaged at the 2000 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles.

IOWA INDEPENDENT: What was it about Sen. Obama that motivated you to get so involved in the campaign?

JACKIE NORRIS: I had worked in politics and government, but in 2000 I decided to go into teaching. So I was teaching government to high school seniors.  I’ll never forget that moment when Sen. Obama had just come around on his book tour and there was a lot of excitement about him and all my students came in and wanted to talk about him and wanted to learn more about him. At that point, as a teacher, I saw interest and optimism that I hadn’t seen in the past in my students.  Young people are cynics, so I was pretty happy that they were getting excited about a presidential candidate.

II: How did you get directly involved in the campaign?

JN: A couple of people I worked with in the Gore campaign approached me to talk about Sen. Obama. At first I was teaching and had three little kids, so I thought it really wasn’t my time to get involved. But as I thought about it, I realized these opportunities only come up once in a lifetime. If I can change the way things are done I’ll be a good role model for my kids to show them that you have to stand up for what you believe in.

II: Sen. Obama’s success was never a foregone conclusion, but was there a time during the campaign where you began to realize that he might actually win?

JN: Well, I have to be honest. I’m one of those people who is an eternal optimist. I think from the get go I always knew that if we had a great field program and a great ground campaign, and orient the campaign differently than presidential campaigns of the past in terms of how we empower people and include people, we could win. I felt we had the plan and it was just a matter of execution.

Early on people saw something in Sen. Obama that they didn’t see in the other candidates. There was this energy in the campaign that was amazing. The field organizers brought Sen. Obama to activists across the state. They deserve a lot of the credit for bringing him and his message to people around Iowa who didn’t know him. That’s what we relied on –- that grassroots structure.

II: How different was the Obama campaign from other presidential campaigns in Iowa?

JN: I think our campaign learned from past candidates that hadn’t won, quite honestly.  Number one, we realized early on that it was really important to bring offices and field organizers to counties that typically didn’t see that activity in the past. It’s sort of that adage “If you build it, they will come.” What we found is that if you have an office there and staff there, there is a way for people to get involved. It’s tangible and it’s easy.

The second thing we did was we really have a policy-based discussion. That’s how we started the caucus campaign. Sen. Obama didn’t have every single plan immediately, so we were able to have conversations with staff and experts from all around the country, to talk to Iowans about the issues, and that helped shape our policy. As a result, when people left the table they walked away feeling invested in the ideas.

The third thing was our outreach organization. Past campaigns have done it, but we did it to a pretty in depth level. Outreach to college campuses. Outreach to African Americans. We went into rural communities.

The last thing is that we had fun. Not that other campaigns haven’t done that, but the nature of our candidate and his spouse, some of the things we did were more fun and light and empowering.

II: How crazy was your life in the days, weeks and months leading up to Election Day?

JN: I am a mother of three, so there already aren’t enough hours in the day. I think it’s safe to say I didn’t sleep as much and the hours were pretty chaotic. But the managerial philosophy I’ve learned over time is that you empower people and delegate to people, and that’s the way they learn how to be better at what they do. So I worked hard, but not harder than people like a precinct captain in Adel who worked to win their precinct for Barack Obama.

II: What effect do you think the Obama campaign will have on future campaigns, especially here in Iowa?

JN: I think Iowa is disappointed that more legislative candidates and candidates like Becky Greenwald didn’t win, that we didn’t see more of a coattail effect for down ballot candidates. The lesson learned is that in the counties where the Democrats weren’t organized before they realized that when they pool their efforts and work together they could actually get something done. I think what we’ve done is come in and be the catalyst for local political organizations. My hope is that once we leave they will still be energized and motivated for the next thing, whether that is a school board, a county auditor or a statehouse candidate.

II: But why weren’t the Obama coattails longer in Iowa?

JN: Iowans are notoriously independent. I also think that a lot of the people who voted were new voters and while we educated them enough to get them out to support the president they need to now be educated about the down ballot races. Not to say we didn’t do that, because I think we did see gains. But I think no one should assume voters would vote straight-ticket Democrat just because they turned out for a Democratic presidential candidate. The state and local parties need to continue to reach out to those voters in the future.

II: The Des Moines Register referred to you and your husband as “Iowa’s new power couple,” and there have been lots of reports mentioning both of you for jobs in the new administration. What’s your reaction to the attention you’re getting from the campaign’s success?

JN: Well, it’s exciting to work on something so hard and be recognized for your work. It’s important to point out that even if my name is on the top of the food chain, so many people worked so hard on this campaign. Sure, seeing your name in the paper is nice, and I love the fact that they called us a “power couple” because at six o’clock in the morning the kids still wake us up and we change poopy diapers.

II: Your husband was a big part of John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign (he served as national field director). Now you’ve played a big role in Obama’s 2008 campaign. Has this become a family tradition for you every four years?

JN: I think it’s safe to say John and I have run our course on presidential campaigns. This was a labor of love for me born out of a lot of passion and energy. So I’m excited about what I did, but to think that we’d do this again, and I can’t speak for John on this, but I have had my fair share of presidential campaigns.

II: You two actually got engaged at a presidential convention, is that right?

JN: Yep, it was at the 2000 convention in Los Angeles.

II: So this really is a political couple.

JN: Yeah, every time we think we’re getting away from it, somehow we get pulled back in. But I think we’re both pretty anxious to step away for a bit. We’ve got kids in public school; we’ve got local issues around our house, like Rice Field, that we’re really passionate about. I hope everybody who was so active in the Obama campaign now turns around and looks for ways to make a difference locally. There is a lot to be done in our communities.

In the recording, Clinton praises McCain and criticizes Obama on the subject of experience. The former first lady was quoted when she and Obama were in the middle of their heated contest for the Democratic nomination.

Clinton Spokeswoman Kathleen Strand told the Associated Press that the calls were not approved.

“Senator Hillary Clinton does not approve this message, and as she criss-crosses the country, she has said time and again that the choice in this election could not be more clear,” she said. “The McCain/Palin ticket offers only more of the same failed policies, while the Obama/Biden ticket offers the vision, leadership and positive solutions we need. I wonder why the Republicans aren’t using those words?”

Here is the text of the call:

I’m calling for John McCain and the [Republican National Committee.} Listen to what Hillary Clinton had to say about John McCain and Barack Obama.

“In the White House, there is no time for speeches and on the job training. Sen. McCain will bring a lifetime of experience to the campaign, and Sen. Obama will bring a speech he gave in 2002. I think that is a significant difference.”

This call was paid for by the Republican National Committee at 866-558-5591, and authorized by McCain-Palin 2008.

The campaign has used this bit of audio from Clinton before in a telelvision ad aired in Colorado, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin in August.

Obama, an Illinois senator, was the choice of 54 percent of likely voters, while McCain, an Arizona senator, was the choice of 37 percent.

The poll of 814 likely voters, taken Tuesday through Friday by Selzer & Co., came at the close of a key stretch of the fall campaign. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.

The poll also found that six in 10 Obama supporters said they were 100 percent confident he is the best person for the job, compared to only half of McCain supporters.

Four years ago, three-quarters of President George W. Bush’s supporters expressed total confidence in the Republican, compared with about 60 percent for Democrat John Kerry. Bush narrowly carried Iowa during his re-election campaign.

In a poll released Oct. 31, 2004, The Register’s found Kerry and Bush virtually tied. Bush was eventually victorious by only 10,000 votes.

Democrat Barack Obama speaking in Western Gateway Park in downtown Des Moines.

“With four days left, we can’t afford to slow down, sit back or let up for one day, one minute or one second,” he said. “Not when there is so much at stake.”

His opponent, Republican John McCain, will try to do anything to avoid talking about what’s important in this election, Obama said, focusing instead on personal attacks and “making a big election about small things.”

McCain “is delivering a message designed to divide and distract,” he said, adding: “He wants to tear us apart instead of bringing us together.”

Obama’s speech focused mostly on the economy and sought to fend off attacks from Republicans in recent days that he is a big-government “socialist.”

“We don’t need bigger government or smaller government, we need better government,” Obama said. “We don’t have to choose between letting the markets run wild and stifling innovation. We can have both.”

McCain calls his plan socialism, Obama said, but “I call it fairness.”

“He supports tax cuts for the wealthy that they don’t need and didn’t ask for,” he said.

Despite claims to the contrary, Obama said his tax rates for families earning under $250,000 annually will be lower than they were under Republican President Ronald Regan.

“I give a tax break to 95 percent of Americans who work every day,” he said.

Obama even took a shot at the McCain campaign’s use of “Joe the Plumber,” saying his tax proposal would benefit him and his fellow plumbers because “99.9 percent of plumbers make less than $250,000 a year.”

McCain’s policies are just a continuation of the eight years of George W. Bush, Obama said, and while he may deny it, in “21 months and three debates he hasn’t told the American people one thing he would do differently than President Bush on the economy.”

Obama continued his call to young people to get involved in national service, saying if they are willing to serve in the armed forces, peace corps or in their own communities, “we will make sure you can afford to go to college, no ifs, ands or buts.”

“We’ll invest in you if you invest in America,” he said.

“I won’t stand here and pretend things are going to be easy,” Obama said. “President Bush dug a pretty deep hole, and he’s trying to hand the shovel to John McCain.”

But together, America can overcome the challenges it faces.

“In the last eight years we’ve lost the idea that in this American story, each of us has a role to play,” Obama said. “We have to re-instill a common purpose. All of us have to summon the strength to bridge our differences. We can’t afford the political tactics that pit us against each other.”

In the end, Obama’s speech brought his campaign full circle by praying tribute to the state that launched his presidential campaign to the front of the pack.

“I will always be grateful to Iowa,” he said. “We started our journey right here.”

The presidential campaigns paid much more attention to Iowa in 2004.

Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama are still all over the airwaves, and on the heels of McCain’s Iowa visit last weekend, Obama will campaign in Des Moines today.

This has led more than one observer to wonder if the candidates know something that public polling has not told the rest of us.  Obama has had an advantage in every poll of Iowa voters, most by large margins. Both campaigns must think Iowa is still neck and neck, or else why spend so much time here?

Iowa ceases to feel like a battleground, however, when this year’s campaign is compared to 2004, when both parties and their presidential nominees practically camped out in Iowa and battled ferociously for the states seven electoral votes.

That year, President George W. Bush visited the state eight times in the month before the election. In fact, he was in Iowa the day before voters went to the polls, campaigning in Des Moines and Sioux City.  Bush’s running mate, Dick Cheney, visited Iowa four times, including spending the weekend before Election Day campaigning in Fort Dodge and Davenport. The McCain-Palin ticket has visited only twice this month, and Palin will visit once more Monday.

Democratic nominee John Kerry visited Iowa six times in the final month, and John Edwards, his running mate, visited five times. Obama’s Friday event will be his first visit here since August.

Granted, 2008 is a very different election than 2004. The electoral map is much more wide open, and the candidates are competing in many more states this year than they were four years ago.

But much of the credit for Bush’s ability to flip Iowa, which narrowly supported Al Gore in 2000, was given to the fact that he and his surrogates spent an enormous amount of time here. It helped to drive up turnout from the Republican base, specifically the large segment of Iowa’s evangelical voters.  And that was a year when the Republicans were not facing nearly as many disadvantages as they seem to be facing in 2008.

Four years ago, the GOP had 10,000 more registered voters than the Democrats, according to the Iowa Secretary of State’s office. Coincidentally, Bush won Iowa by 10,000 votes. This year’s voter registration totals are dramatically different.  It’s the Democrats with a nearly 100,000-voter advantage now.

In 2004, the Bush and Kerry field operations were more evenly matched than the organizations working for the candidates today. Obama’s campaign has roughly four times as many paid staffers in Iowa as his opponent and more than double the number of offices around the state.

The other big difference is that Obama campaigned vigorously in Iowa in 2007, which carried him to a victory in January’s caucuses. Obama headlined more than 100 events across the state. By contrast, McCain has twice skipped the caucuses, in 2000 and 2008, focusing his campaign’s attention instead on New Hampshire. The result was that McCain finished a distant third in the caucuses behind Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney.

At a recent rally in Des Moines, the McCain campaign spoke of poll numbers in 2004 that showed Kerry winning the state within 72 hours of Election Day as evidence that Iowa is not lost. But of three polls released on Oct. 30, 2004, only one, The Des Moines Register’s Iowa Poll, gave Kerry an advantage, and that was within the margin of error. Two other polls showed Bush with a slight lead.

Republicans are still optimistic that their candidate can carry Iowa, consistently saying their internal polls have the race much closer. But regardless of polling, it is safe to say that while Iowa was one of the most hotly contested swing states in 2004, this year the focus has shifted elsewhere.

The event is free and open to the public.  Tickets are not required, but an RSVP is strongly encouraged.

What’s worse is that the pair of canvassers the paper talked to were not the best spokespeople for the campaign.

Two women walk out of John McCain’s Mid-West headquarters carrying a pile of voter canvassing sheets, one sports a baseball hat declaring her a “team leader” of the Republican campaign. And both are black — an unusual sight in an election where Barack Obama’s support among African Americans is almost monolithic.

Are they volunteers? They look at each other sheepishly. “Not exactly,” replies one. “We work for an employment agency,” says the other. Who are they voting for? “I don’t want to say,” says the first woman. “Obama — of course!” whispers the braver of the pair.

They laugh, then look over their shoulders at the office behind them. “Don’t give him your name, he’ll put it in the paper,” says the cautious one, explaining that they cannot afford to lose their $10-an-hour (£6) jobs. “This is embarrassing. We’re doing this because we have to live. At least none of our friends can see us. We’re from Chicago — like Obama.”

The story goes on to compare the organizations of the two campaigns, focusing on Iowa, where Obama has 50 offices around the state compared to just 16 for McCain.

The paper also talked to Eric Woolson, president of the consulting firm Concept Works. He helped guide the campaign of Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to a victory in the Iowa Caucuses. He admits to being surprised that he wasn’t asked to be a part of McCain’s Iowa campaign and joins the chorus of people who wonder why the Arizona senator continues to focus on the Hawkeye State.

“Maybe they know something we don’t,” says Eric Woolson, who guided Mike Huckabee to victory in the Iowa Republican caucuses ten months ago. “But in a year when we really needed to step up, we have failed to match the strides being made by our opponent.”

The McCain campaign did not respond to Iowa Independent’s request for a comment on the Times story.

Boiling the election down to a battle between “experience or change” doesn’t do this historic vote justice, the paper said, and those words don’t begin to cover all requirements for the next president.

What about temperament, judgment, decision-making and knowledge? How about stamina, education and ethics?

These are among the considerations that support our enthusiastic endorsement of Barack Obama for president of the United States.

The McCain the paper endorsed during the caucuses is gone, replaced by “campaign doublespeak and some fairly awful decisions for the guy wearing the experience mantle.” But his choice of running mate is what gave the eastern Iowa paper the most pause.

Sarah Palin’s populist appeal holds promise. Her soaring political career track from hockey mom to Alaska governor simply isn’t enough to merit the giant step to the Oval Office.

We don’t question her potential. But today, she clearly is not ready to assume the presidency.

The thing that clinched the endorsement, the paper said, was that during each of its editorial meetings with Obama as state senator, U.S. Senator and presidential candidate “we’ve experienced consistent character, superior intellect, engaging curiosity and specific knowledge of our Quad-Cities.”

We weren’t quite there last January when change began in Iowa. We are now.

The paper endorsed Democrat John Kerry in 2004. Before that it had only endorsed a Democrat once since 1972.

The country faces many problems, The Journal wrote, “from a financial meltown, to the war on terror, to health care, to Social Security, to energy, to immigration, to the deficit.”

In such a time of complexity, uncertainty and fear, the nation needs in the White House not an untested novice, but rather the steady hand of a veteran, proven leader.

The paper’s editorial board said it wasn’t sure who Obama is or exactly what he means when he speaks of change. The Journal called Obama powerful, inspirational speaker, but said the Democrat has a “largely undistinguished record of Senate service, a liberal philosophy and some questionable associations.”

The paper also ticked off several areas where McCain differs from President George W. Bush, including torture, energy policy and global warming.

On the topic of McCain’s running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the 40,000-circulation western Iowa paper “would have preferred former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney,” who garnered its endorsement before the caucues. But despite not being totally sold on Palin, McCain still gets the nod.

Whatever reservations we have concerning her are not enough to trump our opinion about the candidate at the top of the ticket.