Des Moines Diary Jan 3rd.

Caucus Day…We rise early to catch a Edwards rally at a steelworkers union hall in an industrial area of Des Moines . Unfortunately MapQuest sends us on a roundabout tour of a snowy neighborhood and we arrive as the candidate is leaving.

We do meet a hall of union members preparing to walk snowy neighborhoods for their candidate. And we run into a Nevada angle. One thing fueling anticipation among these people is the prospect that if they can help Edwards pull off a victory tonight in Iowa, it will lead, they believe and hope, to an endorsement by the Culinary Workers Union in Nevada tomorrow. Time will tell, but we do know the Nevada union is holding off on an endorsement. They want to back a winner.

One other Nevada angle we’ve encountered. Last night we walked into the Ron Paul headquarters downtown, identified ourselves and watched their faces brightened. “We’re doing great there!” they say. I don’t know if that’s true, but I’ve always thought the libertarian streak that runs through Nevada political inclinations is potentially fertile ground for a candidates like Paul. He has his fans among Nevadans. In fact we’re told the Ron Paul billboards we see around Des Moines were paid for by Nevada admirers, as we know those we see in Reno were. His media coordinator here tells me he cycled across the country last summer and Nevada was his favorite state. He remembers pedaling through my home town of Fallon ….

We work our way across town and see several Obama volunteers standing on strategic street corners waving signs. Understand the temperature when we left the motel this morning was plus 2, the wind chill factor minus 14.  No such challenges for several hundred employees of Principal Financial Group at our next stop. Inside a big theatre in their downtown high rise headquarters, they listen to and meet Mitt Romney, then go back to work. It may be unfair to comment on the contrast between this appearance and the union hall rally…but there it is.

All in all what we see this morning and early afternoon is pretty much what you would see in the run up to any election. Tonight, however, we expect a new experience…