Posted on 10/06/2007 7:01:25 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
IOWA CITY, Iowa - Five Democratic presidential hopefuls dined on barbecue Saturday and delivered their stump speeches to about 1,800 party faithful packed into a swine barn at the Johnson County fairgrounds.
Hoping to attract votes in this Democrat-rich part of Iowa were Chris Dodd, Bill Richardson, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Dennis Kucinich. Representatives for Barack Obama and Joe Biden also addressed the crowd of hundreds, who swatted at flies and fanned themselves on an unseasonably hot October evening.
Edwards was escorted to the barn doors with supporters chanting, "We love Elizabeth, we love John, we want to see you on the White House lawn." The former North Carolina senator heaped criticism on Clinton, the front-runner in many polls. He blasted her for recently voting in favor of a Senate resolution to designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization.
"I differ with her about that and I wonder, if George Bush goes to war, six months later, six months from now, are we going to hear again, 'If only I'd known then what I know now?'" he said, drawing comparisons to Iraq. "How many times do we have to be taught this lesson?"
Clinton focused her ire on the Bush administration, telling the crowd that "the era of cowboy diplomacy is over. We're going to start working with the rest of the world."
"We have thrown away the balanced budget and the surplus," the New York senator said. "George Bush ... is the first president ever to take us to war and wage a war without paying for it. And he has made it impossible for us to look around the world — because we borrow money from China and Japan and everywhere else — and not see that our influence is diminishing."
She was introduced and endorsed by George McGovern, the former South Dakota senator and Democratic presidential nominee who lost the 1972 election to Richard Nixon.
Richardson, who helped sing "Happy Birthday" to one supporter when he arrived at the fairgrounds, said the war in Iraq must end to curb the divisiveness plaguing the U.S.
"Get all our troops out, leave no troops behind, I will not leave 75,000 behind," the New Mexico governor said, referencing some estimates of a peacekeeping force needed in Iraq if the U.S. makes a quick exit.
Kucinich, who was making a rare campaign appearance in Iowa, also hammered home an anti-war message.
"This campaign is about calling forth the courage of the American people to reject not just the occupation in Iraq, to reject not just a potential attack on Iran, but to reject war as an instrument of policy," the Ohio congressman said. "It is time that we reclaimed our nation."
Dodd appealed to Iowans' sense of responsibility. "I don't think you're terribly impressed by celebrity or money," he said. "But what you are impressed with are people who have ideas, have courage, have principles and values and (know) how to win elections and stand up and how to get a job done for America."
Biden's son, Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, spoke on his father's behalf, while Oscar-winning actor Forest Whitaker appeared for Barack Obama, who was in South Carolina Saturday evening.
"He recognizes how the choices made by the current administration have jeopardized our position in the world, how these choices have affected our sense of national pride, our livelihood and the safety of ourselves and of our children," Whitaker said of Obama.
When asked what he thought about having surrogates speak in place of some candidates, Richardson reminded reporters that passing up campaign events for fundraisers isn't a good tactic. "One, Iowa is first," he said. "Secondly, money doesn't buy you love."
Oscar winning actor Forest Whitaker, left, waits backstage before speaking on behalf of Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., at the Johnson County Democrats' annual barbecue, Saturday, Oct. 6, 2007, in Iowa City, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Democratic presidential hopeful Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, waits backstage before speaking at the Johnson County Democrats' annual barbecue, Saturday, Oct. 6, 2007, in Iowa City, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Wooing voters? The Dems? With what? Lies and phony hot dogs?? What a pile of tripe.
“the era of cowboy diplomacy is over. We’re going to start working with the rest of the world.”
Yeah, Hitlery, bought by the quid pro quo dollars you are sucking in from all of OUR ENEMIES. Will the U.N. become your cabinet? Most likely....
They actually cooked non soy based meat and used CO2 producing charcoal? I thought they wanted to outlaw these types of things...
I’d be embarrassed to death to admit one of those socialist, tax-hiking America-hating defenceless whimps wooed me, but I guess there are plenty so-and-so’s out there who will admit to it with a grin. Most Democrats are “lazier than a pet skunk” is a way a friend of mine describes them.
I bet it was with Topps Meat they were serving.
Donkeys eating meat in a barn and smelling up the place. Doesn’t get any better than that...
I wanted to do something special for my 15,000th thread.
By pure luck.. or providence perhaps ;-) .. BBQ haPPens!
BBQ’d Rat.. mmm.. tastes just like chicken
A barbecue? Isn’t that a little too traditional for these candidates?
packed into a swine barn Yet!! lolol
That's quite an endorsement. I'm sure she'll put that on every campaign pamphlet.
People are idiots, what more needs to be said? How appropriate that the venue was held in a swine barn.
Dems and pigs. They go together.
An ironic twist ..or maybe Murtha slept there. lol
That’s quite an endorsement. I’m sure she’ll put that on every campaign pamphlet.
:::::::
Along with a hammer-and-sickle and a membership discount coupon to the CPUSA.
The whole central part of Iowa is a scourge on the rest of the state.
Did they serve samsclub burgers?
I saw that, what a mess with the meat.
I’d be serving spare ribs and kielbasa myself.. grilled real good.
Pork BBQ: So much for the Muslim vote. I hope no one loses their head over this.
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