Edwards Caucus? He Hardly Knew Us!

KEOKUK, IOWA — With little-to-no foresight, Flak writer Stephen Himes volunteered for the John Edwards Iowa caucus effort this year, driving six hours on New Year's Day from Liberty, Missouri with friend and fellow Edwards supporter, James Owen, for the caucuses on the third. Before they knew it, he and James were named precinct captains for Fort Madison, Iowa, where Steve singlehandedly stole a delegate from Hillary Clinton by convincing a school-teacher Richardson supporter to stand with Edwards.

The fruits of the experience — canvassing for Edwards in sub-zero temperatures, getting stuck in waist-deep snow while trying to deliver campaign DVDs featuring "Cooter" from The Dukes of Hazzard, and almost dropping a wheelchair-bound Edwards supporter in the parking lot outside a Fort Madison nursing home — are on display below, in a three-part series of images captured by Himes's Samsung Digimax D 53.

Beautiful Keokuk, Iowa! Don't let the promotional video fool you — once a bustling center of commerce, Keokuk is now, as a Lee Countian from Fort Madison described it, "a dirty little river town." The main drag is lined with empty factories; in the downtown area, once-grand hotels have become housing for the poor, and business consists largely of angry bars and pawn shops. The electronics store still has a plastic "Magnovox" sign outside. In short, Keokuk is squalor. Could this be Edwards country?

Now THIS is Edwards country! Local trial lawyer Nicholas Pothitakis loaned use of the Keokuk satellite office of his workers' compensation practice to the Edwards camp for a couple months — which should tell you exactly how many workers are still left in Keokuk. Pothitakis will fight for your rights, or so says the back of the Keokuk phone book.

We rolled into Keokuk at about 4:00 on New Year's Day and went to the Edwards office. Greg and Lara, the paid staff, put us to work immediately making phone calls. Turns out, we struck the jackpot: the candidate was going to be at The Ivy Bake Shop tomorrow at 11:30 in Fort Madison, about 20 miles up the road. Our job was to call supporters and get them to show up.Turns out, the "supporters" were culled from a hodgepodge list of people who, at one time or another, mighta, coulda, maybe said they were at least thinking about voting for John Edwards. So, we interrupted a whole bunch of old people's dinners and "Wheel of Fortune," and I was mistaken for a grandson three times. It was worth it, though — Greg and Lara were sending us to Fort Madison to canvass, leaving us enough time to get to see our hero in person..

We woke up at the Keokuk Hampton Inn, all fired up about (possibly) getting to meet John Edwards. We enjoyed a relaxing hot breakfast in the lobby, perusing the Des Moines Register (too close to call!) and watching Chris Matthews shake like Beavis from all the excitement. Fortified and ready to take back our democracy, we walk out to this. That's six inches of snow and five degrees. Holy frozen Jeezus it's cold up here. Just to the left, you can see Keokuk's one remaining open factory, an auto parts plant.

When we got to Pothitakis HQ, Greg and Lara informed us that we were going to Mt. Pleasant instead of Fort Madison. We didn't know where either of those places were, so we didn't really care, except that we would miss out on the donuts at The Ivy Bake Shop with the Senator. But...then we find out that Edwards was going to be at this house in Mt. Pleasant at 9:30. Awesome! This is Bob's house the morning of the Senator's arrival.

Bob is in the middle. Bob throws the 4th of July BBQ and fireworks show. Be on notice, residents of Mt. Pleasant Precinct 3: If you don't caucus for John Edwards, maybe somebody else will want to use his industrial-sized grill and pay for a couple Warring States Repeaters with Report this summer. Being a precinct captain is a pretty big deal — not only do you get to blackmail your friends, the candidate will come to your house. Also pictured are Matt and Jeff, paid Edwards lieutenants from South Carolina and Tennessee, respectively, and they're in charge of something or another.

We got to Bob's a little early, so as people were filing in, rather than make awkward small talk with southeast Iowa liberals (eccentric housewives of local rich guys), we asked Matt if there was anything we could do. He gave us the clipboard and stickers and had us get people's contact information as they came in the front door. People respect you when you have a clipboard, even the people who refused stickers because they're supporting another candidate and just like seeing celebrities. They headed straight for the pastries. Finally, after 15 minutes of holding the clipboard, the press bus pulled up in front of Bob's house.

This is the media horde packing into Bob's house. That guy in the suit? Not with the media. The media looked mostly like Western Humanaties TA's at Starbucks hitting on freshman while talking about Proust. I begin to think that Bill O'Reilly might be right about the media, mostly because they DIDN'T respect the clipboard and pressed us right up against Bob's stairs and set up their cameras right behind us.

After the media settled in, a bunch of people with the same wool trenchcoat Bradley Whitford wore on The West Wing during the campaign walked with purpose through Bob's front door. Then...behold! Senator John Edwards strolled up the sidewalk and through the door...and up the stairs. Basically, with his junk in my face.

This is me being faith-healed by John Edwards, who spends 15 minutes baptizing us in the fire of populist zeal. Who's tired of corporate greed? These upper middle class liberals in Mt. Pleasant, that's who. Who hates rich people? I do! Except for Bob, of course.

This is the twentieth time Edwards delivered his stump speech during his final 36 non-stop hours campaign tour before the caucus. I've got to say, for a guy that's maybe getting two hours of sleep a night, Edwards looked pretty good. His haircut was definitely worth $500.

Elizabeth spoke for a bit, and actually spittled a bit onto James' face. She only obliquely referred to her cancer, saying only that this race is "personal" for her and John. If you liked Teresa, but understood why Midwesterners were turned off by her, then Elizabeth Edwards should get your First Lady vote. In a completely scripted moment, she "interrupted" the Senator to turn around and tell "canvassers and volunteers" (actually, the media) that Iowa Public Radio reporters who were saying that Barack Obama's health care plan is universal are "factually incorrect." The picture shows her smiling adoringly, but make no mistake, Elizabeth wants this worse than John. It's odd to see the dynamic between them: John is the pretty face, and Elizabeth is the hatchet.

Click here for Part 2.