There are a handful of things that Iowa is famous for. An old friend of mine, an Iowa native, always used to sing a little ditty, “Iowa Lot, to Iowa Pot.” Iowa is known for its corn, its undistinguishable accents that produce many fine weather folk and a particular musical, “The Music Man.”
Taking place about 100 years ago, “The Music Man,” which features Shirley Jones, (of Partridge Family fame) and a very diminutive and lisp-happy Ron Howard, a professor who comes to River City, Iowa to help bring them a Marching Band.
Fast forward to January 2004 – we have had half a dozen or so candidates competing for the role of “Music Man” in Iowa – Kerry, Dean, Edwards, Gephardt and Kucinich vying for the position of leader of the famous Iowa Caucuses.
Spell all of these candidates who are part of a vast collective of presidential candidates, and “you’ve got trouble!”
It had been assumed for the last several months that Howard Dean would be the Music Man in this race, as he had the loudest voice fighting against the war and arguing against Bush – naturally the race could have been in the corner pocket. However, it seems like many an Iowan smelled a rat and wanted to chase him out of town. This can be seen from the results of the Caucuses. Eighteen percent of the vote? Go figure.
Sure, Dean may have started off as an appealing candidate who opposed the war in Iraq and claims that he has the answers to all of our international problems, though he has the same amount of foreign policy experience that President Bush had when he took office – none.
Unlike Dean, Sen. John Kerry (Mass.) has experience in the military – rather than experience in skiing in Colorado – with a strong record on foreign policy, an impressive 18 years of service on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and having served in this position under four different presidents – three of which have been Republican. And he certainly is in favor of achieving peace in Iraq and throughout the Middle East, and not by simply pulling out.
You can say that Kerry may have been more of a supporting character in the Caucus chase for the last few months, but somebody had to lead the band practices. In the musical, the band, which was given second-hand instruments and poor training, miraculously whipped themselves into shape.
And the band came out, in spite of frigid temperatures throughout Iowa. And play they did. But it was not for Dean, it was not for Gephardt, but definitely for Kerry. Perhaps it was Kerry who was conducting “the 76 Trombones in the big parade.”
How did Kerry mobilize such a massive number of people to come to his aid, to produce such symphonic success? Besides the devotion of much of his time and money (as well as a bulk of the money from his donors), John Kerry stopped rushing around in New Hampshire and took out his metronome in Iowa.
Having hundreds of volunteers getting out the vote up until 7:00 p.m. Monday evening (6:00 p.m. Iowa Time) also helped. One Iowan told me how glad she was to hear a live person reminding her to vote from the Kerry campaign, rather than a pre-recorded message from the Gephardt camp.
Practicing with a metronome and pacing himself and his band, Sen. Kerry made a magical debut in Iowa by becoming its Music Man. He may only have his 76 Trombones in Iowa, but he has the momentum to recruit other band members across the country, the ones who have the potential to perform for an entire country.
by Gary Wilkinson