{"id":58,"date":"2008-01-04T07:29:35","date_gmt":"2008-01-04T15:29:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fogcityjournal.com\/wordpress\/2008\/01\/04\/notes-from-the-ground-a-san-franciscan-in-iowa\/"},"modified":"2008-02-27T07:30:55","modified_gmt":"2008-02-27T15:30:55","slug":"notes-from-the-ground-a-san-franciscan-in-iowa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fogcityjournal.com\/wordpress\/58\/notes-from-the-ground-a-san-franciscan-in-iowa\/","title":{"rendered":"Notes from the ground: A San Franciscan in Iowa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Tanene                  Allison<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>January 4, 2008<\/p>\n<p>The morning after the Iowa Caucus, Des Moines is eerily quiet.                  Media and campaign staffers and volunteers are fleeing en-masse                  from the city. This last week has seen Des Moines become a strange                  and almost fictional city; a temporarily overfilled city based                  on the premise that history, one way or another, might just have                  been written by the outcome here.<\/p>\n<p>And history was made yesterday, when a predominantly white state                  nominated Senator Barack Obama to represent America&#8217;s yearning                  for change, a change from corrupt corporate establishment politics,                  to politics for the millions of average citizens who daily keep                  this country running. And with Mike Huckabee&#8217;s Republican caucus                  victory, we may ultimately witness a watershed showdown between                  a Republican Party theocratic agenda and Obama&#8217;s agenda for change.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--> Walking the streets of Des Moines this last week, if it wasn&#8217;t                  for the frigid temperatures and overabundance of Republicans,                  you could almost forget you&#8217;re not in San Francisco. Every Democratic                  campaign includes its own who&#8217;s-who of the Bay Area political                  scene.<\/p>\n<p>District Attorney Kamala Harris has been donning warm clothes                  and canvassing for Senator Barack Obama. Mayor Gavin Newsom was                  in town for Senator Hillary Clinton. Political donors and volunteers                  for every campaign include robust representation of Bay Area residents.                  Mission District resident Steve Grove of YouTube&#8217;s CitizenTube                  fame is providing new media coverage. David Binder and his crew                  can be seen at all the happening dinner soirees. All the campaign                  headquarters, and just about every restaurant, are packed with                  familiar faces.<\/p>\n<p>More than in any recent Presidential selection process, Iowa                  has been framed as a crucial deciding point, in particular, for                  the Democratic Party. Whereas Bay Area Democrats have always been                  strongly involved in fundraising for the primary process, this                  year&#8217;s fundraising alone has not satisfied many Bay Area politicos.                  Many have decided that there is nowhere more important for them                  to be this week than on the ground in Iowa.<\/p>\n<p>Californians are in Iowa as campaign staffers, volunteers, high                  profile supporters, journalists, and attention-raisers for specific                  causes. Those who work together for candidates or causes in the                  Bay Area are now finding themselves surrounded by cold pizza in                  campaign offices across town from each other.<\/p>\n<p>Today, Iowa will have gone back to being Iowa again.<\/p>\n<p>For a little bit of context &#8211; this year&#8217;s Caucus was about double                  the size, and at least twenty fold the energy of the last Caucus.                  With winners not able to be predicted in advance, twice the number                  of media representatives were drawn to the state. Democratic Caucusers                  felt excited about their numerous choices, making the excitement                  and energy level of this year&#8217;s Caucus phenomenally higher than                  it was last time around. Turnout was around double what it was                  four years ago. First time Caucusers were plentiful! Independents                  and Republicans switched over to Democratic candidates they wanted.                  The youth vote jumped! Lines to get into the Caucus, and for new                  Caucusers to register, were often running out doors and down hallways.                  Neighbors excitedly debated with each other. Many had never seen                  democracy like this. Many did not believe a democracy like this                  would possibly occur on a cold day in a January in Iowa. Enough                  did believe, however, to make it happen.<\/p>\n<p>As we all pack up to leave Des Moines &#8211; Bay Area residents hoping                  to not get stuck in Denver due to the storm in California! &#8211; it                  looks as if San Franciscans might have played a formidable role                  in what took place in Iowa. This was no repeat of four years ago,                  where Dean was widely criticized for his influx of out of state                  volunteers. Canvassing cold streets, making calls, doing visibility,                  and monitoring Caucuses, San Franciscans mirrored the general                  spirit in Iowa this last week. We found a way to come together,                  work for what we&#8217;re passionate about, and to respectfully and                  robustly debate where we think this country should be heading.<\/p>\n<p>San Franciscans in Iowa this week participated in this building                  of a temporary city and, hopefully, a changing country &#8211; one where                  politics are engaging, democracy is alive and well, and where                  we can momentarily pause in the belief that the reason we all                  do this is that sometimes politics actually do reflect the best                  of who we can make ourselves to be as a community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Tanene Allison January 4, 2008 The morning after the Iowa Caucus, Des Moines is eerily quiet. Media and campaign staffers and volunteers are fleeing en-masse from the city. This last week has seen Des&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6413,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[98,167,166],"class_list":["post-58","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-barack-obama","tag-caucus","tag-iowa"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Notes from the ground: A San Franciscan in Iowa - Fog City Journal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fogcityjournal.com\/wordpress\/58\/notes-from-the-ground-a-san-franciscan-in-iowa\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Notes from the ground: A San Franciscan in Iowa - Fog City Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Tanene Allison January 4, 2008 The morning after the Iowa Caucus, Des Moines is eerily quiet. 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