Cattle Call at the Pork Dinner

Days Until Bush Leaves Office = 640

I'm gearing up to eat massive amounts of Iowa pork and watch a parade of candidates speak at the annual Polk County Democrats Spring Dinner tonight.

Confirmed candidates:

• John Edwards: it will be interesting to see the contrast between his performance delivering a rostrum speech versus the town hall event I attended a couple of weeks ago.
  
• Bill Richardson: haven't met him yet, so I'm looking forward to checking off this last box on the candidate roll call.
  
• Joe Biden: hasn't gotten much traction since I attended his foreign policy town hall last month. His Iraq plan is the best one out there, but he's stuck in neutral. We'll see if he can shake things up tonight.
  
  The surrogates:
  
• Dodd campaign: former Congressman Rick Nolen (Minnesota 6th Congressional District). Disappointed that Dodd won't be there himself, as he's on a policy speech jag at the moment (last week foreign policy, this week energy), and it would have been interesting to hear him in person about whatever's next on the agenda. But, having met him just last week, I can let this one slide, I suppose (me: spoiled. rotten.).
  
• Clinton campaign: Christie Vilsack. Hillary will be doing a GOTCB (Get Out The Checkbook) event for Congressman Leonard Boswell (IA-03) tomorrow, so has appearantly decided to pick her spots and give tonight's event a miss. As an aside, I got a robocall from Hillary last night asking if I would be attending the Boswell fundraiser ("press 1 for yes, press 2 if you'll be unable to attend."). Upon pressing 2 to decline, the next question was, "Will you be caucusing for me next January? Press 1 for yes, press 2 if you'd like more information." That one cracked me up; "No" wasn't even an option. (NOTE: I'm not saying I would've selected "no" if it had been available. It's still only April, and I'm still undecided. Funny, though!)
  
• Obama Campaign: five-term Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, from the 9th CD in Barack's home state of Illinois (pronunced "Ella-NOIZ" some places hereabouts). Schakowsky is on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and says her top priority is healthcare, so I'll say it's a safe bet she won't be gunning for Dodd or Biden tonight. And am I reading too much into the Obama campaign sending a woman to match up against Christie Vilsack's speaking for Hillary? Maybe. Maybe not.




Anyhow, should be a hot time at the fairgrounds tonight. I'll post a full account over the weekend.