Iowa08: Archives

JOHN LENDMAN writes:
Much like my randomly selected candidate to cover, John Edwards, I have faith in the little guy; inspired by what impact I can make in democracy from the voice of the working class. While his contribution is on the campaign trail, mine will be in the papers.

I want my writing to contribute to our democratic society and give readers access and awareness of why these issues are important to their everyday lives. Ideally, how I report on the issues of politics will inspire a dialog in public policy and maybe even inspire voters at the polls; at least that is my goal.

My expectation for this class is to develop a passion for politics; to sharpen my focus in this field and find my niche. Ultimately, I’d like to figure out a way to get average working-class Americans interested in public policy, how it affects them and why it is important to educate oneself as an element of our democratic system.

To digress a bit, if I had to pinpoint a specific moment that inspired me, it was my seventh-grade U.S. history class. My teacher was explaining the branches of government to a classroom of unimpressed adolescents. What made this lesson plan unique was when he wrote on the blackboard: “The four branches of our democratic government: Legislative, Judicial, Executive, and The Press.” He went on to explain the power the press had as the “checks and balances” issued by the people in an adequate democracy. I took notes with my head spinning, thinking about how I could impact democracy without having to go to law school at some Ivy League institution. I joined the school newspaper the following semester.

The passion to be a journalist still hasn’t changed and I hope this class will give me a crash course toward my future.

John Lendman is an undergraduate journalism student from San Antonio, Texas.

John Lendman writes:
Standing with the Covering the Iowa Caucuses class Wednesday night in a Starbucks across the street from our hotel, watching what seemed like every fire department in the tri-county area try to assess why we were evacuated, made me realize that our trip was going to be more interesting then I thought.

Soon after, we discussed what each student had planned to cover with their candidate the next day. I decided to head to Iowa City, about an hour away from Bettendorf, to see Democrat John Edwards make a quick stop at a popular restaurant just hours before the caucuses.

The next day, we drove through the acres of densely snow-covered, flat farmlands that I would imagine make up most of the landscape in Iowa. We passed by “Iowa 80: The World’'s Largest Truck Stop”, in between Bettendorf and Iowa City; it was the only thing more interesting then the frozen cattle (livestock-sicles, if you will?) and the occasional abandoned car.

When we finally reached the restaurant where my assigned candidate was speaking, I ran into a young woman I had noticed get off the campaign bus after Edwards. I asked her how long she had been working on the campaign and looking confused she asked, “"Oh, with my dad’'s campaign?"

I was shocked to learn that she was actually John Edward’s's daughter, Cate. I got a great interview about what she had observed traveling with her father during his 36-hour “Marathon for the Middle Class,” and his trial-lawyer experience. To top that off, I briefly spoke with his wife, Elizabeth Edwards, right before she got back on the tour bus, about gay and lesbian issues for another story I was working on.

The actual caucus that night was very strange, however. A local radio broadcast reporter I spoke with described the event as being similar to that of a New England village meeting, joking about the state’'s archaic method of counting caucus-goers.

Each section of the middle-school gym represented a major campaign. While the Obama, Edwards, and Clinton corners were filled with supporters, the Kucinich and Dodd areas were virtually empty, lacking any real campaign signs, stickers, or even chairs for supporters to sit on.

The people of Iowa were very polite about who they supported; one man on the Obama side would joke with his wife in the Edwards area about the old ladies from Clinton’s' corner who were trying to talk the Richardson people into joining them after their candidate was deemed unviable.

While you always hear that it’'s not wise to discuss politics with your neighbors, in Iowa it's an open forum.

John Lendman is an undergraduate journalism student from San Antonio, Texas.

JOHN LENDMAN writes:
Standing in the Bettendorf Middle School gym, where the caucuses were being held for the Democrats of the 22nd precinct, I couldn't help but notice the unorganized manner in which this state held its long-awaited, first-in-the-nation caucus. Other than the fact that many caucus-goers weren't even familiar with the process, one very short man (who took his job entirely too seriously) was in charge of counting the room of 200 or so people surrounding their viable candidates' support tables.

After calling the people in his precinct to order, they held an archaic town-hall-meeting vote of who would head the counting, where he elected himself to a room of no objections.

The friendly precinct captains joked about all the attention they had personally received in the past months, even from the Republican Party. They laughed about the immense number of phone calls and candidate-promoting mailers they had been receiving.

I still don't understand why Iowans need to continue with this outdated practice, but they'll tell you it's tradition, that they wouldn't have it any other way.

What I learned from this trip is just how exciting this tedious (and somewhat pointless) political tradition could be. The whole class got along really well, and it was fun to be among fellow political-news buffs; more then anything it was interesting to share our experiences in dealing with our various candidates and their campaign offices. (I did feel sorry for those assigned to cover Obama, whose campaign was unfortunately unresponsive, and anyone covering the majority of Republican candidates, who showed little to no interest in Iowa's caucus.)

I come out of this experience with much-needed confidence in reporting under a deadline on a story that basically materialized a few hours before we had to turn it in. The stress was worth it to report next to students and instructors that were so easy to work with, and it was invigorating to be surrounded by such great writers and photographers during this trip. Even though this is the shortest class I've ever taken, it was the most organized and put together as well, thanks to Suzanne and John's curriculum. I was truly impressed.

John Lendman is an undergraduate journalism student from San Antonio, Texas.