Just Don't Leave Bill Alone With the Babysitters

Ice Queen and the Snowman

I wonder if this is even legal?

Meet Hillary Clinton's secret weapon in Iowa: baby-sitters.

In Thursday's caucuses, it all comes down to getting out the vote. And Clinton is going to the extremes, even lining up baby-sitters and day care centers for caucus-going moms.

She is locked in a tight race with Democratic rivals Barack Obama and John Edwards. Securing every extra vote in a race in which fewer than 50,000 people may show up will be the difference between a momentum-building win or a humbling defeat.

The Clinton campaign is opening day care centers across the state, including three in Des Moines, and has enlisted a legion of teenage girls to render their tyke-watching services.

Surely daycare centers must be licensed by the state.

Is the campaign doing any background checks on these babysitters?

What about liability in the event of an accident?

Seems to me this is just another cheesy gimmick by the Clintons.

From a commenter at the Daily News.

Bulzeye Jan 2, 2008 9:12:13 AM

ONLY a democrat would be stupid enough to leave their children with a complete stranger provided by a campaign from a party that supports felon voting rights, the ACLU and the rights of child molesters at every turn (except maybe at election time.) Don't come crying when your children are abused- blame yourself and remember you are a democratic supporter.

Silky Express Breaks Down

Heh.

I just hope they got the hair care products off in time.

Oops!

To cap off his four-year campaign to win Iowa's Democratic caucus Thursday night, John Edwards planned a 36-hour marathon bus tour through 15 of the crucial state's 99 counties with a whole series of policy announcements to garner publicity and caucus votes.

But 12 hours into the political odyssey -- billed as Edwards' "Marathon for the Middle Class" -- his Main Street Express bus began making very disturbing noises in western Iowa. In darkness, the bus with the entire Edwards entourage pulled over at a service station and was abandoned.

Oh, the awful symbolism for a political campaign struggling to overcome a new Des Moines Register poll showing him behind Hillary Clinton and way behind -- like eight points -- this senatorial upstart Barack Obama in what everyone admits is a make-or-break contest for Edwards' presidential hopes in the Hawkeye state, where he finished second to John Kerry in 2004.

Edwards is already famous for his tardiness. But 45 minutes after he was to speak in his Council Bluffs office late Tuesday night, the former senator and his wife Elizabeth were still missing. And the crowd of more than 200 people, including The Times' dogged Seema Mehta, crammed the office full and stuffy and spilled outdoors, where the January prairie temperature was in the single digits.

A few minutes late in Iowa's rural society is perfectly acceptable. This is, after all, the agricultural Heartland where the weather is the first item on the radio news, not the last. But 45+ minutes late on a holiday night before a normal workday in 5-degree temperatures seems like a lot longer. "When he's president he can call the shots," hollered one person, who at least arrived an Edwards supporter, "Get him in here!"

"We've got to work in the morning!" griped another.

Unbeknownst to the crowd, Edwards, his wife and staff were scrambling off their broken bus into two minivans and racing to the event. Eventually, they arrived. He spoke. His staff hastily rented another plain bus and the even tardier campaign headed off to a supporter's house in Atlantic.

Meanwhile, he's getting desperate, now calling for all troops and even those training Iraqi forces to be out within 10 months.

Good luck with that.

He just doesn't get it.

It's Official: Americans Sick of Iowa and New Hampshire

I've felt this way for a long time. Why do these two states get to hold so much influence over who becomes President of the United States?

According to a national survey conducted for The Associated Press and Yahoo News, just over half of all voters said New Hampshire and Iowa have an extraordinary amount of influence over who wins the two parties nominations.

"They have way too much — WAY too much — say," said Kevin Thomas of Tacoma, Wash. "California's a big state and they don't have any say, and Iowa's not even half the size of California. It really makes me as a voter wonder what's going on."

Fewer than one in five voters said they favor the current system that allows Iowa and New Hampshire to hold the first contests, while nearly 80 percent would rather see other states get their chance at the front of the line.

Surely it's one reason many states have moved up their primary dates.

Perhaps the two major parties can figure out another way of doing things; maybe rotate some new states in earlier every four years.

No doubt it would make political reporters happy if they could spend a couple of months this time of year in, say, Florida, rather than chasing candidates all over the frozen cornfields.

Another suggestion would be to limit the amount of time campaigning. We still have ten full months to go before the general election and people will be so sick of politics by then.

Iowa Voters Cowering in Fear

I realized Iowa has been overrun in recent weeks by marauding hordes canvassing the state in search of voters, but I had no idea the contest would turn to such violence.

We may need to bring in the National Guard to restore order.

Candidates hone message and hunt voters in Iowa

Last week it was Mike Huckabee shooting over the heads of the press. That we can understand. Now, apparently, even potential voters are in danger.

White House hopefuls honed their closing messages and targeted undecided voters in Iowa on Monday, three days before the state opens the presidential nominating battle in a too-close-to-call race.

Candidates rolled across the snowy back roads of Iowa to drum up support, while campaigns prepared to unleash a mammoth effort to find voters..."

Prepare for Crash Landing: Hill-a-Copter to Cross Iowa

I know the Clinton campaign is reeling and in desperate shape, but this is ridiculous.

IOWA CITY, IA – It's a bird. It's a plane. It's a Hill-A-Copter!

Or so the Clinton camp has branded a helicopter that the candidate will fly around in during her "Every County Counts Tour" across Iowa, beginning Sunday.

Campaign staffers are calling the tour a five-day blitz across Iowa's 99 counties, but Clinton herself will only appear in 12. Husband/President Bill and "others" will hit the remaining 87 checkerboard jurisdictions that make up the Hawkeye State.

“In the final days before the Iowa caucuses, I want to tap into that spirit so that every voice is heard on caucus night for universal health care, a stronger economy and an end to the war in Iraq,” Candidate Clinton said last night in Iowa, according to a press release.

There was no word on the former president's mode of transportation, but given the recent ice storm in the eastern half of the state, a His-and-Hers helicopter combo might not be a bad idea.

He might also consider a dog sled, which Estes Kefauver used to cross snowy New Hampshire during the 1952 and 1956 presidential primary. (Kefauver, a Tennessee senator, often outfitted himself in a coonskin cap too. President Clinton rarely wore headgear on the trail, except a baseball cap when jogging.)

Apparently her broom can't reach altitude during the winter months.