I Love College
Last week, I reported on some positive buzz on Kirsten Gillibrand, a candidate that the national media considers dead.
What to do? Well, hangout with Iowans.
So it was to Blazing Saddles, the city’s oldest gay bar to attend a drag show where famously the drinks are always doubles and there’s never a cover.
It’s not noteworthy since Des Moines seems to love its drag shows. In fact, I don’t know many people who haven’t attended one at The Saddle or nearby Garden, and the crowd that goes often tends to be more Conservatives than Liberals.
So it’s a nonstory, except well of course it is. The New York Daily News wasn’t going to miss out on this opportunity for those precious, precious clicks.
On Friday night, Gillibrand wrote on Twitter that she had been invited by “Vana and the amazing queens at the Blazing Saddle for a visit before their show. I felt underdressed, so I brought a dress I picked up yesterday—turns out it fit me, but it fit Vana even better! Thank you for having me, ladies!”
It is kind of a unique story, though, so I will file this away with great Iowa caucus moments like Obama playing bumper cars with his daughters, Rick Perry awkwardly eating a corn dog and Fred Thompson walking around the State Fair in Gucci shoes. There isn’t much to it and it’s probably only coincidental that it happened within 96 hours of Pete Buttigieg’s headline tour of Iowa. I don’t suspect Kirsten would be opportunistically trying to be “more gay than Pete”, but a lesser politician might try that.
In any case, it’s not like she is out arm wrestling Iowa State students who challenged her on twitter.
A crowd of roughly 40 students and Ames residents flocked the patio of Stomping Grounds on Friday evening for a “main event.”
The main event? An arm-wrestling contest on the establishment’s gray table-top between 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and a 20-year-old Des Moines Community College Student named Olivia Habinck.
“I saw a video of (Gillibrand) lifting weights on Twitter and I tweeted at her and asked if she would like to do an arm-wrestling match,” said Habinck. “It’s a once-and-a-lifetime opportunity, and we as Iowans, don’t take these opportunities to meet and interact with presidential candidates lightly.”
Ok, but that is a genuinely fun move and why not mix some serious talk on climate change with some fun voter bonding.
I mean it’s not like she will be in New Hampshire next Friday night playing beer pong.
“Perks of being a young dem…. playing beer pong with @SenGillibrand and winnnning!” tweeted Shaye Weldon, who shared a photo of New York’s junior senator competing in a bar-top challenge. “This woman is a fierce passionate intelligent woman & an inspiration to young women everywhere.”
The picture suggested the 52-year-old Gillibrand hasn’t been partying too hard with college-age students in New Hampshire — the senator’s cups appeared to be filled with water.
Oh well. There are 21 Democratic candidates and the greatest circus men of all time (P T Barnum, Vince McMahon, Donald Trump) all subscribed to the adage “There’s no such thing as bad publicity”.
Which is a bit of a shame as I like Gillibrand but even these stunts are only being covered in the farthest reaches of political blogs like this one.
What to do? Well, hangout with Iowans.
So it was to Blazing Saddles, the city’s oldest gay bar to attend a drag show where famously the drinks are always doubles and there’s never a cover.
It’s not noteworthy since Des Moines seems to love its drag shows. In fact, I don’t know many people who haven’t attended one at The Saddle or nearby Garden, and the crowd that goes often tends to be more Conservatives than Liberals.
So it’s a nonstory, except well of course it is. The New York Daily News wasn’t going to miss out on this opportunity for those precious, precious clicks.
On Friday night, Gillibrand wrote on Twitter that she had been invited by “Vana and the amazing queens at the Blazing Saddle for a visit before their show. I felt underdressed, so I brought a dress I picked up yesterday—turns out it fit me, but it fit Vana even better! Thank you for having me, ladies!”
It is kind of a unique story, though, so I will file this away with great Iowa caucus moments like Obama playing bumper cars with his daughters, Rick Perry awkwardly eating a corn dog and Fred Thompson walking around the State Fair in Gucci shoes. There isn’t much to it and it’s probably only coincidental that it happened within 96 hours of Pete Buttigieg’s headline tour of Iowa. I don’t suspect Kirsten would be opportunistically trying to be “more gay than Pete”, but a lesser politician might try that.
In any case, it’s not like she is out arm wrestling Iowa State students who challenged her on twitter.
A crowd of roughly 40 students and Ames residents flocked the patio of Stomping Grounds on Friday evening for a “main event.”
The main event? An arm-wrestling contest on the establishment’s gray table-top between 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and a 20-year-old Des Moines Community College Student named Olivia Habinck.
“I saw a video of (Gillibrand) lifting weights on Twitter and I tweeted at her and asked if she would like to do an arm-wrestling match,” said Habinck. “It’s a once-and-a-lifetime opportunity, and we as Iowans, don’t take these opportunities to meet and interact with presidential candidates lightly.”
Ok, but that is a genuinely fun move and why not mix some serious talk on climate change with some fun voter bonding.
I mean it’s not like she will be in New Hampshire next Friday night playing beer pong.
“Perks of being a young dem…. playing beer pong with @SenGillibrand and winnnning!” tweeted Shaye Weldon, who shared a photo of New York’s junior senator competing in a bar-top challenge. “This woman is a fierce passionate intelligent woman & an inspiration to young women everywhere.”
The picture suggested the 52-year-old Gillibrand hasn’t been partying too hard with college-age students in New Hampshire — the senator’s cups appeared to be filled with water.
Oh well. There are 21 Democratic candidates and the greatest circus men of all time (P T Barnum, Vince McMahon, Donald Trump) all subscribed to the adage “There’s no such thing as bad publicity”.
Which is a bit of a shame as I like Gillibrand but even these stunts are only being covered in the farthest reaches of political blogs like this one.
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