The Sun Always Shines on TV

Iowa takes its First in the Nation status seriously.  There are a few local tv series that do a good job of getting a candidate in front of an audience.

As good as any is the local CBS affiliate which had a series called The Undecideds.

The idea is four undecided Democrats spend a half hour with a candidate and ask questions.  I would suggest some sort of google search around "KCCI Undecideds" and you can find the episodes.

Another great series is from Iowa Public Television and it's an hour interview with former Des Moines Register journalist and one of the essential Caucus Talking Heads David Yepsen.

It records not that far away from me, and so I've been meaning to take one of the tapings in.

You should be able to find these episodes on the Iowa PBS YouTube Channel.

As I mentioned in last post, winter weather has hit every weekend leading up to the Caucus, so I knew that would work in my favor. and it mostly did.

I was one of the first one there to see a taping with Pete Buttigieg, but indeed, the place was packed.

The minute arrived, I saw an old friend who I knew was a long time Republican.  Indeed, she had been, but was excited for Pete.  Now, I knew from my meeting with a Pete volunteer earlier in the week, that a talking point was that Pete attracted Independents and Republicans, but I kind of dismissed it. Indeed, here it was (and interestingly, I have talked to another friend who is a 'deficit hawk' that lost faith in the GOP under Dubya and is now volunteering for Pete.

One thing that was nice about this event was a large contingent of Mikva Challenge teens.

I had never heard of the Mikva Challenge and neither had anyone I talked to, but they were so numerous, that they were hard to ignore.  Come to find out, it- this is a program for teens to be aware and to get involved in civics.  That's pretty awesome.  Not only were these Chicago-based students here and got to meet Pete, but I know they also attended a Biden event and shadowed the Warren, Sanders, and Yang campaigns

They weren't the only ones.  There was a group of high schoolers from Oregon who took a week off just to come to Iowa.  It's a story that comes up from time to time.  Heck, as the Register reported back in November, Iowa during Caucus Season is a vacation destination.

What can I say about the event?  It was very professional.  Not any extension chords showing up in camera view or anything.  It should also be mentioned this wasn't a campaign "event" or a rally, so the crowd was asked to listen and not to cheer.  It would have been tempting, but it's only an hour show, and it was best to get as much interview in as possible.

My placing could not have been better.  I was literally seated in front of the cameras that were filming.  If anything, my placement was probably too good.  The pictures I took (and posted below) are almost too perfect.  They look like I shot it from the TV.  The pics might be more impressive if I were farther away and it looked like I was in the crowd, not eye-to-eye with him as I was, ten feet away.

I had seen Pete before, and I would say impressions are probably accurate.  He's not a hardened dead-in-the-eyes politco like Newt Gingrich.  Not as bland as SNL makes him to be, Trump played up the Nerd card with his Alfred E Neumann comment.  There might be a bit of Sheldon Cooper in Pete, but despite a bit of "Valedictorian" vibe, Pete isn't really as nerdy as opponents might make him out to be, either.  If anything, it’s a relief that he’s not been brought up as a blowhard or self-obsessive Alpha Male.  (He’s not a typical “Beta male” either- coming across as confident and unflappable- surely from a resume of Harvard and the military).

There's also a bit of Barack Obama about him, though, too.  There's intelligence and energy, and perhaps it's the military background, but there's an unflappability about him too.

I won't go much into the interview which is online if you need it.  Yepsen talking up the military service aspect and Bob Dole's quote about a President should know what it is like to be shot at, was particularly memorable.

Buttigieg was witty too, advising that Chasten and he were on "Obamacare" since he was now a retired mayor; and advising of his website "PeteforAmerica.com. Definitely check it out. There's also a donate button, feel free"

He mixed policy discussion (such as how he would strengthen Social Security) with the personal (Storm Lake, Iowa's July 4th Parade, a Wounded Warrior friend), and it's no doubt that his ability to speak to both is why he went from nobody to one of the front runners.

I had hoped to spend a minute with Pete, but he did not stick around as Amy Klobuchar had a couple weeks earlier when she had done the Yepsen interview.  Granted, Pete did need to get to the other side of the state and roads were bad because of the weather.  For all intents and purposes, it did not look to be Pete's call but a staffer's.

Nor did I get a chance to talk to Yepsen, though I would have liked to have said a nice word or two to him.  He is truly an icon in the coverage of Iowa Politics, and icons like Yepsen aren't getting any younger.

I did not want to intrude though, as he spoke to a dozen international college students from across all over the world who came to see him.

I did eavesdrop though, and it was interesting to hear the words of such a political veteran.  On camera, Yepsen can come across as a 'take no crap' journalist, but he radiates warmth.

He left the Register after 34 years and took over the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University.  The late Senator and Presidential Candidate Simon was a huge admirer of Yepson, as was Jack Germond, and so many others.

Yepson joked that he had seen the perfect candidate (Obama) and was ready to step away, but Iowa Public TV asked him to do the interview series and he couldn't resist.

While I admittedly don't know that I took full advantage of the 2020 Caucus Cycle, seeing Yepsen interview a Presidential candidate was definitely Caucus Bucket List material.