Romney wins Iowa Straw Poll 2007!

Today we did something that you can only do in Iowa--we went to the Republican Straw Poll. Thanks to our friends, the McCords, who are huge Romney supporters we were given tickets to this mock primary.

Historically, this event has foreshadowed the candidate to win the Republican nomination for the Presidential Election. Bush won in 1999, Romney won in 2007.15,000 people attended this year's poll in Ames, Iowa (2 hours west of I.C.) and Niles & I made up 2 of that number. We left Saturday morning from the HyVee parking lot in Coralville on chartered coaches provided by the Romney campaign. We were served refreshments, given t-shirts, and watched a DVD to get us pumped up for Romney. After arriving we were taken to the polling area where neither Niles or I could vote since we still proudly hold Georgia driver licenses (technically we were charlatans since we did not make our support official by punching the chad). Romney paid top dollar for spot "center stage" with a huge tent, stage, live music, rock climbing wall, inflatable playgrounds, COLD water, COKE products (already a little gold star in my book), BBQ, misters to cool the patrons and plenty of seating. We chowed down on tangy Iowa-style BBQ sandwiches and then headed into the air conditioned coliseum to hear the candidates give their speeches. Prior to the candidates being introduced however, the Vice President of the NRA spoke as did Newt Gingrich--it was Republican to the core! Once the speeches were given we headed out, once again, to the Romney camp where we were able to meet him and his wife, Anne. With signatures and photos procured we wandered the aisles scoping out the other candidates' set ups while pouring buckets of sweat in the excruciating Iowa heat. As an aside, I am told that I will be wishing it was this hot come January! By 3:30 we were back to the buses to head home.Today, we were a part of history. We did something that we will more than likely never do again--something you can only do in Iowa. It was a great day with new friends and a chance to watch high-stakes politics in action.

Please notice the ironic tid bits from the slide show:

1. Notice the difference between Ron Paul's mode of transportation and the "Mitt Mobile"

2. Only in Iowa do you see a bicycle taxi

3. The back of the coliseum was filled with bloggers and reporters with computers and high speed connections, yet you had to give a thumb print in pink ink to ensure that you did not vote twice (No, we were not in Iraq!)