Essential Estrogen

The presidential campaign for Illinois Sen. Barack Obama has a new State Leadership Committee hitting Iowa streets and a new ad hitting Iowa airwaves.

The leadership team -- members outlined below -- will advise the campaign and organize in local communities. The first test of the organization will come this Saturday when members will organize a statewide canvass.

The ad, entitled "Believe," details Obama's experience taking on lobbyists and bringing politicians together on issues.

While there is no denying that Obama has a strong organization in Iowa, it remains to be seen if he will finally be the politician who can translate support from younger voters into Iowa caucus-goers. Older Iowans are typically the ones who come out on cold winter nights to support their candidates.

Given that, it's difficult to understand the political strategy that has gone into the Obama campaign's decision to not attend the AARP/Iowa Public Television Democratic presidential forum tomorrow night in Davenport. Earlier this evening when I asked Obama's Iowa team to explain the decision, I was emailed a copy of an Aug. 18 memo by Campaign Manager David Plouffe that read, in part:

...Unfortunately, we simply cannot run the kind of campaign we want and need to, engaging the voters in the early states and February 5 states, if our schedule is dictated by dozens of forums and debates. Ultimately, the one group left out of the current schedule is the voters and they are the ones who ask the toughest questions and most deserve to have those questions answered face to face.

Therefore, after this week, we will only be attending the DNC debates through the sanctioning period of December 10, Univision, and the two Iowa debates previously mentioned. [The two debates scheduled for December -- I believe those are the Brown and Black and the Register/IPTV that has been pushed back due to possible caucus date changes.] Candidate forums -- where candidates appear sequentially will be considered, but we are unlikely to accept many of these. Instead, Barack will spend his time answering questions directly from the voters in places like Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada and elsewhere. We simply cannot continue to hopscotch from forum to forum and run a campaign true to the bottom up movement for change that propelled Barack into this race.

...

Many friends and terrific organizations are sponsoring or planning to sponsor debates and forums. So this was not an easy decision for us to execute. But it simply won't work to navigate this one by one. We felt we needed to make our approach clear and consistent.

I think this approach will be better for the voters and the campaign.

Iowa spokesman Tommy Vietor added that the Obama campaign reaches out to senior citizens daily.

"We've also held a number of senior-issue focused events and will hold another on Friday," he wrote. "In June, Obama hosted a roundtable discussion in Story City about how his prescription drug plan would save seniors as much as $157 billion over the next decade. In May, he held an event at the Polk County Central Senior Center to discuss reforms to the Medicare Advantage program that would help prevent seniors from being defrauded. And in April, Obama met with seniors at the Iowa Veterans Home in Marshalltown."

Regardless, it remains difficult to understand why any campaign would want to pass up an opportunity to speak before this many people who are nearly guaranteed to be active caucus participants come January (or whenever).

Given that one of the widest criticisms of Obama has been a perception of lack of experience, not attending such forums only enhances and gives spark to rumors that he isn't ready and doesn't have the ability to share the stage -- that the campaign might be worried his inexperience will show through.

The 2004 election was unprecedented. That is, we put our nominee out there so early in the game and ahead of the national nominating convention, that we opened him up to major ugliness. It was bad, but at least both Sen. John Kerry and then Sen. John Edwards had completely offered themselves up to the people of Iowa and New Hampshire throughout the vetting process.

If the other candidates decide to take a page from the Obama strategy guide, we will end up with little more than a media-anointed nominee with a fat wallet and the possibility of some noisy skeletons in the closet.

I'm sure each campaign gets more appearance requests than it can handle. Truth be known, if I thought it'd be worth a shot, I'd invite them all to come visit my Girl Scout troop for the evening. It must be nothing short of a nightmare to try and balance the schedule of a sitting United States Senator with the desires of not only Iowa and New Hampshire, but Nevada, South Carolina and all the other states participating in the "ad buy" primaries set for Feb. 5. When all is said and done, that's the exact reason campaigns hire experienced schedulers and network exceptional surrogates.

The campaign blowing off my Girl Scout troop would be disappointing... the campaign blowing off the senior citizens actively involved with AARP is potentially disastrous.

Iowa Leadership Team

Alburnett - Liz Belden
Ames - Thomas Harrington, Wayne Clinton, Jan Bauer, Hector Avalos, Jose Amaya
Anamosa - Cecelia Parks
Bellevue - Lynn Wacker
Bettendorf - Dennis DeDecker
Buffalo Center - John Ralls
Burlington - Nancy Schulte, Andy Anderson, Pat Anderson
Carroll - Dr. Steven Kraus
Cedar Falls - Michael Blackwell
Cedar Rapids - Peggy Whitworth, Dale Todd, Libby Slappey, Tyler Olson, Sarah Olson, Jesse Martinez, Charles Crowley, Lu Barron
Center Point - Mickey Dunn
Centerville - Jim Jameson
Chariton - Buzz Malone
Clear Lake - Mario Rodriguez
Clinton - Charlie Sheridan, Conner Anderson
Clive - George Appleby
Columbus City - Frank Best
Columbus Junction - Frank Jamison
Coralville - Carol Kula, Sue Dvorsky, Bob Dvorsky
Council Bluffs - Janet Sutherland, Ryan Sewell
Creston - Marsha Wilson
Dakota City - Terry Kocher
Davenport - Janet Woods-Bragg, Henry Vargas, Roger Kirk, Vera Kelly, Ida Johnson, Karen Fitzsimmons, Bill Gluba, Tom Engelmann, Ethelene Boyd, Lisa Arbisser, Amir Arbisser Decorah - Matt Perkins, Amy Perkins
Denison - Richard Meyer
Des Moines - Rose Vasquez, Savan Thongvanh, Rev. H.I. Thomas, Eric Tabor, Phil Roeder, Dolph Pulliam, Diane Pickle, Alba Perez, John Norris, Tom Miller, Jim Maloney, Sharon Malheiro, Abby Longstreet, Tom Hockensmith, Justin Gross, Willie Glanton, Nolden Gentry, Carlos Garza, Jacquie Easley, Christopher Diebel, Brendan Comito, Frank Chiod, Som Baccam, Pamela Bass-Bookey, Rev. Derek Bastian, Nancy Bobo, Harry Bookey, Rev. Toussaint Cheatom
Donnellson - Michael Bennett
Dubuque - Ruby Sutton, Greg Simpson, Ruth Scharnau, Ralph Scharnau, Art Roche, Joyce Monahan, Katie Determan, Thom Determan, Rev. Ken Bickel
Eldridge - Frank Wood
Essex - Bob Chambers
Fairfield - Jay Mattsson
Fort Dodge - Helen Miller, Dr. Ed Miller
Ft. Madison - Marjorie Marsh, Gordon Liles, Cheryl Liles, Grace Harris, Lois Eichacker
Glenwood - Mike Godbout
Hampton - Vern Harper
Holstein - Lori Sokolowski
Iowa City - Ross Wilburn, Damon Terrill, Pauline Taylor, Dick Myers, Dianne Dillon-Ridgley, Rev. Orlando Dial, Amy Corriea
Kalona - Kay Ciha
Keokuk - Mike Short, Geoffrey Mitchell, Kevin Kull, Justin Tuck, Jane Babcock
Keosauqua - Mary "Twyla" Peacock
LeClaire - Linda Newman, Cathy Bolkcom
Letts - Tom Furlong
Logan - Gary Altwegg
Luana - Pat McNally
Manchester - Robin Stone, Eric Solomon, Estella Michels, Seth Cobb
Marion - Gretchen Lawyer
Mason City - Phil Sanchez, Blake Dirksen
Missouri Valley - Lyle McIntosh
Montrose - David Ireland, Ronald Dinwiddie
Mt. Pleasant - Monie Hayes, John Zimmerman
Muscatine - Chris Clark, Phyllis Avesing, Bonnie Adkins
New London - Karen Osborne
North Liberty - Steve Sovern, Bonnie Sovern
Northwood - Brett Blix
Shenandoah - Brian Kingsolver
Sigourney - Susan Conroy
Sioux City - Corey Munson, Pat Johnson
Story City - Rich Olive
Tipton - Douglas Simkin
Urbandale - Rev. Keith Ratliff
Walker - Patricia "Ann" Gerdts
Washington - Fred Stark, Holly Soborof, John Greener, Linda Boston
Waterloo - Louise E. Porter, Abraham Funchess, Belinda Creighton-Smith
Waukee - Mike Fitzgerald
Webster City- Howard Hunt, Doug Bailey
West Burlington - Roxy Riessen, John Riessen
West Des Moines - Richard Wilkey
Winthrop - David McElroy