Day 1 - Redeemed (Part 2)

I have just returned from a fabulous evening with one of Des Moines' favorite sons. I first met Tom Clegg back in 1997. He was my church planting coach. Tom grew up in Des Moines. His mother is the former Chairperson of the Iowa Democratic Party (famous for her convention speak casting Iowa's delegate votes for Dukakis) and his dad was the president of the local NRA. Tom is a church planter, church consultant, author (everything from church leadership to history to a play) and even does some political consulting. Tom has met all the Presidential candidates on all sides as he is sought after to be a precinct captain by many campaigns. But those encounters only add to the handshakes of every US President since Kennedy.

We went downtown to experience a revitalized city. We had dinner at an authentic British Pub (Shepherd's Pie, what else?) and went next door to Java Joe's where the above latte was delicately prepared. Des Moines' architecture is as diverse as its politics, but blended nicely with the center piece being the state capital, thought to be the most pristine in the country.

My faith in this city, its people and the process of vetting the candidates for President has been restored. Iowans take this responsibility seriously and I would oppose taking it away from them.

I decided on a strategy course correction. First of all, I am going to fly home early as I believe I can accomplish all I want to in the next couple of days. I have also discovered that my role in this process will be that of a caucus tourist/political blogger. (Tom mentioned that his daughter also spent a couple of days at the Huckabee Camp and it was just as disorganized then as it was today which I am sure speaks to his lack of preparedness for his rapid assent) So in the spirit of Iowa, I am going to cast my vote back to the process. The plan for the next two days is to attend rallies/speeches/events for some of the major candidates, afternoons blogging from downtown hotel lobbies and then tomorrow evening and Sunday night I plan to hang out at a couple of the downtown hotspots seeing who I might see.

Thanks Delphi for reminding who I am and in case you are wondering, Tom's mom will be caucusing for Hillary, Tom's dad will be staying in Arizona (although he would be supporting Paul) and Tom, well he's a Rudy guy.