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DAVENPORT, Iowa -- With the first lady at his side, an energized President Obama wrapped up his bus tour of Iowa on Wednesday, firing up crowds in Dubuque and Davenport by outlining the huge stakes in November and urging Iowans to stand with him to "finish the work we started together four years ago."
Under mostly clear skies in picturesque settings along the Mississippi River, the Obamas recaptured at least some of the magic that embodied the unlikely 2008 run that put them in the White House.
Yet despite the meticulously scripted events and adoring crowds during the president’s three-day visit, there were small signs along the way, as Bruce Springsteen famously sang, of trouble in the heartland.
In Des Moines, at the end of his first day on the road, the president stopped off at the Iowa State Fair to visit the fairgrounds’ famous beer tent. The Obama campaign was thrilled with the resulting photo-op: Regular-guy president buys a round of Budweisers for a dozen or so fairgoers, who break into a cheeky cheer (“four more beers!”) in support of his re-election.
But it soon emerged that Mike Cunningham II, the third-generation owner of the 65-year-old institution known as the Bud Tent, was less than thrilled with the visit. On one hand, he told reporters, it’s always an honor to host the president of the United States (in 1954, his great-grandfather received Dwight Eisenhower at the fair, the first of four sitting presidents to visit over the years).
On the other hand, in a tough economic environment the security requirements of the presidential stop, which included a full Secret Service sweep of the area, meant the beer tent had to be shut down for nearly two hours during its busiest time of day, Cunningham complained. He claimed that Obama’s appearance cost him some $25,000 in revenue, which he described wryly as making a “campaign contribution against my will.”
“I wouldn’t have voted for him before,” Cunningham told the Des Moines Register. “I won’t again.”
On Day 2 of Obama’s bus tour, he visited a wind farm in central Iowa to highlight his support for -- and Mitt Romney’s opposition to -- tax credits for the wind energy industry. Again, the campaign was thrilled with the picture-perfect optics of the event.
But shortly after Obama’s caravan departed, Jeff Heil, the owner of the farm, and his son Jarret, let it be known that although the president was “gracious, personable, and very respectful” -- and that Jeff and Obama actually said a quick prayer together at the farm Tuesday, neither man will be voting for him in November.
“It is important to not get caught up in the president's glamorous re-election words and remember President Obama's first term record and rhetoric does not represent Middle America, entrepreneurs, small business owners and farmers,” Jarret Heil said in a statement to the media.
It turns out Jarret Heil is a registered Republican, a former staffer for Sen. Chuck Grassley and, not surprisingly, a supporter of Mitt Romney.
And at the final stop of Obama’s tour in Davenport on Wednesday, the national press corps was surprised to find Ross Murty, the co-owner of the Village Corner Deli, which catered the event, wearing a black T-shirt with big, bold white letters that read, “Government didn’t build my business. I did” -- a dig at Obama’s now-infamous remark in Virginia last month about small businesses.
If Obama’s three-day trek across Iowa proved that he could still rekindle a spark from 2008, the unscripted moments of his journey also proved that the Hawkeye State, like much of the rest of the country, is deeply divided over the president’s re-election.
The numbers tell the tale: Obama currently leads Romney by a single point in the RealClearPolitics Average for Iowa, and the most recent poll here shows Romney leading Obama by two points.
Romney’s campaign recently announced it had blown the lid off its fundraising goals in Iowa, raising $1.1 million in July alone, from more than 7,000 different donors.
Democrats counter that they have a superior grass-roots organization in the state, which they assert will make the difference in November.
The truth is that Iowa remains a critical swing state that is very much up for grabs -- an analysis confirmed by Obama’s decision to spend three full, precious days of the dwindling campaign there this week.
Obama’s team hopes that devoting attention to Iowa now will help put the state back in the president's column so they can focus on the bigger, more valuable (electorally speaking) swing states such as Ohio, Florida and Virginia between now and Election Day.
If Obama is forced to return to defend Iowa again, however, he and his team may hear that haunting Springsteen refrain playing in their heads on November 6: “Lights out tonight, trouble in the Heartland . . .”
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