Iowa's Show Goes On, Mostly Without Iowans

Democratic candidate Bill Richardson, right, meets some of Iowa's real folks at a campaign stop in Pella. (By Evan Vucci -- Associated Press)

"So what do we think of the new Des Moines Register poll?" asked NBC's "First Read," an online political tip sheet that, along with the Fix, the Page, the Caucus, the Trail, the Hotline, the Note, the Playbook, the Corner and the Stump, follows the Iowa voter's every hiccup. The poll "has always been considered the 'gold standard' of Iowa polls," First Read reasoned, but "Do note that [columnist David] Yepsen seems a bit skeptical."

Duly noted. But how to turn inside speculation into a compelling story? Answer: the full-on hokey.

To get the feel of Iowa on New Year's morning, CNN had its anchor, Suzanne Malveaux, leave the heated studio of the campaign bus and stand outside in 7-degree temperatures, with wind whipping snow into her face. On air, she beamed and promised "live, raw and unfiltered" coverage of the caucuses. Off air, she bounced, shivered, sniffled, exercised her freezing jaws, and called out for coffee, tissues and foot warmers.

"Oh, my God," Malveaux, visibly shivering, told Richardson when he arrived for his interview. "This is a physical feat."

Three hours later, it was Sen. Joseph Biden's turn with the frozen anchor. CNN flashed an image on-screen of Biden's sign wavers inside Buzzard Billy's. "You've got a lot of supporters," Malveaux said.

Actually, he had about 10 supporters there, and they were from Boston, New York and other distant points. John McCain also had supporters in the bar -- from New Jersey and Delaware -- and Richardson had about three dozen, mostly from New Mexico.

Where were the Iowans? "I don't think they appreciate it enough," said Alex McVeagh, a McCain volunteer at the bar who came from Tennessee. "I'll tell them I'm a college kid who drove 15 hours here, and they'll say, 'Why am I getting these damn calls?' "

But if the majority of Iowans are indifferent, the politically engaged are happy to play along with the candidates and the media.

While CNN continued to broadcast from Buzzard Billy's, Republican candidate Mitt Romney arrived for a "House Party Huddle" a few miles away in West Des Moines. The house party is the very essence of retail politics: Iowans bake casseroles and invite neighbors in to meet a candidate.

But instead of finding Kornfield Kounty, Romney encountered five TV camera crews, a big speaker system and a man dressed in an Uncle Sam suit claiming to be from the "Pig Hall of Fame." Fifty or so journalists, from bloggers to reporters from France's Le Monde, dwarfed the 30-odd Iowans in the place -- and the locals didn't perform the "Hee Haw" routine very well.

The host was a small-business lobbyist, his wife a former Republican Party official. "When the candidates come in, they don't realize how up to date we are," observed Ed Wallace, a guest at the house party and head of the Iowa Taxpayers Association. "They think we're bumpkins. We're upper middle-class, college-educated."

Romney stepped onto a platform to speak and surveyed the room. "There's the rest of the crowd, back there behind the cameras!" he reported.

Surrounded by reporters, a lone man in the back raised his hand. "Iowa voter!" he called out.