Iowa Caucus Field Trip Day 1

We arrived in Chicago at 11am CT and after grabbing food boarded our bus and headed to Iowa. Our timing was perfect to get to the Bush Rally in Cedar Falls at 4. Along the way we went through scenic NW IL on US20 (passed a ski area - who know?) went through Galena - home town of Ulysses Grant and crossed the Mississippi into Dubuque. 

The Bush Rally was at the Elks Lodge in a very rural part of the state. 

Bush was introduced by Rep. Kinzinger and Sen. Grassley. 

Bush gave a good short speech and then took questions. His answers were very detailed and kind of wonky - e.g. his seven point plan on Social Security. 

At one point he came into the crowd to hug a guy right next to us and almost decided to hug the students as well. 

From there we drove an hour down to downtown Cedar Rapids - a good sized city - for the Sanders Rally. This was a very different crowd in a very different part of the state. And a very different message. He was introduced by Cornel West - the kids had read an excerpt from Race Matters in their summer reading. 

Sanders gave a rousing populist speech to a receptive crowd. 

He hit hard on the themes of equal rights and income inequality, including attacks on Goldman Sachs and the Walton family, who he described as controlling the same amount of wealth as the bottom 40% of the country. 

From there we got dinner at a mall in Coralville and opted out of trying to catch the tail end of the concert at UIowa. So we headed to Des Moines and settled into the Microtel Inn and Suites in Urbandale. The first day has given us a great introduction to the state and to caucus politics. So much more to come tomorrow!