Okay, let’s get it on.
8:13 – Nancy Pelosi takes the stage, which is in the shape of a square and surrounded on all sides. Pelosi, like all speakers today, will have to speak while walking in a circle.
8:14 – Pelosi says “all the eyes of the world are on this dinner tonight.” The disproportionate amount of power that Iowa has in American presidential elections really is ridiculous.
8:15 – Peeking at Marc Ambinder’s blog, I see John McCain had a kind of insane day today, filled with bucketloads of attack politics.
8:20 – The Hillary Clinton supporters here are wearing shirts that read, “TURN UP THE HEAT. TURN AMERICA AROUND.” New slogan?
More after the jump, including the Edwards speech.
8:25 – Pelosi is introducing the lieutenant governor of Iowa. Time to check in on the USC-Cal game on ESPN.com.
8:26 – USC’s leading, 14-10. Dang. Go Bears.
8:34 – Iowa Governor Chet Culver is speaking. I’m skipping some stuff. Some of this is too boring even for a Mother Jones liveblog. Try CSPAN.
8:39 – Ann Friedman answers an interesting question over at TAPPED. Who has the whitest campaign staff?
So there you have it: Giuliani has an all-white campaign staff. He also has an all-goombah security staff. I’ve seen it myself. That’s not a comment on Italians. It’s a comment on guys who look like they are straight out of the Sopranos.
8:48 – Here comes Edwards. “We believe in the promise of America, for every single American,” he says. People go nuts. This is an easy crowd right now — they’ve been waiting two hours for the presidentials to start speaking. Obama goes last. He might have a very tired group on his hands.
8:51 – Edwards, for the record, isn’t saying anything new right now. You can see my web piece on Edwards from earlier this week for a pretty good summary of his current message.
8:53 – “It is not enough” to change parties, says Edwards. “We need to change this system.” He tells a story of a man who was unable to speak for 50 years because he didn’t have the health insurance he needed for a simple surgery on his cleft pallet. “We are better than this!” says Edwards.
9:00 – Edwards says “the cause of my life… is speaking for the voiceless in this country.” He is going over how, as a trial lawyer, he fought powerful interests on behalf of ordinary Americans and won. This makes him uniquely suited, he argues, to fight the interests that corrupt Washington.
We’ll keep this going on a new post.
