I just got back from campaigning in Iowa

[SheilaT]

for Howard Dean, and it was an amazing experience.

Saturday I drove up to Des Moines with three other people from Kansas -- two of whom post here on DU. There were at least four other carloads of folks from this area, and probably more. Volunteers were there from all fifty states and the energy was amazing.

I did phone banking and made signs to be posted in the caucuses. I had more video cameras pointed in my direction than I thought existed. I chatted with Jeff Greenfield this morning at breakfast.

Here are a few impressions of the experience and the campaign. First of all, people in Iowa are really tired of all the phone calls and door to door canvassing from all the campaigns. Most of my attempted calls resulted in reaching someone's answering machine. Everyone who can is probably screening calls. Which may well account for the sudden (and in my opinion bizarre) shift in the polling. That and the fact that many young people who are expected to turn out for Dean only have cell phones and thus are not reachable.

I was working along side people of all ages. I'm a middle-aged housewife myself (55), but I saw lots of kids in college and a good number of people at least twenty years older than I am. This last part is probably significant because I gather that normally almost all the volunteers on the campaigns are young people. I'd say at least half of the people I saw helping out in Des Moines were 30 or over.

One phone banker was an 11 year old girl, and she told me that two days ago when she was calling she got 35 people to commit to going to the caucus and definitely vote for Dean. I worked along side a college student from Vermont who got into wonderful conversations with people about what a great governor Dean was and gave detailed reasons why he deserved their vote.

All of us volunteers were exchanging stories about talking to our hotel clerks or to restaurant workers. Yesterday evening I was in a store and had a conversation with the clerk who helped me who was eager to go to his first caucus, and I gave him a pitch for why he should support Dean. I hope he does.

Today at lunch, the waitress noticed my Dean badge, and showed me her Dean pin and said she'd be voting for him.

The Kerry headquarters was two blocks from us, and very little seemed to be going on there. One independent documentary maker said he was very impressed at the energy of the Dean campaign and that he wasn't seeing anything like it elsewhere.

I have never before worked on a presidential campaign and I'm still very up from this experience. If the number and enthusiasm of the volunteers is what wins elections, no one stands a chance against Dean.