Obama and Thompson Heavyweight Doubleheader Staged in Coralville

Two political forces descended upon Iowa and nearly collided Tuesday night, as Mother Nature responded with a torrential downpour, followed by two tornado warnings in Coralville. Due to the possibility of inclement weather, Obama’s campaign organizers moved their scheduled event from S.T. Morrison Park to the Marriott hotel, where GOP candidate Fred Thompson was scheduled to speak earlier in the day.

Opposing stages for the battle of the political superstars had been set. Standing in the right corner, former Republican Tennessee senator and “Law and Order” television star Fred Thompson, who weighed in on security, unity, and prosperity, while sporting his campaign slogan, “United by Our Core Beliefs” on a background banner. His opponent, standing in the left corner, Democrat Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois weighed in on foreign policy while standing tall behind a podium brandishing the “Judgment to Lead” motif of his latest tour.

The Thompson event was held in a large conference room, where an estimated 100 people gathered, primarily comprised of an older, homogenous crowd who appeared to be getting their first glimpse of Thompson. Rob Thomsen, a hotel guest from Baltimore, Md., took advantage of the Thompson pit stop. “We don’t see this kind of thing in Maryland,” Thomsen said. “I like Thompson,” said Thomsen. “I really like his charisma.” When pushed further as to what issues drew him to Thompson, Thomsen shrugged his shoulders, paused, and replied, “I like his energy, and I’m more of a middle-of-the-road guy.”The Obama event, scheduled to begin two hours after Thompson’s gig, was held in the hotel’s main ballroom further down the hall. As Thompson attendees began filing out of the hotel, their paths crossed those of young-looking Obama volunteers, who had arrived early to set up for the later event. The scene in the hotel lobby was reminiscent of a scene in the film, “The Graduate,” in which a group of elderly patrons exit through the revolving door as a group of younger guests simultaneously enter through the other side of the door. The setting is the famed Ambassador Hotel: the same hotel in which presidential candidate Robert Kennedy was assassinated the year after the film’s release.

The Obama event packed in roughly 1500 people, outpacing Thompson 15-1, but given the Democrat to Republican ratio in the “Peoples’ Republic of Johnson County,” the crowd size was proportionally equal, thus a draw.

Local endorsements were showcased before each of the presidential contenders showcased their political endorsements before he stepped into his respective corner of the ring. While Rep. Sandy Greiner, R-Keota, joined Thompson’s corner, Obama’s corner featured Rep. Bob Dvosky, D-Coralville, former Iowa House Democratic Leader Dick Meyers, and former advisor to President John F. Kennedy Ted Sorensen.

Before Greiner introduced Thompson, she took a moment to explain her reasoning for supporting Thompson. “At an age when most people are thinking about retiring and going golfing or fishing, Fred Thompson volunteered to live his life in a fish bowl,” Greiner said. “And we’ve all seen what happens to people that try and lead our country, they have no privacy at all. He saw a void and was willing to step forward and sacrifice his privacy and the privacy of his own family to lead our country.” Greiner cited the actor/politician’s experience, commitment and conviction as the main reasons for her endorsement.

On the other hand, Sorensen, who introduced Obama, cited judgment as the primary criterion for a president, before drawing parallels between Kennedy and Obama. “Judgment is the single most important quality in a president of the United States,” Sorensen said. “Kennedy had judgment, Obama has judgment.” Sorensen, age 79, who had to be helped up the stage, had not lost a step and came out swinging: “I would first like to thank these people for helping me up to the podium. My eyesight is not so good, but my vision is better than the president of the United States.”

Ted Sorensen gives audience mini-lecture over Cuban-Missile Crisis before introducing Obama

Ding! Ding!

Both candidates have taken great pains to paint themselves as “outsiders” who are running against politics as usual. Thompson, having taken a hiatus form D.C. to pursue his television acting career, was the first to step into the ring, although, to the chagrin of some of the crowd, he arrived 50 minutes late. “Our nation is at a crossroads in many respects, and we’re going to have to make some decisions with which way we’re going to go in our country,” he said. “Our opponents would like to take us down the road of more government, more bureaucracy, and more complications. They want bigger government, more taxes, more spending, more regulations and more bureaucracy.”

Obama — who, ironically, works in D.C. — has been campaigning against Washington, where he hopes to return in Jan. 2009 wielding a new title. Dogged by the experience question on the campaign trail, Obama has counter-punched with the notion that he has enough experience in D.C. to know that things need to change. He threw particularly sharp swings at Congress, especially Democrats, whom he said had been duped by the Bush administration to authorize the war in Iraq. “But the conventional thinking in Washington has a way of buying into stories that make political sense even if they don’t make practical sense. We were told that the only way to prevent Iraq from getting nuclear weapons was with military force,” Obama said.

“Some leading Democrats echoed the Administration’s erroneous line that there was a connection between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda,” Obama continued, taking a few jabs at his Democratic rivals who voted to authorize the war in Iraq. “We were counseled by some of the most experienced voices in Washington that the only way for Democrats to look tough was to talk, act and vote like a Republican.”

With the D.C. insiders against the ropes, Obama pulled no punches as he continued to strike out at the entrenched status quo of Washington. “And the conventional thinking today is just as entrenched as it was in 2002. This is the conventional thinking that measures experience only by the years you’ve been in Washington, not by your time spent serving in the wider world. This is the conventional thinking that has turned against the war, but not against the habits that got us into the war in the first place – the outdated assumptions and the refusal to talk openly to the American people.”

After pummeling his message into the ground, Obama turned to a message of hope. “I’m not running for President to conform to Washington’s conventional thinking – I’m running to challenge it,” Obama said. I’m not running to join the kind of Washington groupthink that led us to war, that says that we can’t tell the American people what we think on big issues – I’m running for President to change this country. And I’m going to tell the American people where I stand.”

Thompson and Obama’s notions on the changing role of the Constitution differed as well, in particular how they would change its application. Thompson, a former federal prosecutor on and off the screen, argued that we need to return to a more limited government. “Those old fellas knew that you can’t concentrate too much power at the federal level,” Thompson said. “Not all solutions for our problems can be solved at the federal level. A government big enough and powerful enough to give us everything is big enough and powerful enough to take everything away from us.”

On the flip side, Obama argued that the Constitution has been exploited by the Bush administration, and that it needs to be returned to the people. “These last few years we’ve seen an unacceptable abuse of power at home. The Constitution is treated like a nuisance,” Obama said. “We’ve paid a heavy price for having a President whose priority is expanding his own power. We get shifting spin, secret task forces, secret budgeting, slanted intelligence, and the shameful smearing of people who speak out against the President’s policies. It’s time for us to stand up and tell George Bush that the government in this country is not based on the whims of one person. The government is of the people, by the people and for the people.”