I’m putting this story up from The New York Times because it reflects what I hear and see on the ground, as I begin a three-week trip on the campaign trail to speak for Bernie (today I’m heading to New Hampshire through Saturday, then, Iowa right to caucus day, and then, Feb 2nd back to NH right through the primary).
The other day I was speaking to a senior Bernie campaign person who told me, in a story that is repeating itself every day, that they had expected a crowd of 200 people at an Iowa rally and had a room for that size—and 600 people showed up. This is so critical in Iowa and New Hampshire.
As The Times reports:
Iowa Democrats are displaying far less passion for Hillary Clinton than for Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont three weeks before the presidential caucuses, creating anxiety inside the Clinton campaign as she scrambles to energize supporters and to court wavering voters.
The enthusiasm gap spilled abundantly into view in recent days, from the cheering crowds and emotional outpourings that greeted Mr. Sanders, and in interviews with more than 50 Iowans at campaign stops for both candidates.
Voters have mobbed Mr. Sanders at events since Friday, some jumping over chairs to shake his hand, snap a selfie or thank him for speaking about the middle class. “Did you get to touch him?” asked one woman who could not get close enough after an event here on Saturday.
“We love you, Bernie! Enough is enough!” Nathan Arentsen, 29, cheered several times at another event in Des Moines as he stomped his feet to signal support for the candidate.
Audiences for Mrs. Clinton have yet to grow to consistently match those for Mr. Sanders, and the typical reception for her was evident on Monday in Waterloo. About 300 people welcomed Mrs. Clinton enthusiastically and listened to her diligently, but many of them, still unsure, rebuffed Clinton aides trying to get them to sign “commitment cards” to caucus for her.[emphasis added]
And:
Clinton advisers said they believed Iowa was a single-digit race and have been warning supporters against complacency, admitting that Mr. Sanders’s operation in the state was better financed and organized than they had expected. On Saturday, they began trying to undercut his electability with a television ad casting Mrs. Clinton as the strongest possible Democratic nominee, even though some polls show Mr. Sanders would perform well in matchups against Republicans like Donald J. Trump and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas.
A Sanders victory in Iowa would be a shock given the institutional advantages held by Mrs. Clinton, a former secretary of state and a favorite of the Iowa Democratic establishment. It would also set off significant momentum for Mr. Sanders heading into the Feb. 9 primary in New Hampshire, where he is well known as a senator from neighboring Vermont and holds a slight lead in the polls.[emphasis added]
Actually, in my view, Bernie is already ahead—in actual support based on the data collected.
This is fairly accurate, from my experience in the field:
Mrs. Clinton’s campaign is trying to shore up her base among female voters: Lena Dunham, the star of the HBO series “Girls,” was deployed on Saturday to make a feminist pitch for Mrs. Clinton to crowds of mostly young women in Iowa City and Des Moines. Yet many younger women who gathered did not share Ms. Dunham’s visceral enthusiasm for Mrs. Clinton, saying that for most of their lives she has been a familiar fixture of establishment politics rather than an exciting new voice or an agent of change.
“Bernie Sanders feels new, and Hillary seems like a Washington insider,” said Laura Cornell, 17, who was encouraged by friends to hear Ms. Dunham’s pitch but remained committed to Mr. Sanders.
Many of the Sanders supporters interviewed said they felt personally moved by his message and by what they saw as his sincerity. Bert Permar, 86, a retired professor, said he had gone to four Sanders events and was now making calls to share the candidate’s message about tackling wealth disparities in America.
“I love to see him. He motivates me,” Mr. Permar said on Sunday, sitting in the front row at a Sanders forum on veterans’ issues in Marshalltown. “I get emotional. It brings tears that someone is talking about the issues that we should be concerned about.” [emphasis added]
On the mark: the status quo is about celebrity, a sugar-like rush that vanishes, compared to the authenticity of political revolution.
This is why I have believed since September/October that we will win Iowa and New Hampshire, and with the money the political revolution has invested in Bernie, we’re going to go roaring into Super Tuesday.
People can see the vast difference: the political revolution versus the status quo. They will come out in bad weather in Iowa to cast a vote for a political revolution but there is a lack of enthusiasm for the status quo.
I am going to try—with the emphasis on try because it’s going to be hectic in a good way—to publish a daily report from the field during this little voyage.
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ORDER THE ESSENTIAL BERNIE SANDERS AND HIS VISION FOR AMERICA