Dave Barry: Blowing in the wind in Iowa

[MerryBlooms]

NEWTON, Iowa

I was in the mood for some excitement, so I drove out to Newton, the county seat of Jasper County, to hear Hillary Clinton. I got here early, so I ate lunch at the Midtown Café, in the heart of downtown, where the clientele was mainly older ladies (by which I mean ladies roughly my age) and large agricultural-looking men in bib overalls.

The menu had an item called the Pancake Challenge: “$14 if you fail, no leaving of table and no help.” I asked the waitress about it, and she said the pancakes are gigantic. “Only one person ever beat the Pancake Challenge,” she said.
AL DIAZ MIAMI HERALD STAFF

So I went with the daily special, which was cream chipped beef on biscuits. It came in a portion the size of a four-person life raft. It was a meal suitable for working men, men in bib overalls who perform hard agricultural labor such as baling soybeans or neutering heifers. It was not suitable for a newspaper columnist whose most strenuous physical activity is typing in the Wi-Fi code. But it tasted good, and it will be lodged in my stomach for years to come.

After taking the Chipped Beef Challenge I staggered over to the Clinton event, which was held in the Berg Middle School gymnasium. There was a banner with the Hillary logo and the slogan “Fighting for us.”

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/elections-2016/article57260143.html

[randys1]

1. Big fan, very funny, liked this line

Clinton was introduced by a slick video, which listed the many achievements she has accomplished in her lengthy career of holding positions while at the same time being a woman.

Maybe it is wrong of me to laugh at that, but I did.

[MerryBlooms]

3. He's a scream and man, he is wicked smaht.

[djean111]

5. Made me laugh out loud. I was already primed to laugh, because i was remembering

Dave Barry Does Japan.

[SheilaT]

2. Dave Barry is one of our unsung national treasures.

[MerryBlooms]

4. I completely agree. He's wonderful. :)

[floriduck]

6. Ouch (but accurate)

"I am no political consultant, but I think Clinton’s main image problem is that, while she wants us to believe she’s Fighting For Us, the main vibe she gives off is that she’s Way Smarter Than Us. (To be fair: I think Ted Cruz has the same problem.)"

[MerryBlooms]

7. Very intelligent people often have that problem...

I think for many voters, it's something they understand and it won't bother them, for others, it will annoy the heck out of them.

[winter is coming]

8. I miss seeing his stuff regularly.

I still remember a cross-country road trip I took with my husband when we were first married. We were in a rented truck that only had a radio in it, so we spent most of the journey reading aloud to each other from Dave Barry's books.

[MerryBlooms]

9. You'll love his blog!!

http://blogs.herald.com/

[winter is coming]

10. Ooh, thanks! n/t

[MerryBlooms]

11. y/w :)

[m-lekktor]

12. I liked what he said about why the foreign press likes Trump!

Because it confirms everything they believe about Americans!! rofl