Biden pushing hard to wow Iowans

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070826/NEWS/708260310/1006/NEWS

Senator works thinning crowd at ballgame, intent on making headway
By NICOLE GAUDIANO, News Journal Washington Bureau

CLINTON, Iowa -- The crowd at the LumberKings minor league baseball field began to thin as Sen. Joe Biden made his pitch to be the next president.

These potential voters in the first state to choose a Democratic nominee started leaving after Biden's rival -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York -- finished her speech, but Biden's political director, Danny O'Brien, said that was fine.

"He'll give it his heart, whether there's 10 people or 100 people," he said, watching Biden from the sideline at state Rep. Polly Butka's Old Fashioned Corn Boil. "If these people are in here, they're into it, they're serious and we want them. If we lost a third of the crowd, we're happy to have the two-thirds here."

Biden may not be drawing the biggest crowds in this rural state, but he's working for every vote he can get in Iowa, the state where he hopes a surprise showing in the January caucuses will deliver the momentum he needs to secure the nomination.

His Iowa strategy is based on the theory that, despite his single-digit poll numbers and rock star candidates dominating the limelight, the people of Iowa aren't yet spoken for. And there are four months left to woo them before they must stand up at 1,784 precincts in 99 counties to declare their presidential candidate allegiance.

The trick, the Biden people say, is catching the attention of voters like Bev Hermann of Clinton, one among 50 or more who lingered on the bleachers near Biden after his speech here.

FULL story at link.

[More Than A Feeling]

1. I'd like to see him in person.

Too bad he's not actually holding an open event in Iowa City next week. He's just going to the "Walk a Day in their shoes" event for the SEIU.

Also, I think its interesting that Biden is now using the strategy that John Edwards adopted years ago, to maximize the focus on Iowa.

[demommom]

2. that has been his strategy from the beginning.

[PatSeg]

5. And its a good strategy

I'm counting on Iowa to see beyond the political jargon and media hype. Joe Biden is great in front a live audience. He knows how to reach people with his down-to-earth style and old fashioned common sense.

[jillan]

3. Go Joe! nt

[Adelante]

4. Good for him

He can be a very appealing guy and the more people who see that, he may start rising.

[murbley40]

6. Keep doing what you are doing,!

[murbley40]

7. kick

:kick:

[ecstatic]

8. What a nightmare it would be if Biden was forced on us

A repeat of '04.

[zulchzulu]

9. I did see a Biden yard sign in Dubuque, Iowa a couple weeks ago

I was doing some canvassing for Obama and saw a Biden yard sign planted on a corner lot property. Pretty good traffic numbers went by there...although it was Dubuque, so not a whole lot of cars compared to other towns.