How's Democratic 'troop morale' in Iowa?

Tom Curry National affairs writer • Profile • E-mail

DENVER - Delegates to a national political convention do not represent a cross-section of the electorate. They’re passionate partisans.

If their candidate is in trouble, don’t expect them to admit it. Like Queen Victoria, they say, “We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat; they do not exist.”

The delegates here in Denver are the tireless troops who knock on their neighbors’ doors, make the phone calls and register new voters.

In Iowa, the state where victory began for Barack Obama, how’s morale among the troops?

Are delegates waking up at two in the morning, worrying that maybe the rest of Iowa doesn’t share their passion for Obama?

Wayne Laufenberg, a Hillary Clinton delegate from St. Donatus, and a local business representative for the Machinists’ union, said he would have preferred to see the former first lady as the vice presidential nominee. But he promises to work hard to get Obama elected in November.

The experience question lingers
Asked about Obama’s appeal to voters who aren't Democratic loyalists, Laufenberg said, “I have concerns. The same thing you hear from a lot of other people: does he have the experience? He’s definitely a good leader; he’s a very intelligent man.”

Slide show   Democrats in Denver Day two of the Democratic National Convention in Denver, where Barack Obama will celebrate winning his party’s presidential nomination. more photos

The Machinists and especially their president, Tom Buffenbarger, were among the most ardent Clinton supporters during the primaries.

(Buffenbarger’s scathing criticism of Obama makes it unlikely he’ll get an early invitation to the White House if Obama wins.)

Asked whether his fellow Machinists in Iowa are enthusiastic or hesitant about Obama, Laufenberg said, “Right now it’s mixed. The bottom line is when we come out of this convention we’ll come out unified. We always do and we will again.”

Laufenberg implied that the economy may win it for Obama despite some voters’ doubts about him. “I’m hoping people are hurting enough now from the Bush-Cheney policies that people are wise enough to understand that having McCain in there would be four more years of what we put up with for the last eight years.”

Tom Curry / msnbc Obama delegate Jordan Oster from Clive, Iowa

What’s the biggest burden for Obama in Iowa?

“People saying he’s not a known entity and that’s true. He’s come very far in four years,” said Jordan Oster, a 21-year old Obama delegate from Clive, Iowa, who’s a senior at Drake University.

“His greatest challenge is to convince people that he’d going to put together the kind of team that has enough experience to do this well. It’s kind of the experience issue,” said Council Bluffs, Iowa superdelegate Mike Gronstal, who is the majority leader of the state Senate.

'Not locked into Washington Establishment'
“It’s a bit of a trade off: there’s part of the electorate that likes that he’s not a creature of Washington D.C.,” Gronstal added. “One of his strengths is that he’s new and fresh and not locked into the Washington Establishment. People are excited about that, but there are some who say, ‘does he have enough experience and enough connections?’”

Delegate Arlene Prather-O’Kane, a public health nurse for Black Hawk County, who was committed to John Edwards in the Iowa caucuses, said, “I’m very aware” that many Iowans don’t see Obama as these delegates see him.

“My in-laws and some of my family are Republican," said Prather-O'Kane, adding that she realized "very much” the rest of Iowa isn’t necessarily as smitten with Obama as his fans are.

But, she said, “I can’t go along with that. We need a change in this county. Eight years ago there was a surplus. Now we have a huge deficit. We had a preemptive war which we never before had in this country’s history.”

Iowa is especially important this year because Democrat Al Gore carried the state in 2000, but then John Kerry let it slip away in 2004.

The momentum in Iowa state legislative races and in U.S. House races in Iowa has been strongly Democratic since 2004, so one would expect Obama to carry the state.

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