Inching along on the campaign trail

Fred in Spencer

Fred Thompson was in Spencer, Iowa yesterday for a short visit. He gave an interview at Carroll's Bakery, across the street from where he's standing, and also spent a little time walking around and talking to people. Fred was recently endorsed by Iowa 5th District Congressman Steve King.

Spencer is often accused of being a conservative town in a conservative part of the state. Maybe so but I put together some crude stats from The Daily Reporter print edition that at least question that notion. Keep in mind that the editor, Randy Cauthron, is a pro-war and pro-life conservative who isn't shy about making his opinions known in his columns.

In the month of December we've been visited by Fred, Barack Obama, and representatives of Hillary, Joe Biden and John Edwards. My so-called stats are simply column inches in the print edition of the newspaper devoted to each candidate's visit.

The winner is Barack Obama with 194" of print and pictures. Randy Cauthron, in spite of his politics, thought Barack deserved special credit for making his second visit to Spencer. He really believes presidential candidates should flock to this town of 12,000 like pigeons to an overturned wagon of corn, but Randy is originally from Los Angeles so apparently can't avoid feeling an unwarranted sense of pride for wherever he lives.

In second place, with 87" is Ben "Cooter" Jones of Dukes of Hazard fame representing John Edwards. He played a numbskull mechanic on the Dukes, was a Georgia congressman for two terms, and is now touring the country on behalf of John Edwards.

Fred Thompson came in third with 73". Bob Vila, the T.V. handyman, came in fourth with 63" for Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden's son, Beau Biden, was a close fifth at 62".

As meaningless as these stats undoubtedly are, I considered something even worse which would would have entailed driving around northwest Iowa counting the yard signs displayed for each candidate, which Hillary would have easily won.