More than a half-dozen potential presidential candidates have visited Iowa since Bleeding Heartland’s last news roundup on the field. Any comments about the 2016 Iowa caucus campaign are welcome in this thread. Lots of links are after the jump.

Lest anyone think that ordinary people are unable to influence public discourse, consider this: Rand Paul’s latest Iowa visit will likely be remembered for how he ran away from the DREAMers who confronted Representative Steve King.

Several events drew potential Republican candidates to Iowa during the past two weeks. Bruce Rastetter held his annual summer party in Hardin County on August 2. He’s not only a major donor to conservative politicians but also one of the most influential businessmen in Iowa GOP circles, having provided the seed money for the American Future Fund. This year U.S. Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz both attended the event, as well as a fundraiser for Senate nominee Joni Ernst ahead of time.

Bob Vander Plaats’ FAMiLY Leader organization wisely scheduled its third annual Family Leadership Summit during the Iowa State Fair, which has drawn presidential aspirants for decades. It’s a short hop from the fairgrounds in Des Moines to the Family Leadership Summit venue in Ames. This year five potential presidential candidates spoke to the summit attendees on August 9: Cruz, Texas Governor Rick Perry, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum, and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. Rand Paul sent a video that focused on his anti-abortion stance.

Radio Iowa’s O.Kay Henderson posted audio and highlights from the Huckabee, Santorum, Perry, Jindal, and Cruz speeches. Matt Sinovic live-blogged the entire Family Leadership Summit. Bleeding Heartland user natewithglasses posted some impressions from the day, as did the Des Moines Register’s Kathie Obradovich. Cruz’s performance stood out for The Iowa Republican blogger Polly Twocents. Ben Jacobs provided some colorful commentary on the audience members as well as some speakers.

Cruz and Perry took advantage of the opportunity to visit the Iowa State Fair and speak at the Des Moines Register’s “soapbox.” You can watch the Texas senator’s August 9 soapbox speech here. He compared President Barack Obama to President Jimmy Carter, in the sense that both presided over a terrible domestic economy and declining American influence abroad. (Never mind the fact that unlike Carter, Obama was re-elected with 332 electoral votes.) Clearly, Cruz sees himself in the Ronald Reagan role. He mentioned other policies sure to please conservative Republicans: repealing Obamacare and the “Common Core” curriculum.

You can watch the Texas governor’s August 12 speech here. Radio Iowa’s O.Kay Henderson posted highlights relating to Perry’s foreign policy views. He seems to be carving out a niche as the “hawk” in the field.

It’s worth noting that after getting into the 2012 presidential race late, Perry is paying his dues this time around. Not only has he been to Iowa several times in the past year, not only did he show up for the state fair and the Family Leadership Summit, during his latest trip he headlined fundraisers for Mariannette Miller-Meeks (GOP nominee in IA-02), three county GOP committees, and three candidates in battleground Iowa Senate districts: Crystal Bruntz (SD-15), Mike Moore (SD-39), and Brian Schmidt (SD-49). Those are three of the races that will determine control of the Iowa Senate for the next two years.

Huckabee didn’t speak at the state fair, but the winner of the 2008 Iowa caucuses confirmed to Kay Henderson that he is “very seriously considering” another presidential bid in 2016.

Rand Paul missed the state fair for some reason, but while in Iowa between August 4 and 6, he headlined fundraisers for Representative Steve King (IA-04), Miller-Meeks in IA-02, and Rod Blum, the GOP nominee in IA-01.

Speaking of Paul, he is prominently featured in Robert Draper’s article on the “Libertarian moment” for the August 10 New York Times magazine.