Barack Obama spoke in Iowa City today before a crowd of several thousand. John Deeth liveblogged the event, and you can read all about it here.

If you’ve got a report about this event, or some other campaign appearance by any of the presidential candidates, please consider putting up a diary. Even if you’re not liveblogging or vlogging, it’s still interesting to hear about the stump speeches, the Q and A, and the reactions of the crowd.

I went down to Valley Junction in West Des Moines today, but their Earth Day event was rained out. I did notice that the Edwards supporters were out there talking with lots of people before everyone packed up their tables and tents, though.

Bill Richardson is on a two-day campaign swing through Iowa, and according to the Des Moines Register, he will be going up on tv here next week.

I don’t recall any of the candidates going up on tv this early last cycle. Dean put up some tv ads around June 2003, and at that time political ads before Labor Day were unheard of. The Register says Mitt Romney ran some ads here earlier this year, but I didn’t see any of those because we pretty much only watch The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.

Join me after the jump for some thoughts about Richardson’s strategy.

Noneed4thneed of Century of the Common Iowan put up this important post about the Permanent Bases Project.

He urges people who are going to see the presidential candidates to ask them if they support having permanent U.S. bases in Iraq, and if so, how many troops would be stationed there.

This is an easy thing to do, and the candidates will notice if they start getting this question often enough. An old peacenik who was active in the Nuclear Freeze movement of the 1980s told me that they had a bunch of supporters asking candidates all over Iowa about one of their issues–I think it was the Trident missile.

One of the candidates (it may have been Babbitt, I can’t remember) later was quoted as saying how knowledgeable Iowans were about foreign and military affairs, because everywhere he went he kept getting asked about the Trident missile!

Here’s a link to Trippi’s blog post announcing the move.

And here’s a link to a Daily Kos diary with more background and discussion of this hire.

The former Deaniacs I know in Iowa are largely undecided, with some leaning toward Edwards and others leaning toward Obama. I don’t think anyone will make up his or her mind solely based on what Trippi does, but I think the move sends a positive signal about the change Edwards wants to bring to America.

What are your thoughts, and what have you been hearing from the people you know who caucused for Dean in 2004?

I rarely check in with the conservative blogosphere, but for some reason I clicked on the Cyclone Conservatives link at the right and I found a post proclaiming that for the second month in a row, former Libertarian and Republican U.S. Congressman Ron Paul has won the site’s presidential straw poll.

And he didn’t just win–he crushed the field, getting 44 percent of the 984 total votes. Wingnut Duncan Hunter placed second with 17 percent and Multiple Choice Mitt Romney placed third with 13 percent.

At first I thought that one person must have voted over 400 times for Ron Paul, but the organizers claim that you can only vote once per month per IP address. Presumably there must be some way to stuff the poll despite this restriction.

Alternatively, nearly half of Cyclone Conservative readers think the Iraq War was a colossal mistake. Ron Paul was one of very few, perhaps the only, Republican serving in the U.S. House who voted against the Iraq resolution authorizing the use of force in 2002.

Or is there some other reason why Ron Paul is dominating the field?

Another fun fact from this poll: anti-immigrant crusader Tom Tancredo got 8 percent of the vote, nearly twice as many raw votes as John McCain (3 percent) and Rudy Giuliani (1 percent) combined.

Think the wingnut base is a little unhappy with the GOP frontrunners?

John Edwards has solid leads against every Republican candidate in the latest Rasmussen polls:

Edwards (49%) Giuliani (43%)

Edwards (50%) Huckabee (41%)

Edwards (47%) McCain (38%)

Edwards (55%) Romney (29%)

Edwards (50%) Thompson (36%)

Here are Hillary Clinton’s numbers:

Clinton (46%) Brownback (41%)

Clinton (50%) Gingrich (43%)

Clinton (47%) Giuliani (48%)

Clinton (48%) Hagel (40%)

Clinton (47%) McCain (46%)

Clinton (50%) Romney (41%)

Clinton (43%) Thompson (44%)

And Barack Obama’s numbers:

Obama (49%) Brownback (34%)

Obama (48%) Gingrich (38%)

Obama (43%) Giuliani (44%)

Obama (50%) Hagel (34%)

Obama (52%) Huckabee (32%)

Obama (44%) McCain (44%)

Obama (51%) Romney (36%)

Obama (49%) Thompson (37%)

I know this is really long for a typical blog post, but this is a column I wrote for Drake’s newspaper today.  I just thought it was an interesting topic you folks might enjoy:

Democratic selection might not be known until national convention

by Patrick Rynard (Columnist)

Issue date: 4/2/07 Section: Opinion

By this time next year, we ought to know who the nominees for president are. The candidates will have slugged it out in the early states, and an early winner will have gained the momentum to sweep the 20-plus states that make up this cycle’s “Super-Duper Tuesday.” Before Valentine’s Day arrives, all but one candidate will have dropped out on either side.

Or at least that’s what the conventional wisdom predicts will happen. I believe we may see a much different, much more exciting nomination. One in which the final outcome isn’t even decided for the Democrats until the national convention come August 25. Which would mean, yes, a major convention floor fight for the presidential nomination – something we haven’t seen since 1968.

In the interest of disclosure, I’ve posted my profile on Bleeding Heartland…and I’ve disclosed who I work for.  I work in the office of Rep. Kevin McCarthy – Majority Leader in the Iowa House.  Why do I disclose?  Because it’s ethical and because I’m honest.

Generally, I limit my posting to forwarding on press releases and information about what is going on in the Iowa House.  I’m not here to propagandize or hide who I am.  You won’t find me waging battles in the comments or posting anonymously on Krusty Konservative.  With full disclosure I give you the ability to critically evaluate the information I provide and understand who my boss is.

It seems that some bloggers on the right & left have failed to live up to what I see as an ethical obligation.  There’s a post at the NY Times Caucus blog all about it.

Today, the National Journal released their latest rankings on the Democrats seeking the presidential nomination in 2008.  Here are their rankings:

1. Hillary Clinton

2. Barack Obama

3. John Edwards

4. Bill Richardson

5. Chris Dodd

6. Tom Vilsack

7. Joe Biden

8. Wesley Clark

9. Dennis Kucinich

10. Mike Gravel

Make sure to check out what they have to say about each candidate and the fundraising predictions that they are making.

Let me add a couple of things to the questions or things they are talking about in their descriptions of each candidate.  It seems that they frame Clinton’s problem as one of responsibility or the ability to appear genuine.  Iowa Democrats, in my opinion, are looking for a genuine candidate who is able, ready, and willing to admit mistakes.  John Edwards and Barack Obama easily have that advantage over her — and I’m pretty sure some Iowa Democrats are already holding that against her.

Chuck Todd and Marc Ambinder are looking for some staff beyond Nevada to impress them some more and prove that he is everyone’s second choice.  Here’s some nice news that I have heard: former Iowa Democratic Party Field Director Brad Frevert has joined Richardson’s campaign as his go-to guy for Iowa field operations.  Frevert’s an Iowa-boy, and worked with Jesse Harris (who is Vilsack’s field guy), so we know he’s got Iowa field knowledge coming out the wazoo.

They note that Chris Dodd is basically raising lots of money because he’s got a cushy position as Chair of the Senate Banking Committee.  It is true, but he’s also taking leadership on restoring Habeas Corpus.  That’ll give him a little edge with which to hold on to some grassroots activists.

Finally, we get to Vilsack, and this is the question I have to ask: Does the endorsement of Barack Obama by Tom Miller and Mike Fitzgerald really mean anything?  Todd and Ambinder seem to think that’s bad news, as do the folks over at CityView’s Civic Skinny.  Now, maybe because I’m young I might be a bit naive about Iowa politics, but do Miller and Fitzgerald really have that big of a following in Iowa that their endorsement would swing Iowa voters to Obama?  I don’t believe that for one bit, but I guess I have to keep inserting the naive bit just in case.  Both Miller and Fitzgerald have been around in state Democratic politics forever and neither were indebted to Vilsack at all, so I don’t think there was a lot of pressure for Vilsack to lock up their endorsement.

And let’s not forget, Tom Miller endorsed Joe Lieberman in 2004 and Lieberman didn’t even make it to the caucuses.  I’m not saying Obama won’t make it to the caucuses (he will) but Miller seems to endorsed based on how well you’re doing early on in the race, not simply based on issues.

Finally, Joe Biden will be back in the state this weekend (or is supposed to be, but it looks like Sen. Reid might be scheduling a vote for Saturday), so I think we’ll officially be able to gauge Iowan reactions to his campaign after he’s been here as a serious candidate.

Anyway, what’re your thoughts on the rankings?  And if you haven’t already, make sure to vote in the poll on the left side of the page.

Strategic Vision, a Republican polling firm, has released their first polling on the Iowa Caucuses.  Here are the results:

John Edwards 25%

Barack Obama 17%

Tom Vilsack 16%

Hillary Clinton 15%

Joe Biden 4%

John Kerry 3%

Wesley Clark 2%

Bill Richardson 1%

Chris Dodd 1%

Dennis Kucinich 1%

Undecided 15%

It is remarkably similar to the Zogby poll just released a few days ago, which you can find here.

What is your perspective on the race in Iowa from the ground?  And don’t forget to take the caucus poll on the right.