Paul Tewes: the lessons of Iowa

Paul Tewes, the manager of Barack Obama’s Iowa Caucus campaign, spoke earlier this morning to the Iowa delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Denver (Audio: 8 min MP3).  He’s now working with the DNC, but revealed he has maintained an apartment in Des Moines and will use that as his official residence — meaning he will csst his vote in the general election in Iowa.  When asked by yours truly if he’d be flying back to Iowa to vote or casting an absentee ballot, he laughed.  (Tewes will cast an absentee ballot.) 

Tewes, introduced by Iowa Democratic Party chairman Scott Brennan as a "friend" of the Iowa Caucuses, spent most of his seven minutes reliving the Caucuses.  "What you pulled off in January was amazing," Tewes said. "…I don’t want to come and give you a big old strategic thing because there’s press in the room

Tewes said Iowa was a sort of proving ground for the young operatives who learn the craft of organizing voters.  "It’s always what they learned in Iowa from you — that taught them how to organize…know that this campaign started in Iowa and know that even when it left Iowa, what you taught these folks msttered and they used it."