Iowa First?

Apologies to readers of The Blog as I've been out sick.  I'm back now, reviewing news from the past two days, and will direct you to John Deeth's review of the Democratic National Committee's Change Commission.  Here's the story from the Associated Press about Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller's thoughts on being named to the commission.  Tom Beaumont from The Des Moines Register filed this story.  Ben Smith at The Politico has a comprehensive post with deep background.

I'll only offer one additional comment to what the rest of these folks have said/written about the "Change Commission." David Plouffe is on it and he's a fan of Iowa. Here's a Plouffe quote from an Esquire profile published last month: "You have this farmer who never voted Democrat in his life, and suddenly he says, 'Hey, know what, I never thought I'd be voting for some black guy named Barack Obama from Chicago, but know what? I am.' You can't put a price on that."

If you read the entire article (that is if you can get past the references to overalls, straw hals and hay bales), you will find a passage near the end in which Plouffe seems to suggest winning Iowa's Caucuses on January 3, 2008 was almost as electrifying as winning the whole thing on November 4, 2008. Here's the key paragraph: "Do you realize that more than half those volunteers had never been involved in politics before?" David Plouffe is wide-eyed now, and leaning in. "More than half." He emphasizes the final word to let the incredulity settle. And then there is a moment — it's almost imperceptible, and you almost wish you hadn't noticed, because there is something agonizing about a private man showing public emotion. But it happens. His eyes tear up. The soft-spoken, indefatigable general is talking about his troops and his eyes glisten. Iowa, the grassroots effort, he says, rivaled election night. Then quickly he shakes the chaff from his hair and recomposes…

(Passages above in boldface are from the Esquire article.)