But it’s also a political obstacle course that has tripped up many previous candidates.
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Three high-profile presidential candidates competed for a blue ribbon in the competition for the attention of Iowa State Fairgoers today. Hi, Don. But it is sunny.
“Right now, we’re designing things, we’re creating things, but we’re making them in China”, he said.
GONYEA: Well, let’s start with the morning event.
When one man told him that rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bernie Sanders are too old, the 52-year-old O’Malley noted the man was standing among a group of people wearing red AARP T-shirts. Tom Harkin, still a popular figure in Iowa politics. He’s retired, but he’s still a very big deal. He riled up onlookers with tales of his medical work and a no-handouts personal story – and he did it without taking the sorts of personal shots that strike even some anti-establishment Republicans as out of bounds when they come from Trump. Clinton brushed aside any suggestion there is concern among Democrats about her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. After his speech, hounded by a few reporters, he refused to comment on Hillary Clinton’s ongoing email scandal, or the rumors of a Joe Biden presidential bid stoked by friends of the vice president.
He said passage of the Fair Tax by Congress would provide a boost to the economy, growing it by 6%.
On whether he feels qualified to be president: “Nobody else will do the job that I will do”.
Trump says we’ve spent 2 trillion dollars, lost thousands of lives, had wounded warriors…
Clinton and Trump are planning to visit the fair on Saturday. He didn’t actually land on the fairgrounds. He plans to visit the famed butter cow, but the Des Moines Register’s political soapbox isn’t on his itinerary.
GONYEA: And in what, a photo op? And when Stumpf walked away, she dispatched her aides to get her contact information as the crowd continued onward. But he certainly made an impression here. And this is where candidates stand on stage.
Donald Trump is willing to fork over a billion bucks if that’s what it takes to win the White House.
Bill Pugliano/Getty Images Trump hasn’t given anywhere near the type of detail-specific policy speeches or voluminous online explanations of his platform some of his competitors are pushing.
“That’s up to them”, he said.
“Every time somebody said I made a mistake, they do the polls and my numbers go up”, he said. In 2008, Fred Thompson, a former U.S. senator from Tennessee, went to the fair prior to officially entering the Republican presidential race. Rand Paul and former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore are also skipping the soapbox. For Hillary Clinton, it might be different because you might remember Mitt Romney being heckled mercilessly at the soapbox. So she did a press conference here. Juggling a lemonade and posing for selfies, she told admirers that she needed their prayers and gave an enthusiastic review of the pork: “It’s so good!” she exclaimed. Jeb Bush will be along Friday; Rick Santorum, Lincoln Chafee and Sen.
Sanders’ Saturday crowd was the biggest, but Carson’s Sunday Soapbox draw was close. Probably the best moment of the day – as he was speaking, Trump’s helicopter flew overhead.
“I’ve known Joe for many, many years“, Sanders said. Don, thanks, and enjoy yourself.
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So it’s State Fair time in Iowa and all that means – Blue Ribbon steers, the giant ferris wheel, hog-calling contests.
