So this is a first for me – I am trying to blog from my phone.  I am at the Obama rally in Des Moines.  Leonard Boswell is here, doing his molest the presidentials thing we have all come to know and have some sort of feelings about.  Obama has picked up a few more staff since I last had heard – another Iowa City coordinated field organizer and one from CR.  It’s nice to see some more Iowa blood on a campaign that has up to this point been better suited for running the South Dakota caucus.

I am having a lot of trouble updating this post from my phone, so updates might be few and far between.  They’ve started removing seats from the back of the venue, but they still have a pretty good crowd.  Nowhere near Ames levels though!

The godawful annoying folk singer is now singing a song called, as best I can tell, “How Long Do I Have to Wait?”  We’re about 7 minutes past when they were supposed to start, and I’m wondering how long I’ll have to wait for him to stop playing.

Obama enters to “Praise You” by Fatboy Slim…  Or at least that’s what we all thought.  Turns out that there is a big miscue and he’s not going to be out for 2 more minutes.  Luckily it’s a long song.  (One of my friends wonders if it is for a smoke break.)

He’s out now – was late because he was “calling his daughters.”  Yeah, more like dropping them off at the pool.

I would say pretty close to 1500 people are here right now,  give or take a couple hundred.

The first guy to get up for an Iraq applause line was wearing an Urlacher jersey.

“Rule number one:  Only I am allowed to make speeches.”

First question is from an Iraq vet – who is actually pissed off about alimony!  I doubt he is really a vet at all.  What is up with these people?  At least he didn’t bring a balloon full of purple powder.

Second question – Obama makes a joke about him being from Chicago one second before the guy says his mom died of cancer.  Question is what will he do about cancer.

He mentioned his own battle with smoking – “Nicorette works, people.”  Is a Gronstal endorsement in the works?  His answer is basically – 1.  Funding.  2.  Health Insurance.  3.  Change in habits.

3rd Question – diabetes guy.  I am pretty sure this guy was at Clinton too.  He sounds pretty out of breath just asking the question.  It’s about school lunches.  I want to ask him about his lunches.  If anyone reading this gives a shit about how Obama feels about school lunches, you can check it out on C-Span.

4th question – Hahahaha he says “The young lady with the hat” – turns out to be a dude with a big beard.  It’s a guy who wants to know how to help out “in the neighborhood.”

5th question – sensible priorities blah blah about cutting defense spending.  He says “priorities” a lot during the answer.  He says some of the programs to cut will have to go back in to fund other things…  more troops maybe?  Veteran healthcare?  It’s not clear.  He mentions veterans “foraging in dumpsters for food” because they aren’t getting the post combt support they need.  Glad the whole “wasted” thing hasn’t caused him to pull punches.

6th – Women are getting discriminated against, what will you do?  Like most of the questions before this, it sounds scripted.  Obama was a civil rights lawyer and we need to make sure judges enforce civil rights laws.

7th – Mental health question.  The guy asking is not just the questioner, he is also a client.  Obama supports parity but there are a lot of structural obstacles to effective implementation – actually diagnosing the problem, facilities to do anything about it especially in low income areas, etc.  A strong answer if I do say so myself.  Then he just used it to go off on a tangent about the budget.  Will recommend tax breaks for the wealthiest be rolled back.  He uses the estate tax as an example.  Good joke but I maxed out my textbox.