Podcast debut: To win in Iowa, you've got to organize
On Jan. 3, 2008, 240,000 Iowans turned out for the Democratic Party’s presidential caucuses. By the end of the night, they had set U.S. Sen. Barack Obama on the path to the White House.
How we arrived at that result is perhaps the greatest story in the history of the Iowa caucuses — and the first one to be told in Three Tickets, a new Des Moines Register podcast that launches Thursday.
I've been reporting and producing this 10-part series for the last six months, interviewing more than 30 sources from across the political spectrum. In subsequent episodes, listeners will hear stories from former candidates, national advisers and reporters, and many average Iowans with incredible stories from the caucus campaign trail. Two-time caucus winner Bob Dole, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, "Meet the Press" moderator Chuck Todd and, of course, retired Register columnist David Yepsen all make appearances.
You can also subscribe to the podcast series in iTunes and Stitcher. Follow on Twitter at @ThreeTicketsDMR.
More: Review episode guide | Meet podcast host Jason Noble.
Here's the short version of that 2008 story: The 240,000-strong turnout was unprecedented in the history of the caucuses, and it’s essential to understanding the 2008 race. It sums up the enthusiasm that defined the contest between Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards, and underscores the secret to Obama’s success.
It illustrates how organization is the key to caucus success.
Organization means not just attracting supporters, but identifying them, grabbing hold of them, and making absolutely certain that they show up for you on caucus night. That’s the only way to get 240,000 people to come out on a cold winter night to argue politics with their neighbors, and it’s the only way Obama won Iowa.
Photos from the 2008 Caucuses:
“We staked our whole theory of the campaign on Iowa,” Obama adviser David Axelrod said in an interview for the podcast. He added, “Our theory was that Obama had a unique ability to expand the universe. That’s sort of the Holy Grail that everyone chases in the Iowa caucuses but few achieve.”
Obama had no other choice, Axelrod said. Clinton entered the race as the favorite, and her lead nationally forced Obama to play to win in the caucuses. Rather than the traditional three tickets out of Iowa, her dominance seemed to provide just one.
“We either had to win or not win,” he said. “Our view was a second place we might be able to survive, but probably not.”
Follow Iowa Caucus news, photos, videos with Iowa Caucuses App: iPhone or iPad | Android
Also visit: DesMoinesRegister.com/IowaCaucuses | Candidate tracker and calendar in Iowa | Sign up for Caucuses Newsletter
After a few early stumbles, and thanks in large part to that superior organizing effort, Obama found his footing in the late fall of 2007. He stole the show at the party’s Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in November, and carried that momentum into caucus night. .
The turnout that accompanied that victory caught just about everybody off guard.
“We were predicting between 175,000 and 190,000. That’s what we prepared for. …” said Norm Sterzenbach, a political consultant who was the Democratic Party’s caucus director in 2008. “So when we had 240,000, we were sort of blown out of the water. It was very, very difficult and presented a lot of logistical challenges on caucus night.”
According to Sterzenbach, though, the credit doesn’t belong to Obama alone.
Love Iowa Caucus History? Find historic galleries, recaps of the caucuses
“The conventional wisdom was that Barack Obama brought all these people out, and he did. But so did Hillary and so did Edwards,” he said. “They all deserve a lot of credit for that high turnout.”
Indeed, it would be unfair to argue that Clinton ran a bad campaign in Iowa, caucus insiders say. She just ran the wrong campaign for the wrong year.
“She was planning for an old-school Iowa caucuses,” said Jeff Zeleny, a CNN reporter who covered the 2008 race for The New York Times. “She did not expand the universe.”
Jerry Crawford, the Des Moines attorney who served as Clinton’s Midwest Co-Chair for the 2008 race, told the Register he failed to grasp the electorate’s craving for something new — a miscalculation that opened the door for Obama.
“People talk about Barack Obama hope and change,” Crawford said. “Forget hope. It was about change. It was the ultimate change election. It was the most dramatic change election of my lifetime.”
Download the podcast
To hear these and more Iowa caucuses stories from the people who lived them, check out Three Tickets, the Des Moines Register's new podcast on the history and culture of the caucuses.
Three Tickets is available at Des Moines Register.com/ThreeTickets and on iTunes and Stitcher. The first episode, introducing the series and reliving the historic 2008 caucus race, is available now. New episodes exploring the various facets of Iowa's first-in-the-nation presidential contest will be released every Thursday through December. Follow on Twitter at @ThreeTicketsDMR.