I would like to hear from anyone with their own "lessons from Iowa." Here are mine, based on lots of watching the candidates as they campaigned Iowa -- the cable networks in general, and C-Span in particular, gave great up-close-and-personal views of the candidates. My observations might seem a little harsh toward a couple of candidates, but what the heck -- I'm not out to make friends with some of their consultants. By way of full Blogging disclosure, I'm voting for Hillary Clinton on Tuesday.
1. Don't Washington-Speak. Long-time United States Senators or people who hang around government for too long seem to forget that message. Most of us don't live there. Talk our language. But don't dummy-down to us. We can tell when you do that. Joe Biden and Chris Dodd didn't do well in Iowa for that reason. Hillary Clinton often sounded like she had been hanging around people in power for two decades. I wondered where the "conversation" that she started her campaign went. Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee sounded "fresh." Even "refreshing."
2. Don't Be Marshmallow Fluff. Have some courage to be yourself. Let yourself be you. Put your bell-curve focus group-driven, poll-tested politically-correct answers and cute sayings aside. It's obvious who did that well. And who didn't.
3. Be Bold And Challenge Us With A Vision. We don't want to vote for you just because you're wonderful or you have a fantastic resume. We want to know what you'll do in the future and what you want us to do for our future. In Iowa, those who talked more about "us" than themselves did quite well. Those who talked more about "me" than "you" didn't. And show some passion. Maybe even some anger -- there is reason to be angry about what has been happening in this world. John Edwards did that well in Iowa.
4. If You're A Democrat -- Be Strong Against Iraq. Don't play games with us. Are you for getting out? When? How? Be clear. We have to know.
5. Use The Internet As An Interactive Resource. Stop asking for contributions in every E-Mail message. We just turn that out. Use the Internet to involve us, learn from us, solicit opinions. When people write in, write back. And be informative -- not just the flash and puff. We can see through that. Best WEBSITE: Barack Obama. Tells us something.
6. Involve The Young. After all, they're the ones who are going to outlive us all. And they DO vote. Barack Obama is more than a "fad" for some reason. He connects. Young people in Iowa supported him in droves.
7. Welcome The Independents. In Iowa, the Democrats won over the Independents. That's great for Democrats in November. We need them here in New Hampshire. Barack Obama gets lots of them, as does John McCain. To win, Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney have to discover them.
8. Be For REAL Change, And Mean It. But if you're going to do things differently with out-of-the-box thinking, explain what you mean. Barack Obama did that well in Iowa. Hillary Clinton just seemed to be copying his messages about change. If she's going to turn this around, she has to explain her own brand of "change." .
9. Be Non-Establishment. People have seen a lot of establishment-types in recent years and they've skid us into a war. We're looking for non-establishment types. Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama were considered non-establishment in Iowa. How Mitt Romney, John Edwards, or Hillary Clinton deal with that in New Hampshire might dictate how they do.
10. Seek To Become A Voice. Most of us as citizens feel we have little or no voice in Washington, or in government in general, especially if we have little money and don't contribute to candidates. We're looking for "one of us." In Iowa, Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama seemed more like us than Hillary Clinton (White House "experience") or Mitt Romney (so rich he could buy all the McDonald's restaurants in Iowa). If you're not like one of us, at least try to relate to us more. Tell us how you're going to empower us and respect us.
11. Focus On People And Ideas, Not Endorsements. Endorsements help, but the emphasis should be on "regular-folk." Too many of these candidates have their political endorsers at every rally, up front and center behind them on-stage. In most cases, it seemed like the backdrops in Iowa at events where Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama were speaking were just regular folk. Well, with the exception of Chuck Norris standing with Mike Huckabee like a lifeguard. But that's a bit different.
12. Have A Message, And Stick To It. It's not just about money and running millions of dollars of ads full of clutter and fluff. In Iowa, the candidates who had regular repetitive messages and somewhat of a theme, and stuck to them for more than just a couple of weeks, did well. The ones who were all over the place with their messages and had advertisements full of quick bites of messages didn't do well. They need to learn from that. The "corporate greed" vs. "corporate responsibility" messages of Barack Obama and John Edwards paid off in Iowa. Many of us understand that kind of message. But what does "Ready To Lead" mean? Ready to lead what? And where? And where to? The difference is rather specific vs. very generic. The difference is what relates to us vs. what is meaningless.
13. Be Straight-Talking. Barack Obama usually answered questions in a sentence or two. Hillary Clinton went on for a minute or two. Bill Clinton when he'd speak for Hillary would answer questions in five minutes or so. Mike Huckabee seemed to have clear answers. Mitt Romney had to explain himself at length. Joe Biden couldn't answer questions without Washington-speak. Iowa people were listening carefully, and made their choices based on what they heard. We will here too.
14. Be Authentic And Look Us In The Eye. Voters can see through phoniness. When a candidate is calculating or cautious in answering questions, we can tell. There's something genuine about Mike Huckabee -- what you see is what you get. Same with Barack Obama. I think there's a lot of WYSIWYG with Hillary Clinton too, but her managers and handlers haven't let us see that yet. And eye-to-eye contact on the campaign trail is vital. C-Span is great for noticing that in the candidates as they walk around before and after speeches and greet voters.. Mike Huckabee was great at that in Iowa. Mitt Romney didn't seem to do it well. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama each have good people skills, but there's just a special warmth about Obama that Clinton needs to develop. One of the more amazing things about Bill Clinton is that if you have just ten seconds with him, for those ten seconds you feel as if you're the most important person in the world to him for that time. Hillary Clinton needs a lesson -- she always seems to want to go onto the next handshake.
15. Be Consistent. "Flip-flopping" isn't the problem that most candidates have. It's not being able to answer a question the same way with some consistency, or being clear about a position without trying to cover all the bases and make everyone happy. Mitt Romney seemed to take several positions on some issues -- it's not that he's changed his positions, it's that you just don't know where he stands now. Barack Obama gives a lot of rhetoric, but has consistent messages. Hillary Clinton's messages in speeches and television advertisements changed a lot in Iowa. That can't happen these next few days in New Hampshire.
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