Over the weekend, the Clinton campaign questioned the right of Iowa students to participate in the caucus. Threatened in the polls, Clinton has given up just attacking her rivals and has decided to launch full-out verbal assaults against key Democratic constituencies.
The caucus, her campaign representative said, ought to be "for Iowans," not for college students who have lived and studied there for the last four years.
Get it?
Yes, Hillary Clinton is now throwing around charges of carpetbagging. Apparently, she's decided to even use all of the right-wing frames that have been used against her in her career, when she abruptly decided to move to New York state to run for Senate. Yes, she certainly has learned something from her time in office.
You see, the Iowa caucus ought to be for Iowans.
When the Clinton campaign a month ago realized they were starting to lose Iowa, they decided they needed to double the size of her staff and hire an additional hundred people, so they posted an ad on Craig's List and held a job fair... in Washington, D.C.
And when the Clinton campaign wanted to learn about Iowa farmers, they held a "Rural Americans for Hillary" lunch... in Washington D.C.:
... at a lobbying firm...
... and specifically, though it's not mentioned in the invitation, at the lobbying firm Troutman Sanders Public Affairs...
...which just so happens to lobby for the controversial multinational agri-biotech Monsanto.
You read that right: Monsanto, about which there are serious questions about its culpability regarding 56 Superfund Sites, wanton and "outrageous" pollution, and the decidedly unkosher (and quite metaphoric) genetically-bred "Superpig."
...A company that the website "Ethical Investing" labels "the world's most unethical and harmful investment."
Holding an agri-summit in the plush halls of the lobbyists for Monsanto doesn't sound like the kind of "rural Americans" a presidential candidate would necessarily want to be photographed with.
You see, the Iowa caucus ought to be for Iowans.
That's why, contrary to her accusation of the same at rivals, as the Chicago Sun-Times' Lynn Sweet notes, Clinton's "was the only campaign to aggressively recruit non-Iowans to the JJ as the below information evidences." Chase Martyn of Iowa Independent broke that story. The Obama and Edwards campaigns both pledged that all supporters given tickets inside the arena were from Iowa.
Because Iowa, you must see, ought to be for Iowans.
And that's why two of the student leaders of Students for Hillary in Iowa are, "shockingly," from out of state.
The co-president of Students for Hillary at the University of Iowa is an Illinois native:
And as reported earlier this year, the Clinton campaign was trying to organize students in a way we think is perfectly acceptable but obviously hypocritical considering her attack today.
But her student volunteers are working on contingency plans. Nikki Dziuban, a 19-year-old sophomore from the Chicago suburbs, is co-president of Students for Hillary at the University of Iowa. She says the original caucus date of Jan. 14 would boost student turnout because out-of-state students like her would be "more inclined to come back if it’s just a couple days earlier than if it’s right in the middle of break." (Spring semester there begins Jan. 22.)
And then there's the co-chair of Students for Hillary at Iowa State University, Sarah Sunderman, who will be home in Minnesota for the holidays, and will be driving back to attend the caucus:
Sarah Sunderman, a senior at Iowa State University, said she will drive back early from her home in Minnesota to take part in the Jan. 3 caucuses. She is one of about 21,000 out-of-state students who attend Iowa's public universities. As a member of her school's Democratic student group, she sees the date as a challenge.
"It's a complex issue, but clearly it's harder when students are dispersed across the state to make sure they participate," Sunderman said.
Clinton supporters have challenged Sunderman's example, saying that she is actually originally born in Iowa and that she plans to remain in Iowa after graduating. I'm glad to see that they're inventing new criteria as they go along for who should or should not be allowed to caucus. It is patently absurd, not to mention unconstitutional, to argue that Iowa voters should have been born in the state or that they should sign a pledge to remain there indefinitely.
Now understand me: None of these students are doing anything wrong, and they have every right to participate. In fact, as these two examples show, students from out of state are heavily involved and deeply invested in their communities, the state should be happy to have them and is better off for having them, and they actually represent a model for civic engagement.
That's why the Clinton campaign's attacks this week were so stupid and so petty. The Chicago Sun-Times called Clinton's activities "perfectly acceptable but obviously hypocritical considering her attack today."
Clinton's spokesperson, Mo Elleithee:
There’s a big difference here. We are not systematically trying to manipulate the Iowa caucuses with out of state people. We don’t have literature recruiting out of state college students.
This is the difference that I just didn't understand before. From the comically misnamed and often mocked "Fact Hub":
Now, in an attempt to deflect the criticism, the Obama campaign is claiming Hillary "does the same." That's not true. The two examples that the Obama campaign provides quote individual students who support Hillary, one of whom says she will caucus for her in Iowa. [...] The Obama campaign is the only campaign that is systematically trying to manipulate the Iowa caucus with people from out of state.
In other words, the Clinton campaign is saying, of course we're doing it too, just in a crappy, far less organized way. As Mike Connery put it yesterday:
Rather than spending their time whining that the Obama campaign is out-organizing them among college students, Dodd and Clinton should get to work energizing their own student base.
And Obama isn't about to back down. His campaign released this statement Saturday:
Rather than denigrating the caucus rights of students who go to school in Iowa, we would suggest the Clinton campaign organize them. Their attack here is borne out of pure political frustration. Iowans are determined to launch a winning candidate for the Democratic Party to bring real change for our country. They will not be deterred by efforts to dampen participation and 11th-hour attacks.
And on Sunday:
When Obama held a rally Sunday at Iowa State University in Ames, he immediately brought up the issue.
"Every Iowa State University student who lives in Ames is eligible to caucus. Understand that," he said to several hundred students.
"Don’t let people tell you that you can’t participate. You are an Iowa student; you can be an Iowa caucus-goer, and I want you to prove them wrong when they say you’re not gonna show up," he continued.