Utne Blogs the Iowa Caucuses: Day 3
Mitt Romney’s campaign might hate the media. Or, more likely, they’re just stupid. When I called to ask the location of last night’s Mitt Romney campaign event, a staffer told me it was at Hivie Hall. I asked how to spell it, and he said “H-I-V-I-E, I don’t know, Hivie Hall… look it up on the internet.”
I looked it up on the internet. There is no Hivie Hall, but there is a HyVee Hall in downtown Des Moines. I showed up at HyVee Hall at the appropriate time, but the parking lot was nearly deserted. There was only one man from a local TV station, standing in the cold, plugging in his equipment. I asked him, “Is this where the Mitt Romney event is tonight?”
“Oh, you’re here for the Romney thing?” he asked. “Yeah, that’s over at the HyVee Conference Center.”
Some could accuse me of simply getting the information wrong. Seconds later, though, two cars filled with media correspondents drove into the parking lot, asking about the Romney event. I told them it was a few minutes away, and one of them responded, “Oh, that sucks!”
Not knowing where the event really was, I ended up driving around Iowa for a half hour, before giving up and going to the Hillary Clinton rally. I’ll bet Mitt wouldn’t be happy to hear that.
For all the posts from the Iowa Caucuses, read the Utne Politics blog
