They just couldn't keep this guy away.
According to the Des Moines Register, the only real Iowan who showed up at former Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun's (D.-Ill.) first-ever presidential campaign event was Tom Hanson, a "friend from law school at the University of Chicago . . . [who] even offered her his guest room for her return visits to Iowa."
"Hanson was the only soul-besides a dozen members of the local news media and half as many event coordinators-to brave a foot of fresh snow to hear the former U.S. senator from Illinois speak in Des Moines on Saturday afternoon," said the Register.
Moseley-Braun, who formally announced her presidential candidacy a few days later, went ahead and delivered a 30-minute speech to Mr. Hanson.
She intends to make opposing a war against Iraq and imposing socialized medicine on America key campaign issues.
On January 27, Moseley-Braun had held a hush-hush meeting with Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe. McAuliffe, it is believed, encouraged her to run. Why? Fear that Al Sharpton, who was already running, would win a sizable share of the black vote in the primaries and become a major power broker in the national Democratic Party.
Carl McCall, a black Democrat who was the party's gubernatorial nominee in New York last year, told the New York Daily News he opposed Moseley-Braun's campaign. "I think her candidacy would undermine the candidacy of Al Sharpton," said McCall, "and I think he can play an important role in the election."
McCall's worries may be unfounded. Sharpton was warmly received in Iowa. "Preaching at the predominantly black Union Baptist Church in Des Moines recently," reported Steven Thomma of Knight Ridder, "Sharpton brought people to their feet repeatedly . . ."
Moseley-Braun moved on from Iowa to New Hampshire where, according to the Portsmouth Herald, she drew "about 15 people."
