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2008 Candidates Travel / Candidates-Travel-Map / Hillary Clinton / Bill Clinton / → All Tags

Candidates Travel: Hillary's Stump Man Endures Robot Protest

While stumping for Senator Hillary Clinton in Iowa, former President Bill Clinton was heckled by a robot in a prank by a University of Iowa associate professor.

Communications Professor Kembrew McLeod writes on his website that he dressed up as a robot and disrupted the speech because he wanted Clinton to apologize for misquoting African-American activist Sister Souljah in 1992 and painting her as a militant. After McLeod tossed hundreds of little slips of paper in the air, Clinton asked him to protest in a more environmentally sound manner, but Professor McLeod didn't apologize.

Even Hillary supporters have to admit she has drawn a certain benefit from having her husband on the stump. Michelle Obama shows us the "stinky" side of Barack, and Elizabeth Edwards' inspiring battle with cancer has touched a chord with millions, but Bill's political career might bring back warm memories of a pre-W age for many Democrats. Still, that history can also be a liability.

If you, too, want to get thrown out of a Clinton appearance while dressed as a robot, Madame Senator will be at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, New Jersey tonight for a fundraiser with New Jersey governor Jon Corzine and singer Tony Bennett. Next up is an event in her hometown at the Hyatt Regency Chicago on December 18.

Thanks to our Iowa friend "Bill S. Preston" for the tip!

2008 Candidates Travel / Candidates-Travel-Map / Ron Paul / Barack Obama / Chris Dodd / Mitt Romney / → All Tags

2008 Candidates Travel: Ron Paul Talks Cuba, Too

With all the talk about Cuba among the candidates for President, maybe CNN should consider holding a debate at Guantanamo Bay. First Obama talks travel in Miami, then Chris Dodd brought it up. Now almost-a-libertarian candidate Ron Paul, an obstetrician and member of the U.S. House of Representatives from East Texas, has made his pro-friendship Cuba policy the subject of his weekly newsletter.

While Paul is not a front runner--he recently nabbed 5% of the vote and 6th place in a CNN poll of Republican candidates--his campaign has drawn a fair share of attention due to its grassroots Internet efforts and for the $4.2 million he raised in one day last week, breaking Mitt Romney's one-day fundraising record. Paul will be in Cedar Rapids before heading to a college football tailgate in Iowa City, Iowa on Saturday. Next week, he'll take a page from the Democrats and travel Nevada.

Related Stories:
· Struggling for Relevance in Cuba [Ron Paul]
· Candidates Travel: Viva Vegas [Jaunted]
· 2008 Candidates Travel coverage [Jaunted]
· Candidates Travel Map [Jaunted]

[Photo: ronpaul2008]

2008 Candidates Travel / Candidates-Travel-Map / John McCain / → All Tags

2008 Candidates Travel: In Iowa, Johnny Can't Fail

You can't beat a name like John McCain. Despite some early stumbles in the 2008 presidential race, McCain has crept into second among Republicans in a new national poll as he continued his campaign despite yesterday's elections. Campaigning in Ames, Iowa, McCain took the stage with photos of Vladimir Putin, Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to demonstrate why the U.S. should stop buddying up with those guys and strive for renewable national sources of energy.

Although he didn't participate in the Iowa straw poll, coming in dead last and allowing a victory for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, McCain's long public service record--and the fact that he already ran for president in 2000--prove that Romney's supposed good looks can only take him so far. Unfortunately for McCain, he's still second to former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, with Fred Thompson a scant percentage point behind in the USA Today poll.

Related Stories:
· McCain Rises to Second in 3 New GOP Polls [Arizona Republic]
· McCain's Poster Boys [AP, via Google]
· 2008 Candidates Travel coverage [Jaunted]
· Candidates Travel Map [Jaunted]

[Photo of McCain in Iowa earlier this year: 4president]

SUX / Airports / → All Tags

Sioux City Airport Officially SUX

When you are issued the airport code SUX you have two choices -- whine until the FAA changes the code, or embrace the suxage. Sioux City Gateway Airport and city officials have decided to do the latter. The code is now proudly emblazoned on t-shirts, caps, and on the airports new web site, which proudly proclaims:

Great airfares. Free Internet. Easy on, easy off. Why wouldn't ya?

Why embrace the SUX? Well, when Sioux City official petitioned the FAA to change the code back in 1988 and 2002 the FAA offered the city a couple alternatives, including GAY. Heh. So someone at the FAA has the sense of humor of a seventh grader, nice.

It could be worse. We tend to always forget the Las Vegas airport code, which should be LVS but is inexplicably LAS. No one will ever forget that Sioux City SUX.

Related Stories:
· Airport Coverage [Jaunted]
· Hotels in Sioux City [HotelChatter]

2008 Candidates Travel / Candidates-Travel-Map / Fred Thompson / → All Tags

2008 Candidates Travel: Thompson in Iowa

Reagan did it. Schwarzenegger did it. Jesse "The Body" Ventura even did it. Now, Law & Order star and former Senator Fred Thompson hopes to parlay his Hollywood celebrity--and uncanny likeness to Kelsey Grammer--to the presidency.

Thompson officially announced his candidacy last week on The Tonight Show, perhaps not the best way to add gravitas to one's campaign. And his competitors were quick to criticize his laid-back attitude to joining the race when Thompson played hooky at the first Republican debate in Manchester, New Hampshire.

To show he's in it to win it, Thompson is riding around Iowa this week on his Friends of Fred tour bus. Recently, he laid out his platform to a group of followers in Sioux City, Iowa. So far, it's yes to Iraq, no to abortion, no to gay marriage, and no to a national health care plan. What about Cuba?

Related Stories:
· Candidates Travel Map [Jaunted]
· Candidates Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: McVey]

2008 Candidates Travel / Mitt Romney / → All Tags

2008 Candidates Travel: Romney On The Run

Just because he refuses to field questions from a talking snowman doesn't mean Mitt Romney and his fellow republican candidates aren't serious about fighting to keep a white guy in the top spot. Romney stormed through Iowa last week with a fervor aimed at showing the country he honestly thinks our country should elect a guy named "Mitt."

He toured the state with his son Josh's family, hosting "Ask Mitt Anything" Q&As in Denison, Ida Grove, Storm Lake, Spencer, and Okoboji. He also took a tour of the state's hydrogen energy center.

After promising Iowans he will clean up the "cesspool" of drugs, sex, and violence that surrounds America's children, the former Massachusetts governor jetted back to Washington, D.C. for the Republican National Hispanic Assembly Convention's prayer breakfast, then up to a campaign tour through another battleground state -- New Hampshire, and back down to Virginia Beach for a fund raiser.

His campaign strategists are hoping the intensity of his travel schedule will help him pull ahead of the fellas still beating him in the polls: Rudy Guliani, Fred Thompson, and John McCain.

Related Stories:
· Candidates Travel [Jaunted]
· Iowa Hotel Reviews [HotelChatter]

[Photo: Comedy Central]

Fairs / Animals / Butter / → All Tags

Nice Cow... Butter Face!

Sure, other travel blogs may give you round-ups of Lower East Side bars that all start with the letter "R" and serve $12 cocktails, but that's not our style here at Jaunted. No, we're more of a sculpture made of dairy kind of place. Luckily, we're not the only ones that appreciate the finer points of butter-based construction: It's also one of the most famous exhibits at the Iowa State Fair.

Norma Duffy--also known as the Butter Cow lady--has been making cows of butter for the fair for over forty years. She traces the tradition to Tibetan monks, who made sculptures from Yak butter as far back as the 1400s; a butter cow has been featured at the Iowa State Fair since 1911. They take their cows pretty seriously over there, it would seem.

Now all we need is a giant lobster made of lobster meat and we'll be all set.

[Image via shelleylyn/Flickr]

Celeb Travel / → All Tags

Demi and Ashton Can Be Obnoxious in Middle-America, Too

Cradle-robber Demi Moore and MTV jester Ashton Kutcher made a surprise roadside stop at a West Des Moines bar this weekend. Stars--they're just like us! If you live in Iowa, that is.

The ambiguously preganant couple was traveling through town to see some of Ashton's old friends from Homestead when they stopped off for a few cold ones at a joint called Aura--and stayed till closing time.

We say this is actually pretty cool of them, keepin' it real in Iowa. Unfortunately they blew it when they demanded a helicopter to take them home. (And you thought it was hard to get a cab to take you to Brooklyn.) The bar manager called every pilot he knew, with no luck, and eventually some poor security personnel had to drive them the 100 miles back to Ashton's crashpad. Let this be a lesson: Always secure your helicopter ride home before a night of drinking, lest you find yourself in Des Moines without a flight home.

Related Stories:
·   Demi and Ashton pop in at bar in Iowa [AP]

Music / Festivals / → All Tags

Music Festivals Pt. III: National Old-Time Music Festival

The National Old Time Country & Bluegrass Festival may not immediately sound your speed, but it just might surprise you. The festival claims to "have been doing the music of "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" for the past 30 years," and has a roster that reads like a who's who in bluegrass.

The festival began Mon. and runs through next Mon. Tickets are $14/day and it takes place on a mammoth county fairground in Iowa, complete with 12 sound stages and over 600 international and American performers. It's unlikely you won't find something you like here. They've also got contests in categories like gospel songwriter, spoons & bones and harmonica, so you know those will be entertaining. The food looks like a family-style affair and is sure to involve some form of meat and potatoes. A bonus: the Ag Expo is taking place right next store at the same time. A planned Johnny Cash tribute is taking place Sept. 1--his bro Tommy Cash is playing at the festival.

Related Stories:
·   Festival Features more than music [The Daily Nonpareil]
·   National Traditional Country Music Association [Official Site]
·   Bluegrass Festival to feature a tribute to Johnny Cash [Missouri Valley Times News]

Communal Living / → All Tags

Off to the Amana Colonies

The Chicago Tribune pays a call to the Amana Colonies, seven small Iowan towns that were founded as experiments in communal living. They operated communally for nearly 90 years, until 1932. Now, the towns and their businesses are major regional tourist attractions -- the Colonial Williamsburg of the midwest, if you will.
If you go, whatever you do, don't call them the Amish. Although both groups have a predilection for severe clothes and (in the past, at least) keeping to themselves, the more mystic Amana colonists have little else in common with the Amish.

Related Stories:
·   Amana Colonies [Official Web site]
·   The Amana Colonies [National Register of Historic Places]