Searching for Trump-mentum

This was not the campaign rally I was looking for Saturday.

I expected those disaffected voters I've read so much about to pack Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Cedar Rapids to its rafters. I figured the joint would be jumping with wall-to-wall media. After all, this was the Donald Trump show, larger than life, commanding a never-dimming spotlight.

Instead, the crowd trickled in slowly, eventually adding up to roughly 1,000 or so. Not too shabby by caucus standards, but hardly matching the legendary crowds of Trumpian lore. The media contingent was smallish. To be fair, it was the final Saturday before Christmas. Yuletide commitments aplenty, I bet.

Still, I've seen my share of campaigns catching fire as our caucuses loom. I saw Barack Obama in the same venue just before the 2008 caucuses. The place was raucous and electric, with legions of young staffers and volunteers hunting for every last caucusgoer.

On Saturday, it exuded all the crackling energy of a trade show. Christmas music blared as folks awaited Trump's arrival. This did not strike me as a campaign catching fire, stoked by atomic-powered Trump-mentum.

His campaign staffers, a lot of guys in suits, repeatedly tried to get the crowd to chant 'Trump, Trump, Trump!”

But chants faded swiftly each time. Maybe, as their signs suggested, this really was the 'silent majority.” And maybe gruff, blunt chanting just sounded odd alongside 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”

Also, the 'disaffected” seemed pretty pleasant.

I asked Robert Ritscher, a farmer from Keystone, why he showed up.

'Partly curiosity. I want to hear what he has to say. He seems to stir up the media quite a bit so I want to get it straight from his mouth,” said Ritscher, who will caucus but hasn't picked a candidate.

Ritscher, who raises livestock, compared the media's critical coverage of Trump to the coverage of so-called pink slime, or lean finely textured beef, a few years ago. 'Propaganda,” he dubbed it.

'He reminds me a little bit of Jesse Ventura. I didn't always agree with him, but I appreciated him being honest. A lot of the politicians aren't honest,” Ritscher said.

Ted Hacker, who owns a trucking company in Dubuque, likes Trump's business background and lack of experience as a politician.

'He's not afraid to speak out, to actually stand up for what he believes in, what makes this country great, and to get back to our core values,” said Hacker, who has never caucused for a candidate.

Will you caucus for Trump?

'Probably not, just due to time, because of my company and time constraints that we have right now,” Hacker said.

And that's the big, beautiful question. Will curiosity and admiration translate into actual support on caucus night? Is Trump's Iowa backing in opinion polls and venues such as this as deceptively shiny and fake as the eight Christmas trees that flanked his rambling 75-minute speech?

Maybe those curious undecideds whom I met were swayed to fervent support by Trump's long, disjointed address. And maybe not.

Jeer, brag, mock, cite great poll numbers, repeat. There may have been a humble request for caucus support in there somewhere. Sans the humble, anyway.

'We're doing great in Iowa,” Trump said, standing opposite Grant Wood's magnificent stained glass window, easily the most impressive attraction in the building Saturday.

l Comments: (319) 398-8452; todd.dorman@thegazette.com