Hillary Clinton isn’t Iowa caucus grim reaper

A long time ago, months before hordes of Iowans gathered in school gymnasiums and community centers for the 2008 caucuses, I sat inside Iowa Democratic Party headquarters as Hillary Clinton came through the door for the first time as an official 'I'm in to win” candidate for president.

Minutes later, I sped down the highway en route to her next stop, a private house party in Cedar Rapids at the home of one of the state's most prominent Democrats and labor activists.

A host of Clinton campaign postmortems have been written in the years that followed, most justified and accurate. Clinton never connected. Her campaign didn't effectively engage in retail politics. She was dismissed as a second choice on caucus night because of her war votes. There are numerous references, some my own, to the ill-fated 'tarmac tour” and consultant Mark Penn's infamous Iowa memo.

The legitimate past shortcomings should be enough, but it seems they aren't.

Clinton is now being painted as the Iowa caucus grim reaper. Yet, as her 2007 jaunt into Iowa suggests, Clinton was the only true Democratic establishment candidate in the earlier race.

To be sure, there were other people with the Big D label campaigning in the state. None of the other candidates - not even Tom Vilsack, who did his best to attract Iowa establishment support - made IDP headquarters their first stop, or did as much to woo the affections of party elites.

Barack Obama announced in Springfield, Ill., under the shadow of Abe Lincoln before traveling to a Cedar Rapids, and then Waterloo, school gym.

From the beginning, all of the campaigns, except Clinton's, were targeting people first and party leaders second. Or, while most of the campaigns were asking Iowans what their candidate and the Democratic Party could do for them, Clinton's campaign was asking what Iowans could do for her and the party.

Need more convincing? One word: Obamacrats.

And, looking back, perhaps it should have been expected or less shocking. Clinton was then, as she is now, the Democratic front-runner, the candidate to beat. And Iowa sits at the starting line, not the finish.

But from the perspective of Republican and Democratic party insiders, the lead-up to the 2008 caucus (and 2012 to a lesser extent) was akin to shooting fish in a barrel. To host a county party function in 2007 that didn't include at least one of the candidates meant that organizers didn't ask, and that they took their phones off the hook, so the candidates couldn't invite themselves.

Fast forward to the only saving grace of the 2014 midterms for Iowa Democrats: They maintained control of the state senate, barely. Morale is understandably low, especially when a parade of 2016 GOP hopefuls is already underway.

On one hand, the party faithful are more than willing to lay their troubles (which mostly resemble dollar signs) at the feet of the Clinton boogie woman. On the other, they've chosen her 2008 state co-chairwoman to lead the party forward. Pot, meet kettle.

If the upcoming Democratic caucuses are less relevant and vibrant, history won't buy into or be kind to this 'Clinton did it” conspiracy theory. Neither should Iowans.

' Comments: @LyndaIowa, lynda.waddington@thegazette.com or (319) 339-3144.