FIRST PERSON | The University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls hosted the 2012 GOP Republican presidential caucus for Black Hawk County on Tuesday. The news reports throughout the day projected a crowd of 7,000 people. Standing on the floor of the UNI Dome, it felt more like 10,000 people were present. Standing room only occurred in several locations.
I was fortunate enough to be one of the Iowans caucusing and had the pleasure of hearing Michele Bachmann and Newt Gingrich speak. Bachmann's appearance on stage was with her mother. I questioned Bachmann's confidence level when I saw her standing there holding her mother's hand throughout the majority of her speech.
My eyes moved from the stage to the many signs including the Black Hawk Republican signs, the individual areas curtained off for the precinct votes, the reporters and several thousand Iowa constituents and I truly wondered if Bachmann realized the message she was sending to the crowd.
There was a small rumble in the crowd when Bachmann brought up the fact she was born in Waterloo, thus making her a hometown girl. I heard several comments from those standing next to me that felt she has lived outside of the state so long the she really doesn't know how Iowans feel or what they want.
Listening to the comments, I felt Bachmann would have done better in the caucus if she would not have continued to push the issue that she was an Iowa native. Even with the small rumble, there were plenty of cheers and applause for Bachmann during her appearance. As she came off the stage, she shook hands with many individuals in the crowd including my husband. I was taking photographs as this occurred so I did not have the same pleasure.
Gingrich and his wife took center stage with more applause and cheers than Bachmann received. Gingrich presented himself very well and asked the individuals at the caucus to not let the negativity of this campaign influence their decision on who would be the best candidate to oppose Barack Obama in the upcoming election. The sincerity in his voice was very evident and I actually felt embarrassed about the behavior of the Republican candidates that promoted the negative ads. Someday, maybe negative ads will be banned from political campaigns.
Representatives for Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney and Ron Paul also spoke to the crowd. Each representative received cheers and applause throughout their speeches.
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