The Iowa Tea Party Bus Tour ended with a rally at the State Capitol in Des Moines, IA. Keynoting the rally was newly announced Presidential candidate, Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who came to a rally in a bus of her own. She was greeted by a crowd of approximately 150 people who braved the heat (no shade on the west side of the capitol) to hear from Bachmann and the other speakers.
After being introduced by her Iowa State Co-Chair, State Senator Brad Zaun (R-Urbandale), she took to the stage and gave a standard stump speech. Advocating for a strong dollar, reducing the deficit, standing up for Israel, etc. It was a good speech, and I like the Congresswoman, but I would like to hear more details from her on how she would reduce the deficit, how would she make the dollar strong, etc.
You can watch her speech below:
The sponsors of the tour were told they were going to get a chance to ask the Congresswoman specific questions about topics such as the gold standard and whether or not she’d work to reverse the federal takeover of education through Race to the Top and the national common core curriculum, but that never materialized.
After going to more political rallies than I’d care to count over the years, I did see a first for me… the candidate dancing to the campaign music. Congresswoman Bachmann’s husband Marcus took her for a spin after her speech.
I don’t know if that was planned, but a couple of things were apparent to me. This couple loves to have fun and they enjoy each other.
Here are videos of other speakers yesterday afternoon:
Simon Conway of WHO Radio spoke and emceed the event. His opening remarks are below:
Ralph Benko with American Principles in Action’s Gold Standard 2012 Intiative spoke on returning to the gold standard:
I also spoke (my fourth political speech ever, with my very first being given last week on the tour!) representing American Principles in Action’s Preserve Innocence Intitiative:
Jan Mickelson of WHO Radio also spoke as well:
Photo by Dave Davidson
Update: Linked by Stacy McCain… you’ll have to apply for sofa crashing privileges with my wife 🙂