January 04, 2008
Ghost Town
DES MOINES, Iowa -- It's easy to find a parking spot in Des Moines tonight.
A mere twenty-four hours after the first caucus results started rolling in from precincts all over Iowa, the media free-for-all that transformed this low-key Iowa town into a political Hollywood has completely vaporized.
It's no problem to get a reservation at Lucca, the hot East Village restaurant that had to turn away some of the nation's most famous journalists last week because they hadn't called ahead. Streets once clogged by a line of hulking satellite trucks - like elephants on parade - are empty save for one straggling C-SPAN bus. Riser scaffolding that rivaled the setup of a Rolling Stones roadshow has been completely broken down at the Polk County Convention Center, with only forlorn snakes of cabling remaining as evidence that every news network in the country was here yesterday.
And the downtown Marriott that played home-away-from-home to the country's opinion leaders is nearly empty.
"It's a ghost town," the receptionist there told me. "We're at twenty percent." (The hotel had been booked solid for the last week and a half.)
With most high-level reporters and campaign staffers boarding midnight airplanes last night that whisked them to new political climes, the only caucus junkies left in town are campaign organizers and local media.
(NBC/NJ's CARRIE DANN)
Some of them are suffering from withdrawal ("I have nothing to file!" bemoaned one local TV type.). Others are relishing a good night's sleep before they get back to regular beats at the courthouse and the statehouse.
Some former campaign staffers have the more pressing problem of finding employment ("I've got a couple of irons in the fire," said one hopeful ex-staffer whose prospects ran out as the precinct count rolled in last night.)
Des Moines earned a little national cache from the caucus this year, with big-time journos profiling the city's hot spots and national types raving about how far the city's come since 2004.
But after its love affair with the state that might have just picked our next president, the spotlight snuck out early in this morning. And didn't even wake this sleepy Midwestern town to say goodbye.
Posted at 09:16 PM
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