Some of the state’s biggest Democratic Party figures hit the road over the weekend to help support the entire Democratic ticket and rally campaign volunteers to work hard  in getting the vote out for Tuesday’s General Election.
Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, State Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald, and former Lt. Governor Sally Pederson stopped in Charles City Saturday at the Iowa Obama Campaign for Change office, located at 216 N. Main St. They were part of the “Count On Us” tour, which also featured U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin and Governor Chet Culver on the main tour bus making 16 stops across Iowa. The Charles City visit was part of a 23-stop “Count On Us” caravan, in addition to the main bus. Special guests scheduled to join in at various stops along the way included: former Governor Tom Vilsack and Christie Vilsack, Lt. Governor Patty Judge, Ruth Harkin, Congressman Bruce Braley, Congressman Dave Loebsack, Congressman Leonard Boswell, 4th District Congressional candidate Becky Greenwald, 5th District Congressional candidate Rob Hubler and Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Scott Brennan.
The tour kicked off Saturday morning in Ames and will wrap up with a Des Moines rally this evening.
Pederson, who in addition to being the former Lt. Governor is also a former chair of the Iowa Democratic Party, led the Charles City contingent on Saturday that praised all of the Democratic candidates, but in particular presidential candidate Barack Obama.
“This is a time when we need extraordinary leadership and Barack Obama is an extraordinary leader,” she remarked.
Joining her were Fitzgerald and Miller, who also happen to be Obama’s campaign co-chairs in Iowa.
“These are the smartest, most visionary men  — two years ago they paid attention when Barack Obama first came on the scene,” said Pederson. They looked him up and said back then that he’s presidential material.”
“Barack Obama brings inspiring leadership,” said Miller. Barack Obama will bring change in Washington — and Washington needs to be changed. It is a city dominated by special interests and paralyzed by partisanship. Barack will go right to the core of both of those things. His whole life has been about public interest over special interests.
“He reaches across party lines and has  the ability to listen and talk to the  other side and agree with them when they are right, as well as disagree when they are wrong. He also has the ability to go out and create a new dynamic with the public. He will change that city, he will change politics, too, if he wins.”
Miller noted that the Republican playbook has always been to attack the other side.
“That’s been the core of their campaigns, and it has worked in the past,” Miller commented. “Barack, though, is someone who inspires people, who reaches out to people’s good instincts and doesn’t play on their bad instincts. It’s not about the petty stuff, it’s not about the attacks. it’s about the average American who is having trouble keeping his home. It’s about the American who is having trouble keeping his or her job. It’s about health care.
“The public has the ability to reject that Republican play book.”
Miller said an Obama win won’t eliminate all that attack strategy, “but it will cut it way back, because he will have shown it doesn’t work all the time.”
“I also think that if elected, Barack will change the world,” Miller added. “The world will view America in a totally  different way. And we need that. This administration has earned an incredibly bad world view of the United States because of the way they’ve conducted themselves.
“There’s so much at stake. That’s why it is so important that we get everyone out there to vote.”
Pederson compared the entire campaign season to farming in rallying volunteers to work hard to get out the vote Tuesday.
“It’s fall and time for us to harvest all those votes,” she said. “ There has been a lot of early voting going on, but there are more votes to harvest. Because come Nov. 5, the votes left out in the field don’t matter. They don’t count.
“We want this to be an extraordinary harvest.”
Fitzgerald pointed to the last two presidential elections in emphasizing the importance of finishing strong in terms of voter encouragement.
“Polls say that it looks like we’re ahead, but we’ve been there before,” he said. “In 2000, we thought Al Gore had this thing won, but (the Republicans) took it from us. Four years ago we thought John Kerry was going to win, and they took it from us again. Even that Sunday before, the Des Moines Register poll showed Kerry ahead by 8 points in Iowa, yet we lost Iowa.
“What it shows is what you are doing here is so important. We’ve got to get every last vote out there to the polls and make sure there is no election day surprise. If we do that, happy days will be here again.”
Fitzgerald acknowledged the tough economic times and pointed to another tough time — the Great Depression.
“We’ve faced these hard times before, a crisis of lost confidence, and  America produced a great leader — Franklin Roosevelt. He challenged Americans to come together and they did. Well, we find ourselves in this crisis of confidence today. We  have a chance to deliver a great leader and that leader is Barack Obama. He can bring the confidence back, he can bring us together and turn this thing around.”
Miller called Floyd County a “key one for Obama,” but also noted the importance of getting wins Tuesday for Harkin, House candidate Becky Greenwald and incumbent Iowa Rep. Mark Kuhn of Charles City
“Mark’s done a super job in the Legislature and it is important to get him back in and to continue the wonderful service he’s done,” Miller remarked.