November 30, 2006--First Lady Christie Vilsack answered a couple of
questions after the announcement speech:
We've always been the long shot. We've run nine races.
We know how to do retail politics. We've always run from behind and
so we're in a place that we really like and we think that once people get
to know Tom--he's been a great leader for Iowa; he's got a tremendous record;
he's from the middle of the country--I think once peole get to know him
they're going to see that he's a decisive leader. They'll learn his
decision making process, and that's what the caucuses and the primaries
are all about; that's what a campaign is all about.
We wanted to get started early because we know people don't know us
that well and it's going to take us a little longer to introduce ourselves,
but that's always been the case for nine races. Nobody knew Tom.
He came here from Pittsburgh. Nobody knew him. We were from
the Southeastern corner of the state from a very small town. Nobody
knew him and so we just go out there and work harder than everybody else
and we'll contact everybody in Iowa and everybody across the country that
we can get a hold and make our case. And we just believe that if
you work hard and you've got good ideas, that those good ideas--and if
you challenge people to make those bold changes that he talked about in
his speech--that that's what people want. The want a sense of coming
together, and we know what that's like 'cause we live in a community where
people come together.
Question: Midwest values. What does that mean? Explain that
to someone from Los Angeles. What are examples of Midwest values?
Did I see that last night at the potluck?
Well I think you felt it at the potluck. I think you
felt a sense of community there and what happens when people are connected
to one another. And I don't think it's about just Midwest values,
I think you can get that--Tom's from Pittsburgh, right in the middle of
the city, and we've both lived in other cities. I've lived in New
York City where--and I've lived in Boston, and you get that same sense
of neighborhoods. When the Steelers went to the Super Bowl last year
we were all tailgating out in the parking lot on a freezing January day
in Detroit. That's a sense of community. It's a sense of being
connected to other people and it might be through some organization that
you belong to, it might be a football team, it might be a small town community
where you know everybody. There are a lot of different communities
and so it's not so much small town values as it is community values.
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