Hawkeye Long Shot
Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack is seeking the Democratic nod in his own way
Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack is a man from Main Street-402 N. Main, Mount Pleasant, to be precise. That address will certainly give the Democratic presidential candidate an edge as he competes in the Iowa caucus. Vilsack, 56, is the only Democratic governor Iowa has had since 1968. He announced for president on November 9. But in a recent conversation with U.S. News editors and reporters, he admitted that with low name recognition outside the Hawkeye State, he's facing an uphill battle to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Why did you launch your campaign before any other Democratic candidate?
My attitude about decisions is that once you make them, you implement them. I'm a little amused by the whole notion of exploratory committees. Recognizing that someone like myself is not necessarily a household name, and someone like myself is an underdog and a long shot, it's important to get to work.
What have you learned so far on the campaign trail?
It's interesting: So many people approach this business with, you take a poll, you have focus groups, and then you fashion your message to parallel what people are already thinking. I think a campaign should be about taking people to a different place that they need to get to. So that's why I continue to talk about energy security. It offers opportunities to restructure the economy, to allow us to regain moral leadership in the global warming discussions, to have a more secure America from a national security standpoint.
If you were president, what would you be doing in Iraq?
I would clearly get my military advisers together and say, "In my view, having troops in the southern part of this country and the central part and the Baghdad area is counterproductive to our interests and the Iraqi interests." I'd maintain troops in the north for a period of time, but I'd expressly state that it's not the United States' intent to have them there permanently. Finally, as a former local government official, I would clearly have done a much better job of building local governance. We've spent all the time on the national government, all the time on the Constitution, and the reality is, even if you look at our own history, it really started at the grass roots.
What should we do about Iran?
I don't think the world can afford to have an Iran that has nuclear capacity. I think the biggest thing we can do is become an energy-secure country and drive the price of oil down, because if the price of oil goes down, I think Iran then faces a greater reliance on the rest of the world. Today, they don't need the rest of the world; the rest of the world needs them.
How do you intend to win the Iowa caucus?
People in Iowa are not going to be taken for granted. I have to earn their support by having a more compelling vision for the future of this country, and I have to be able to remind them that that compelling vision is one that I am capable of accomplishing, which I think I will be able to do in Iowa because people have seen the turnaround in the state under my leadership. I intend to win Iowa, and I think if I do, a win is a win.
This story appears in the December 25, 2006 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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