Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg have had Iowa all to themselves this week, while Bernie Sanders, Amy Klobuchar, and Elizabeth Warren are trapped at the impeachment trial in Washington.
But Biden and Buttigieg didn’t draw impressive crowds on Thursday:
Biden began his day on the campaign trail speaking to a small crowd outside of Des Moines with roughly as many journalists as Iowans in attendance. https://t.co/PUWgu8tBnA pic.twitter.com/Dl3VuSA36M
— John McCormack (@McCormackJohn) January 30, 2020
Biden draws a small crowd this afternoon in Newton, Iowa (30 miles east of Des Moines). pic.twitter.com/jyTi4LufgF
— John McCormack (@McCormackJohn) January 30, 2020
A bigger crowd in the Des Moines suburb of Ankeny. Police officer tells me capacity is about 600 people. pic.twitter.com/auzKRjeYSO
— John McCormack (@McCormackJohn) January 31, 2020
It’s easy to read too much into the size of crowds: Ron Paul easily had the largest before the 2012 Iowa caucuses and then finished third place. That same year in Florida, the Newt Gingrich campaign drew crowds many times the size of those at Mitt Romney’s events before Gingrich lost the crucial primary by 15 points.
But the campaign does feel more than a little lackluster. Matthew Continetti writes in his latest column that “in two decades of serious observation of politics I have not seen a presidential primary that exerts less of a hold on the nation’s attention than this one. Why? The obvious answer is impeachment.”
Indeed, with four days to go until the Iowa caucuses, Democratic presidential candidates didn’t even make the front page of the Des Moines Register:
Democratic presidential candidates did not make the front page of the Des Moines Register four days out from the Iowa caucuses. pic.twitter.com/2i055UBSqb
— John McCormack (@McCormackJohn) January 31, 2020