SEATED IN the bleachers of the gymnasium at Valley High School in West Des Moines, Ben Madson (17) trained his mobile phone camera on an unlikely idol, the 76-year-old Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul. “I’m going to post it on Facebook and Twitter,” Madson said. “After the caucuses, I’m going to volunteer for the Paul campaign.”
Paul’s poll numbers shot up over the past week, putting the Republican congressman from Texas in a dead heat with former governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney and former senator from Pennsylvania Rick Santorum to win the Iowa caucus.
“If I win, it will be because of the youth vote,” Paul said to cheers.
Between appearances by Michele Bachmann, Romney’s sons, Santorum and Paul at the “Rock the vote” high school event, there were speeches about standing for student body president and improving cafeteria food.
Bachmann, who predicted a “miracle” would give her a respectable showing, came across as a whiner. Romney was too busy to address the event for young caucus-goers. But his son, Josh, told a bizarre tale about his multimillionaire father being so “extraordinarily cheap” that he conscripted the entire family – six Saturdays in a row – to build a soundproof wall along the road outside the Romney home.
Paul may have been the students’ favourite, but Santorum attracted the biggest crush of television cameras. After trailing in opinion polls all last year, visiting all 99 Iowa counties and holding 380 campaign rallies, he had finally been rewarded with an 11th hour surge.