DES MOINES, Iowa — Hillary Clinton will return to Iowa with former President Bill Clinton on Sunday for the first time since the 2008 presidential campaign to headline Sen. Tom Harkin’s annual steak fry, a vaunted Democratic tradition in the Hawkeye State.
The steaks are grilled, not fried, but the political importance of the event is as advertised: huge.
For Clinton, the event will carry extra weight this year, as a first step toward potentially trying to rewrite her political history in Iowa, where she placed third in a disappointing finish during the 2008 caucuses, behind Barack Obama and John Edwards.
At the 1992 steak fry, where Bill Clinton headlined during the final stretch of his successful presidential bid, Harkin quoted former President Harry Truman in introduction.
“Truman said, ‘No man should be allowed to be president who doesn’t understand hogs,’” Harkin said. “And that’s the real problem, for the past four years, we’ve had a president who thinks that barrows and gilts is the name of a Kennebunkport law firm.”
Clinton cracked up behind him, stomping his feet for emphasis, at the dig against his opponent, President George H.W. Bush.
Having lived in Arkansas and been through a presidential bid in Iowa in 2008, including one steak fry and the Iowa caucuses, Hillary Clinton surely understands hogs — but she still has her work cut out for her in the Hawkeye State.
Clinton’s speech at Harkin’s last steak fry — he’s retiring after this year — is an important first step.
During her appearance in 2007, Clinton shared the stage with the other Democratic presidential candidates — and although she dropped her “g”s and grilled steak with gusto, the Des Moines Register later named the steak fry as one of “five key moments” that unraveled Clinton’s Iowa campaign.
This time, she and her husband will be the stars, although steak fry veterans might compare Clinton’s performance this year to Vice President Joe Biden’s last year, when he headlined.
Event organizers expect thousands of people and scores of press, from Iowa and elsewhere: On a flight from Washington, D.C., to Des Moines on Friday morning, Clinton supporters dressed in Ready for Hillary garb were already making the pilgrimage to Iowa.
Ready for Hillary, a pro-Clinton outside group that has been methodically building a list of supporters and volunteers, has for its part purchased billboards in the Des Moines area welcoming the Clintons to the state and advertising the group.
Not that the Clintons need the publicity: They’re well-known to Iowans, and long have been.
During Bill Clinton’s speech to the steak fry crowd in 1992, he began reading signs of support in the crowd.
“’Hillary’s a babe,’ I like that one,” Clinton said, pointing to a sign held up in the crowd.
Iowa Democrats’ perception of Hillary Clinton has no doubt evolved since that steak fry in 1992. But whether they will see her at this year’s event as a future president is yet another question.
