A dozen or so years ago, I was working in southwest Iowa, where I
served as the editor and publisher of The Valley News Today, a small daily newspaper tucked away in the corn fields just a stone’s throw from the shared borders with Nebraska and Missouri.
It was late fall of 2007 and I had only been on the job for a few months when the office phone rang one busy day.
At the time, the newspaper was housed on the first floor of an enormous, three-story former department store. My office was located on the mezzanine level, where the store’s general manager once stood and looked down at the crowds as they shopped.
Members of my staff – past and present – have long accused me of having supersonic hearing and such was the case the day I heard a commotion downstairs.
Iowa's Jan. 4 presidential caucus was only a few weeks away and the entire newspaper staff had been dodging campaign interns for weeks.
That particular day was no different. We were right at deadline and I could hear my office manager trying to explain to the person on the other end of the call that it was not the best time to speak to me.
“I’m afraid I simply cannot connect your call,” she said. “You will have to try another time.”
Her name was Carol Bryson and she had an ornery streak in her a mile wide. In fact, she could be plain mean as hell, if necessary.
Despite her insistence, she finally gave up and patched through an energetic campaign worker who had volunteered to work for a young and implausible Democratic presidential candidate.
I answered the phone, but didn’t bother giving them time to speak.
“I heard Carol tell you I was busy with deadlines and she wasn’t lying,” I said tersely. “I’m sorry, but you’ll have to call back at a later time.”
And just like that, I hung up the phone and turned back to my computer.
A minute or two later, the phone rang again, but this time it was Carol on the other end of the phone.
“They said they were disconnected,” she said. “May I transfer them to you again?”
When I picked up the phone a second time, I was not nearly as nice. “Are you kidding me? I SAID I WAS AT DEADLINE!”
And I hung up the phone.
A moment later, the phone rang again. This time, I didn’t even give Carol a chance to answer and instead snatched the phone from the receiver.
“Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait,” they stuttered. “Please don’t hang up again. This is Senator Barack Obama from Illinois. I only need a minute of your time. Please don’t hang up.”
I thought it was a joke, of course, and was getting ready to hang up the phone when Carol came bounding up the stairs waving her arms wildly.
“It’s really him,” she mouthed. “It’s really Senator Obama.”
Like most of America at the time, I had no idea who the guy was and at that particular moment on that particular day, I could not have cared less if he was running for President. I still didn’t have time to speak to the guy.
So I brushed him off and went back to work trying to finish up the newspaper.
Ooops.
For decades, the Iowa caucus has been considered the presidential campaign's official kickoff and in years when an incumbent is not seeking re-election – as was the case in 2008 following George W. Bush’s second term in office – candidates flock to the state, wooing voters and collecting newspaper endorsements from even the smallest publications like ours.
That campaign season, they made their way to my office one by one: Mitt Romney, John Edwards, John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Ron Paul, Bill Richardson, Rudy Giuliani, Joe Biden, and, of course, Sen. Barack Obama, who would eventually go on to not only win the Democratic nomination, but also the Presidency.
At the time, Diane Hardisty was the editor of The (Bakersfield) Californian newspaper and it just so happened she was related by marriage to Shenandoah’s mayor, a persnickity old man named Dick Hunt.
She was writing about the 2008 presidential campaign when she caught up with me just a few short days after I blew off the future President of the United States.
She wrote about it the following day and again a year later just as President-Elect Obama was preparing to take the Oath of Office for the first time:
The 35-year-old Gustafson, a newcomer to Shenandoah and its newspaper, just didn't have time to interview yet another candidate. Besides, The Valley News had already decided to endorse Democrat John Edwards and Republican Mike Huckabee.
So Gustafson shooed away Barack Obama.
As The Californian's editorial page editor, I have organized editorial board interviews of candidates in nine major statewide elections. It can be an overwhelming task when there are a lot of candidates.
But, I never blew off a candidate who later became a future president. Gustafson is in a league all his own.
Obama surprised more than just Gustafson with his first-place Iowa caucus win which knocked frontrunner Hillary Clinton into third place, behind Sen. John Edwards.
Mississippi, of course, does not have the same political allure as Iowa, although former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg might think otherwise.
Last month, Mississippi Today reported that Bloomberg, a billionaire with an unlimited amount of cash to spend, has hired 24 full-time staffers in Mississippi, “giving his campaign what several veteran political operatives say is the largest full-time staff of any presidential candidate in the state’s history.”
But sadly, no one besides Bloomberg really seems to care – including the Republican-dominated electorate.
And I’d almost bet you lunch that Bloomberg will finish third in Mississippi next week – behind Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
I often think about those years I spent in Iowa and how surreal it was to see Sen. John McCain marching in the local Labor Day parade and Sen. Hillary Clinton hanging out at the local fire department.
That same election cycle, I caught up with Sen. Joe Biden at a cocktail party up the street and had a chance to visit with him one-on-one about some things that were troubling me at the time.
I said at the time that although I was impressed with Biden, I envisioned him serving as Secretary of State, rather than as President.
His knowledge of history and world events was impressive – and so was his easygoing personality.
He was likeable then and he is equally as likeable now. But can he cut it as President? Who knows.
Don’t ask me.
After all, I’m the guy who endorsed Edwards and Huckabee leading up to the Iowa caucus and we know how that worked out.
Gustafson is the not-so-mild-mannered editor and publisher of The PineBelt NEWS.
