January 02, 2008

Those Fickle Iowans...

MOUNT PLEASANT, Iowa -- A woman who famously switched from volunteering for Hillary Rodham Clinton to Barack Obama has changed her mind again.

Susan Klopfer was volunteering for Clinton until, she estimates, November. She worked hard as a volunteer but resented the advance staff that was brought in to take charge of the events. As the next-door neighbor of Clinton backer and former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, Klopfer (a recent transplant from Nevada and, therefore, a first-time caucus-goer) had a bit higher profile than most Iowans. When she switched, the Obama campaign made a video that got lots of play -- not only on YouTube, but also on cable news programs.

"It got more hits than Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. It got the all-time highest over that weekend," she said of the video's YouTube hits. The video was so potent that the Clinton campaign made a response video with its own former Obama supporters.

Yet when Klopfer showed up at a John Edwards house party this morning, it was because she was on the verge of switching again.

"In both of those people I didn't see the experience that I'd like to see and kind of the groundedness that I'd like to see," she said of Obama and Clinton, "so I'm really looking at Edwards and I'm still really looking at Richardson."

Klopfer said she went to see New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson when he held an event in Mount Pleasant last night and was impressed by both Richardson then and Edwards today.

"Probably I'll caucus for Richardson," she said after Edwards spoke. "My guess is he won't be viable, and then I'll probably scoot right over to Edwards."

-TRICIA MILLER, NBC News/National Journal

Posted at 12:32 PM
Posted to: Barack Obama, Bill Richardson, Campaigns, Democrats, Hillary Rodham Clinton, John Edwards, WH 2008
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