Iowa Victory Lap

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DES MOINES, Iowa
Today I checked out of the hotel near Santorum HQ in Johnston and drove down toward the Des Moines International Airport where I checked into a cheap motel. Then I went to Taco John’s and got four tacos, a burrito, chips and salsa. On the way back to the motel, I stopped into a convenience store and got a 40-ounce Budweiser. Dropped that off at the motel, then drove over to the airport and returned the Mustang.

God, I’m gonna miss that car.

And I’m gonna miss Iowa, too. All the pundits who badmouth the Iowa caucuses have no idea how much fun it is to take a 40-mph curve doing 80 in a Mustang, while running late for a candidate event in some small town out on the prairie. I don’t know what these pundits do for amusement, but they’ve never done anything as fun as making that run from Montezuma to Pella in a sweet black Ford Mustang convertible.

(Aside: Do they have car rental agencies in Vanuatu? And do those agencies have any Mustang convertibles on the lot? What’s the daily rate? Someone should investigate this.)

On my way to the airport, I called Richard McEnroe of Three Beers Later to thank him for the linkage. And after returning the Mustang to the rental agency, I called Jimmie Bise of the Sundries Shack because I needed a shoulder to cry on.

Traumatic Post-Mustang Syndrome (TPMS) is a serious problem, and Jimmie understood that. He also understood that I need to chill out and rest up before I fly out of here in the pre-dawn hours Thursday morning.

Pete Da Tech Guy will pick me up at Logan Airport in Boston when I arrive about 11 a.m., and we’re driving straight from the airport to New Hampshire, where we’ll catch up with the Rick Santorum campaign. At this point, my brain is so weary from sleep deprivation (to say nothing of TPMS) that I probably don’t need to be blogging because — in this state of mental and physical exhaustion — I might write something completely irresponsible, like calling Erick Erickson a clueless douchebag.

And we wouldn’t want that to happen, would we?

So I’ve already finished the chips and salsa, and now it’s time to get to work on the four tacos, the burrito and that 40-ounce bottle of beer, then sleep about 10 hours. Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the Shoe Leather Fund to get me this far and — if you’re feeling a sudden urge to hit the tip jar — hey, don’t fight the feeling.

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35 comments

  1. Four tacos, a burrito, chips and salsa?  Plus an extra large brewski?  God, I’m glad I won’t be sitting near you on the flight to Boston.

  6. It seems that if you want to have a Mustang on Vanuatu, you”ll need to bring it yourself, Stacy. Budget Vanuatu offers only tiny tiny Suzukis, Hynudais and Toyotas. Hope that doesn’t burst any bubbles. Stay warm in New Hampsha.

  11. Fear And Loathing 2012: Post-Cacucii…

    -Congratulations to Rick Santorum.  Godspeed in your quest to stop the Ted Baxter of the GOP. -One phrase I keep hearing a lot of is ‘coalesce behind’.  Might be a good idea. -StacyMcCain deserves all the praise he’s been receiving fr…

  14. Yes, indeed, thanks for all the great work, and I hope that some of our readers at GraniteGrok.com hit your tip jar.
    Looking forward to welcoming you to NH. WiFi, log fire, home comforts, and maybe you get to borrow the Audi convertible.

  15. Nearly every rental car in Hawaii is a Mustang convertible.  I would guess the same for Vanuatu. 

    I can relate to PTMS.  My whole family has suffered from PTGTOS since 1972.  Why, Dad, WHY did you sell the ’66 GTO?!?!?!

  16. As the ambassador, I’m sure he can have one stuffed in a ConEx box, marked “diplomatic,” and rushed right over.

  17. Just as a note, the entire nation of Vanuatu (which is made up of some 80 islands) is roughly a tenth the size of Iowa. I’m not sure you can get a Mustang really wound up, even on the largest island.

    Also, it appears that livestock wanders around pretty freely, which can’t help.

  23. Regarding Erick Erickson: one of the frontpagers there changed his signature to “We can’t stop here, this is bat country”, so I changed mine to “Let’s get down to brass tacks.  How much for the ape?”, heh heh heh.
     

  24. I totally understand not wanting to really engage in a dustup with David Brooks (no one to hold your coat, etc.).

    But you should have at least managed a wedgie.

    And you should still be holding his lunch money.

  26. Santorum is a total waste of time… he can’t compete with Newt in the South, has little hope in NH, and hasn’t even set-foot in SC since Nov 12 2011. Any $ raised now will be too little, too late imo.

    I DO NOT want him running against Obama… he can’t beat him, and frankly has accomplished little more that Obama has in his political career… nothing, basically.

    Santorum is not clever, tough, nor charming enough to beat Obama, and has NO record of success to point to that would impress anybody outside of Iowa
    In the shadow of historical figure Gingrich -a man that’s done more for our side than ANY-body else running- Rick Santorum seems but a childjmho

  27. That’s harsh, but you have a good point in one aspect. He doesn’t handle criticism well, and he needs to get a handle on that, because its something that’s going to come back to bite him if he does get the nomination. Then again, you can’t really say Gingrich has been really masterful at handling criticism these last couple of weeks.

  30. Um, he’s going to tear the South up. They are going to love him there.

    Now  RRep, if you were talking about Mitt, your comment would make more sense.

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