1997
February
February, 1997
Raucous caucus tag-alongs
ilmmaker Michael Moore must have enjoyed his February 1996 visit
to Iowa State.
The creator of the award-winning documentary Roger and Me and
television program TV Nation attracted 1,200 people to his evening
lecture Feb. 8. But it was activities earlier that day that made
it into Moore's latest book, Downsize This: Random Threats from an
Unarmed American.
Moore landed in Des Moines at the height of 1996 Iowa caucus activities. In pursuit of footage for TV Nation, he visited headquarters of then-Republican presidential hopefuls Steve Forbes, Pat Buchanan and Bob Dole. Moore recruited journalism and mass communication majors Justin Holstein and Jason Shoultz (both since have graduated) for his camera crew.
Some of Moore's raucous caucus exploits are detailed in the "Steve Forbes Was An Alien" chapter. Moore tells how he began to suspect Forbes was alien after watching him on television and noticing that Forbes apparently never blinked. In Des Moines during the Iowa caucus, Moore visited Forbes' headquarters. When he asked where Forbes was, the campaign manager pointed to the sky and said he was up there somewhere.
"To confirm it, contact the students at the TV station at Iowa State in Ames, Iowa. They were there and witnessed this entire exchange," writes Moore in his book.
-- Steve Sullivan, News Service
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Revised: February 1997