Iowa & Our Presidents

A documentary about the 1988 presidential primaries.

00:00Copy video clip URL Footage of Michael Dukakis volunteers hanging campaign banners.

00:12Copy video clip URL Republican contender Jack Kemp and wife Joanne walk down driveway and converse with documentary crew.

00:50Copy video clip URL The national anthem plays in the background as the camera pans down name placards for Al & Tipper Gore, Michael Dukakis, Jesse Jackson, Jane & Richard Gephart, and Bruce & Hattie Babbitt at an event hosted by the Iowa Democratic party.

01:30Copy video clip URL Volunteers at an Iowa campaign phone center urge voters to the polls.

03:05Copy video clip URL Shot of “Dukakis for President” banners at a Gore campaign event. Pauline Gore announces to the crowd that Al Gore, Sr. intends to visit every county in Iowa to support his son’s campaign.

03:46Copy video clip URL Shot of “Gore Corps” HQ in Iowa. A band warms up onstage as Gore introduces himself to the camera.

04:27Copy video clip URL Al Gore warms up for a jog in downtown Des Moines.

05:37Copy video clip URL Shot of incoming caucus results. Gore holds .01% of the vote.

05:48Copy video clip URL Cars pull into a driveway marked with Bob Dole campaign signs. Elizabeth Dole reminds the crowd at a campaign event of her husband’s popularity in the senate and around the country. “In Hawaii, a name like Dole can’t hurt a thing.”

07:22Copy video clip URL Teenagers in letterman’s jackets instruct the documentary crew where to park for a Dole campaign event hosted on the Thomas Stock Farm.

09:52Copy video clip URL “We’re about broke,” Dole tells the crowd. “And I think it’s time for the Japanese, and the West Germans, and the others, in the Persian Gulf or wherever it may be, to start a little burden-sharing.”

10:39Copy video clip URL At a Dole campaign event, three women perform “God Bless America” and a song for the Iowa campaign.

12:52Copy video clip URL A reporter asks Dole, “What’s going to be your answer tonight to a question about the phony names in Texas?” “I hope I don’t get a question like that,” Dole responds.

13:18Copy video clip URL Footage of Dole getting a haircut in a barbershop.

14:20Copy video clip URL Gary Hart enters a “Gary’s Restaurant” in small-town Iowa.

15:18Copy video clip URL Hart and his wife, Lee, meet with voters and business owners in a mall; the camera zooms in on a headless mannequin.

17:40Copy video clip URL A couple holds up a “Babbitt for President” banner as supporters cheer on an approaching Bruce Babbitt.

18:08Copy video clip URL Footage from a “First Choice ’88” rally, followed by clips of Babbitt’s campaign trail.

20:00Copy video clip URL A band plays in the background before a Dick Gephart event.

22:30Copy video clip URL A supporter festoons his car with Gephart campaign bumper stickers and signs.

23:32Copy video clip URL Gephart prepares for a talk radio spot with a DJ. They decide to appeal to area voters with a discussion of a recent farm bill.

25:02Copy video clip URL Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” blares in the background and balloons are released into the air as Kemp supporters meet with the candidate in front of the Iowa capitol building.

26:03Copy video clip URL Camera crews gather around Kemp’s private jet on a snowy tarmac in Mason City, IA, before a campaign event with his wife and son.

27:30Copy video clip URL Kemp meets with elderly voters at a senior center.

28:27Copy video clip URL Kemp meets with voters tabling at an agricultural trade fair.

29:36Copy video clip URL Kemp talks about his football career and tries his hand at carnival games.

29:52Copy video clip URL Kemp inspects a table of pig snouts and cures for atrophic rhinitis. “I’m only here to sell more pork.”

30:17Copy video clip URL Pat Robertson and his wife, Adelia, enter the stage at a campaign rally, where he speaks about the growing number of single-parent homes in the United States. The camera cuts to later in the speech, when Robertson professes that “our colleges graduate incompetent teachers who, in turn, are teaching incompetently.”

31:30Copy video clip URL Scenes from the Robertson campaign on the road in Iowa. A young girl asks Robertson, “Will you help the homeless?”

32:43Copy video clip URL Cut to a snowy morning on the Robertson campaign. Patriotic brass music plays as a young staffer unloads sound equipment from a bus and re-loads it.

35:23Copy video clip URL George H.W. Bush speaks to workers in lab coats about the process of making fertilizer. He is photographed with a corn plant at a press conference held in an industrial greenhouse.

37:03Copy video clip URL Jesse Jackson visits a backyard barbecue.

38:09Copy video clip URL Jackson meets with small-town voters, including a woman who asks him to fight for wage equality and a government employee who asks him to sign her paycheck.

40:37Copy video clip URL Jackson urges the crowd in Polk City, IA to “save the family farmer.” Later, he leads a chant among young supporters: “Stop drugs, save jobs!”

43:12Copy video clip URL Jackson holds a board for a young martial artist.

43:40Copy video clip URL On his campaign bus, Jackson consults his team about foreign policy talking points.

44:28Copy video clip URL Cut to the Iowa Lottery. A team of staffers replaces numbers on the results board as votes are called in from Iowa precincts. Gephart leads with 99% of precincts reporting. Audio cuts out briefly from forty six thirty seven to forty seven thirty six.

49:07Copy video clip URL As the final votes are tallied, caucus volunteers block the results board for the big reveal.

49:37Copy video clip URL Groundskeepers and visitors filmed in front of the White House.

50:37Copy video clip URL Field hands dig up tulip plants.

51:04Copy video clip URL Footage from a “Washington for Jesus” rally in front of the Washington monument. A mannequin dressed as Uncle Sam falls over, and a woman rushes to prop it back up.

51:54Copy video clip URL End of program.