I’m in Davenport, Iowa, where Barack Obama gave a Memorial Day speech last night to a group of local veterans. The candidate and the speech were fairly flat, due at least in part to the fact that he had just flown in from a full day of campaigning before big crowds in New Hampshire, including a rally at Dartmouth that drew an estimated 5,000. However, the man who introduced Obama had a remarkable story to tell.
“All my life I voted Republican,” Bob Konrardy opened by saying. “I was very proud of that.” But after meeting Obama at a local veterans center, he said, he was so taken by him that he has changed his registration so that he can work for the Illinois Senator in next year’s Democratic caucuses.
Afterward, I pulled Konrardy aside, and learned that his political evolution was a lot more complicated than that. After retiring from John Deere, he decided to study journalism at the University of Iowa, and as part of a research project, he embedded for four days last March with the very same First Cavalry platoon that he had commanded as a 23-year-old second lieutenant in Vietnam in 1965. He was struck by how deeply the kids he met over there were committed to what they were doing. But he also saw other things, too. “It was Vietnam all over for me,” Konrardy told me. “I don’t see how we’re getting out.” Just the weekend before I met him, Konrardy had learned six of the young men in that unit had been killed.
As for Obama, Konrardy said he had initially been put off by the candidate’s stand on the war. “At that time, I opposed Obama for opposing the war,” he said. “Now, I think he was right.”
UPDATE: Thanks to commenter Ama for this great link. It explains why connecting with his old platoon was so important to Konrardy. However, his trip didn’t provide the closure he was seeking, but rather, put him through four days of hell that convinced him that this country is repeating its Vietnam mistake.
I am now in Iowa City, where Obama will be unveiling his health care plan shortly.