Election Road Trip, Day 13: Victoria’s Playlist

Joe Klein and his wife Victoria at the Iowa GOP Ronald Reagan dinner headlined by Sarah Palin in Des Moines. Photograph by Peter van Agtmael - Magnum for TIME

Boulder, Colorado

Traveling Companion: Joe Klein

Event: Extremely Long Drive from Des Moines to Boulder

Long road trips are journeys of discovery, wonder, and sheer endurance. As I listened to the random offerings of our Ipod shuffler and also introduced Joe to some of my favorite recently Shazammed tracks, I considered that a road trip mix might be built up using an undulating arc starting from songs with a stealthy pace through some interesting alt country songs towards a peak of anthems and blood-pumping all out rocking. In the interests of pace and tunefulness I post these offerings in order:

Monte A Dentro (Ry Cooder) from the Buena Vista Social Club starts us on a dreamy Cuban beat

Everything is Moving So Fast (Great Lake Swimmers) keeps the pace slow but starts to build

State Trooper (Bruce Springsteen) is building the rhythm and reminds of the lurking possibilities of menace

Drive My Car (The Donnas) totally fun cover of the Beatles Song

It’s Just the Night (Del Mccoury Band) introduces some country soul

Hung up on You (Fountains of Wayne) ironic Alt Country from the Troubadours of Suburban Angst

I Wanna Talk About Me (Toby Keith) hilarious, driving country–the momentum is building

Saints Behind the Glass (Los Lobos) Rolling lyrical rhythms that seem to echo the hills and dales of Iowa

Tunnel of Love (Dire Straits) a song built on pace and crescendo, a road trip in itself

Naked Eye (Luscious Jackson) Pump it up

Sour Cherry (The Kills) Full Throttle

Friday’s drive through Iowa on a perfect warm and sunny day was transcendent; the undulating fields of grain were green and golden under a perfect blue sky. Yesterday’s marathon through the western part of Iowa, much of Nebraska, and then towards the mountains of Boulder revealed a very changeable sort of beauty. My favorite view was in Nebraska where a sparse pattern of black cows stood out against the straw gold of harvested wheat with a lowering background of deepest green tree foliage. This land was made for you and me.

Joe’s Response: Victoria and I have been together for 32 years; married for nearly 30. She is a fanatic reader (fiction, almost exclusively), music lover and a terrific interior designer; she is a genius at friendship, the best pal I ever had. I dragooned her for the long drive through the middle of the country because I knew she’d make it fun. She always does. Now I have to take her to the airport in Denver so she can go home to her work. Boo-hoo. But I’ll be back in full political swing starting tomorrow morning, checking out the Republican Senate candidate in Colorado, Ken Buck, and an array of other pols.

This post is part of my Election Road Trip 2010 project. To track my location across the country, and read all my road trip posts, click here.

The Phony War: Obama and Romney Are Debating Character, Not Policy

More than five months from Election Day, the back-and-forth about Mitt Romney’s record at Bain already feels played out. Unfortunately, there’s good reason to expect the campaign continues in this vein indefinitely. Neither Barack Obama nor Mitt Romney are terribly interested in dwelling on policy platforms. Romney’s plan to slash spending and keep taxes low on the wealthy isn’t especially popular, at least not at any level of detail beyond a blithe promise to shrink the deficit. Meanwhile, Obama’s signature first-term achievements, like health care, the stimulus and Wall Street reform, are all unpopular or tricky to sell. (The Dodd-Frank bill is the most popular of these, but hyping it means offending wealthy donors.) So what we’re getting instead is a superficial duel about character–and, worse, one that’s based on the largely false premise that the better man can better “manage” the economy back to health.

allthingsinaname

Joe,

My wife and I have been together 40 years coming this Feb.
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This year we were able to steal 5 whole days away with each other. I hated to see it end. I know what you are feeling.
kathy

Joe, Thanks for sharing this bit of yourself with us,

and Victoria – thanks for braving this sometimes fetid swamp.

Guthrie’s “this land” is one of my favorite songs, maybe the only one that gives me a thrill about this huge country.

I’d just as soon it was the National anthem (though on second thought, it could be the tea partiers’ anthem, much as it was for some of us in the 60′s. oh dear).

Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.
apr2563

Victoria: Thank you for posting here. It is a war zone sometimes but we are grateful for the opportunities to interact here. Drop in again.
sacredh

Nice post. My wife and I still hold hands when we go out.
http://jcapan.wordpress.com jcapan

I know it’s your job, but get away from the skeevy pols and check out the nature Joe. Late September in Colorado = bliss. My favorite (interstate) drive in the country is I-70 from Denver clear thru into Utah. In fact, if you pick up I-15, it’s spectacular all the way to Vegas.
Paul-no not that one

From my brother-”Luke Scott, wrecking crew”
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Hope you followed it JC.
http://jcapan.wordpress.com jcapan

I woke to find it 3 all. Caught the recap highlights online, clicking the homer repeatedly, moreso to relish MR’s reaction shot. Oh well, the little victories.
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Can’t believe I’ve been watching that guy kill us since 1996!
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Anyway, you heard it here first–next year they’ll have a winning record! i.e. Like 4th place Toronto.
Paul-no not that one

So the season will be better than the recent past but disappointing?
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Hmm I sense a pattern to your feelings.
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How is the little one?
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(Can you tell I’m not overly interested in Joe’s trip?)
http://jcapan.wordpress.com jcapan

No, even 81-81 would leave me satisfied. Buck’s at least averted the infamy of a 100 losses. And hell, if he ever leaves, we’ll win the World Series the next year!
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Little one, unfortunately, has been sick all weekend. Great weather, today’s a national holiday, and we’ve been stuck inside for a feverish marathon. Generally, however, she’s kicking arse and taking names. Turns 1 next month, and gets to meet her American Grandma too. In fact, the first non-Japanese that she’ll meet, other than dads that is, and I could be turning…
mikew67

…hey, let’s just listen to Palin and the failed GOP, and go back to cut taxes / cut govt that we tried for the 3 decades of the Reagan/Bush era. In fact, let’s get ANOTHER big tax cut to the wealthiest as we did in 1981 and 2001.

I mean, that worked SO well to deliver Trickle Down prosperity. Almost nobody is unemployed now. And the banks and oil companies and health insurers, heck – they POLICED THEMSELVES!!! Get government out of the WAY by golly!

Abe Lincoln would have said;
“You can fool some of the people, ALL of the time”… ;^)

– Balkingpoints / www
apr2563

Ooooh! Seriously, ooooh!
11charlie

“State Trooper (Bruce Springsteen) is building the rhythm and reminds of the lurking possibilities of menace”
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Interestingly enough from the album “Nebraska”.
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“My favorite view was in Nebraska where a sparse pattern of black cows stood out against the straw gold of harvested wheat with a lowering background of deepest green tree foliage.”
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It’s better when you’re outside and see that. When all you hear is the wind blowing through the wheat and cornfields, watching the shades of gold and green move like waves on the ocean, with the sun shining down, and the sky just going on forever.
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Plus we have the Huskers.
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Go Big Red
lupercal5

that’s a shame. she should be a writer. she writes so vividly. No wonder you say she made the trip fun