Iowa State Fair: Des Moines Register Soapbox                                       next
August 2011--Waiting for a candidate to appear at the soapbox.
An attentive audience.
Candidates are allotted 20 minutes.
Interest groups view the soapbox as an opportunity to pose questions to the candidates, although a majority of the candidates did not take questions.  Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement attracted national attention for its members' questioning of former Gov. Mitt Romney on Social Security.  A group which had a presence on August 12 was Support Clean Air, a project of American Businesses for Clean Energy, a group which formed in late 2009 "to demonstrate large and small business support for Congressional enactment of clean energy and climate legislation that will significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions."  At left is Hannah Garden-Monheit of Des Moines, who asked Rep. McCotter,  "You talked about your support for kids.  The Clean Air Act prevents 120,000 cases of childhood asthma every year.  As President will you support or even expand the Clean Air Act?"  In center is Jim Kottmeyer, president of the Des Moines-based Midwest Advocacy Group.
Al Shearer, an obscure presidential candidate who not get to speak from the Soapbox, was out in the crowd there during Herman Cain's speech.  Shearer's card bills him as "the other black man running in 2012."
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