There was a near blackout of Bernie news coverage in Iowa, until a few weeks ago.
The Des Moines Register is the most widely read daily in the state. They were including Bernie in round-up articles about all of the candidates, but the coverage was dismissive and always touted Clinton as the frontrunner.
Some of the slanted coverage was so egregious and obvious, it was laughable. An article about the Democratic debate in Des Moines featured the headline, "As Iowa Debate Approaches, Clinton Seems Inevitable, Again". First paragraph: "It's hard to foresee a result other than the Hillary Clinton juggernaut winning Iowa unless something major blows up in the presidential race, Democratic activists say."
So many examples of this, but I'll spare you. I went looking for any coverage of Bernie's rally in Dubuque, because a friend attended and claimed 2,000+ supporters. I couldn't find a thing. The Des Moines Register didn't cover it. Hillary had a rally that day; 300 attended, and the Register had three articles about this rally. Nice. I finally found an article in a local Dubuque newspaper. Google didn't catch anything. I found myself Googling local newspapers/television and did find Bernie events; all of them with 1,500+ attendance. Totally unreported by any MSM. I also found Clinton articles. Most attendance was 200-300. She had a regular reporter covering her from the DSM Register as well as reporters from Politico, NYTimes and others following her around. No one for Bernie.
Dark days! The good news is that this has changed in the last few weeks. The Des Moines Register now has a reporter who specifically covers Bernie and attends all of this rallies and reports on him. I'm not sure which outlets are following him around, but we're seeing more coverage from the NYTimes and others. Soon, he'll have every outlet following him around Iowa.
This blackout nonsense happened to Obama as well. But not to the extent that Bernie experienced. The upshot is that Bernie's support in Iowa has been incredibly enthusiastic and his campaign in Iowa was galvanized by the DNC debacle. Despite the Bernie blackout, his rally attendance eclipses Clinton's.
Ann Selzer's Iowa poll (released a few weeks ago) had Bernie within 9. She's the most reliable pollster in Iowa for sure. Nate Silver gave her an A+ rating. CBS/YouGov had Bernie within 5. That's amazing, considering the media blackout and leveraging of Clinton. That puts Sanders trajectory equal to Obama's in 08.
The next month in Iowa will be a madhouse. Whether or not the Clinton camp likes it, Bernie will have plenty of media following him. It's what happens as the caucus season heats up. He'll have pool reporters following his Iowa rallies, which will be happening several times a week. The crowds are going to be crazy. Bernie was attracting crowds of 10,000+ in Iowa in the summer, the he stopped doing those big rallies in Iowa. He was rarely in Iowa in late Oct/Nov. I sense that he saw the crazy support he had in Iowa and decided to save the rallies for the final push.
I truly see his support, enthusiasm and crowds as being just as big, if not bigger, than Obama's. Clinton's crowds and enthusiasm for her, seems even less than in 2008.
No doubt Bernie will win Iowa.
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