‘Rock solid,’ not rock stars

Saturday, Feb. 3, 2007 | 7:11 a.m.

Tom Vilsack might be carrying the red football in a couple years, might be sending our boys into battle, but right now he's hungry, and he's hoping for a doughnut.

No doughnuts at the Grand Cafe at Green Valley Ranch Resort, but they do serve Danish, so he orders a pecan Danish, which is heavily glazed and the size of a boxer's fist. He slathers it with butter and takes a good-size chomp.

Here's the paradox of the presidential campaign of Vilsack, the former governor of Iowa: His great attraction is that he's so genuine, so small-town lawyer, so Iowa, so without an entourage and so willing to order a Danish because he's hungry. If he's not a regular guy, albeit a very smart and articulate one, then he's an amazing actor.

The problem, however, is that being a regular guy might not cut it given the Democratic field, which includes a former president's wife; an African-American rock star son of a goat herder; a former vice presidential nominee and a former vice president whose movie might win an Oscar.

Vilsack is Danish and doughnut in a parfait field.

This doesn't mean Vilsack can't be president, though. The American electorate may have had it with that crowd, with all the melodrama and the grandiosity and the East Coast baggage.

That's what Vilsack and former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson are banking on. Thompson, also a former secretary of health and human services, is running for the Republican nomination. The pair debated in front of about 200 auto industry types Friday at Green Valley Ranch, and the whole affair had a thoroughly Midwest vibe. Neither has the helmet hair or stretched skin of the glamour pols.

Although they had significant differences, Vilsack and Thompson both stressed pragmatism and problem-solving and Midwestern values.

The arrival of the post-Bush era of American politics, of the return of two-party parity, was most evident in Thompson. He acknowledged that global warming is a serious long-term concern; he refused to promise that he would extend the Bush tax cuts that are set to expire in a few years; and he said government isn't doing enough to solve the current health care crisis, rather than calling for a free-market fix.

The Iraq war is still the significant fault line of American politics, however, even as Republicans increasingly retreat from President Bush. Thompson said the country should allow Bush's latest escalation plan to work, but he set a fall deadline. Although he repeated some retro Republican talking points - "There's no question we're there because of 9/11" - he clearly sees the potential for Republican catastrophe if the situation doesn't change quickly; hence, the deadline.

Vilsack, on the other hand, said the time is now to begin withdrawing American forces.

Thompson and Vilsack are honest about their prospects. They both acknowledged they must win the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucus, and Vilsack said he must do well in the Nevada caucus, which will follow Iowa.

"There's a tendency to cover just a few rock stars," Vilsack said. "Those of us who are rock solid don't get much attention."

Thompson said the country wants a Midwesterner. Vilsack jumped in, "We can agree on that."