By John McCormick
DUBUQUE, Iowa – Wednesday night, it was trains – two of them. Thursday night, it was a boat.
Sen. Barack Obama is getting used to having his speeches interrupted by modes of transportation.
“We’ve got trains and ice cream,” Obama said, referring to the interruptions the previous evening in Davenport, Iowa, and his mis-informed notion that music playing from a calliope here was coming from an ice cream vendor. “It’s an ice cream boat.”
It turns out it was just a passing riverboat cruising the nearby Mississippi River. (A reporter on the scene was unable to determine whether the boat was carrying any ice cream.) After the brief distraction, the Illinois Democrat proceeded with his presidential campaign speech about Iraq to the roughly 400 people gathered.
The boat and train interruptions this week followed a lengthy one caused by a passing freight train during a stop Obama made in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, on a 4th of July tour across eastern Iowa. (He also swallowed a bug in the middle of that appearance.)
As the senator well knows, it’s rough — and noisy — on the campaign trail.