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The Republican Party is the healthier in Iowa. Bob Taft's supporters, bitter and unwilling to work at first, have now turned to. The Democratic organization is weak. Senator Gillette, who helped pull Truman through in 1948 (Gillette's margin: 162,448; Truman's: 28,362), has not been working for the national ticket.
There are many varieties of polls in Iowa. Most of them put Ike in the lead, but show a high percentage of undecided voters. One of the most interesting is the Hawkeye Feed & Distributing Company's feedbag poll. Dealers are selling livestock feed in sacks labeled for the candidates, letting farmers choose. Results so far: Ike 53%, Stevenson 47%.
In Iowa, Eisenhower seems to be running well ahead of Stevenson, but the Iowa farmer—as 1948 proved—is a highly mobile political factor.