Iowa Federation of Labor president Mark Smith, a harsh critic of both Bush and the war, largely agrees, and the labor movement has mostly limited its references about the war to a critique of Bush administration priorities -- money for war, not education -- and a defense of Kerry's military record by union members who served with him. "It's so hard for me to figure out why anybody with a 75 IQ or above could be for this guy Bush," Smith says. "Bush four years ago, I could understand, compassionate conservatism and all that bullshit." This year, he said, "healthcare, jobs, retirement security seem to be the issues people will choose. Like [former Labor Secretary] Robert Reich says, they're the anxious class: If you're not laid off, you know somebody down the street or in your union who is, and your children are not even going to have the opportunity for decent jobs." Gerald Messer, who heads the local labor federation encompassing Davenport, added, "I think the war has taken on more importance than economic issues. However, it will ultimately come down to whether you are better off today than four years ago. We're sticking with economic issues, Social Security, healthcare. Those are the major issues. But the war is playing a bigger role than I thought it would."

Aside from the vote-early efforts by Democrats, there's a last-ditch battle for undecided voters. "Even at this late date," said Dino Leone, a staff representative for the public workers union (AFSCME) in Illinois, on loan for political work in Iowa, "undecideds are going slowly to our side, and we've been able to get some turnarounds. One bricklayer who came here from Chicago had a story about canvassing another bricklayer in Davenport who was for Bush all the way. Then they talked about issues, about how good jobs were leaving the country and what that means to union people as a whole. Then he got into it about health insurance, how Bush had done nothing. He got the guy to commit for Kerry, and even got him to put up a Kerry sign in front of his house." By the Davenport labor movement's count of members it has canvassed, about 73 percent support Kerry (compared with 65 percent who said they supported Gore four years ago), and some remain undecided. "My gut feeling is we're even higher than that," Messer said.

But the biggest challenge for Kerry may be the widespread sense of despair and futility among low-income voters. As Rogers and I made the rounds of the blue-collar neighborhood, we encountered Chester, a radio DJ from Dominica, who refused all pleas to vote. "I don't want Bush to win," he said. "But I'm not into voting. The system is crazy. Bush is going to win." Down the street, 75-year-old June Knutsen was slightly more receptive. "If I do vote, I'll vote for Kerry." She signed up for an absentee ballot, but it may take more visits to make sure that ballot is cast. Likewise for Derrick Hahn, a 19-year-old nonunion construction laborer who succinctly explained his job: "I get paid dirt for hard work." He hadn't followed the election or any issues closely and had no interest in voting. "I don't really like either of these guys," he said. "I probably ain't going to vote." What kind of candidate would he like? "Maybe a guy out to help the lower class more," he said. Who would help the lower class more, Kerry or Bush? He paused and thought. "Kerry," he said finally, "more than Bush." Then he asked for an absentee ballot application.

On both sides, the campaigns and their supporting groups report more volunteers and a sense of optimism. "The race in Iowa is going to be very close, but we're confident we'll take it for the president," said Bush Iowa campaign spokesman Dan Ronayne. "We're working harder than ever. But Iowans are more in line with Bush's values. Kerry is out of the mainstream, a liberal tax-and-spend politician from the East Coast. They can't risk the safety of their families with him. The economy is doing better, and they'd rather keep more of their paycheck." "We're doing much the same operation we do every two years to get out the vote," Republican Party co-chairman Frazer said. "Our GOTV operation has been in place for some time." They'll have a bank of 50 phones for Election Day in Davenport, backed up by door-to-door precinct workers.

But the pro-Kerry operation's final push is likely to be much larger than its predecessor four years ago and larger than the Republicans' effort. The unions in Davenport alone will have 300 volunteers on the phone or walking door to door.

Meanwhile, ACT is taking a daring gamble. Although it has focused this fall on contacting Democrats in cities who voted once or less in the past three general elections and urging them to vote early, the group is turning its get-out-the-vote efforts "upside down," according to Jeff Link, ACT's state director and former Iowa campaign manager for Gore and Sen. Tom Harkin. Instead of concentrating on door-to-door contacts in the cities, it has recruited 700 volunteers to go to 195 small towns and reach out to rural voters, including many elderly residents, whom Democrats often neglect. "We've never done anything like this," Link said. "The way we'll make a marginal difference is to go where people have never gone before and where people have never knocked on doors."

The stakes are high in Iowa for the two candidates, but many Iowans feel that their own lives and the future of the country are on the line as well. Outside the Five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center in Waterloo, a venue named for five brothers killed in the same Pacific naval battle in World War II, Bryon Sells had parked his rusty, light-blue pickup truck in full view of everyone coming to hear Kerry speak on national security issues. On the back and sides were large, carefully painted signs bearing Sells' message. The words "The Son of a Bush keeps getting our kids murdered in Iraq -- no rich kids -- and in your heart you know it's wrong" are part of a long attack on the war and corporate profiteering. There's a tribute to Kerry (a "true American hero") and an attack on Dick Cheney (the "biggest crook in the world"). One recent addition: "The Son of a Bush and His Swiftboat Gutter Rat Cronies Must Eat out of a Toilet For All the Bull---- They Put Out."

A retired factory worker, now wealthy with the proceeds from the sale of his father's farm, Sells is a soft-spoken man with short gray hair who wears a Fillet and Release Club sweat shirt with a picture of a fish skeleton. "I tell you, the last four years the working class of people have been going down the drain," he said. "I'm retired. I've got a ton of money. But I feel for the working class." His son works at the factory where he worked, even though most of the jobs have been shipped to China. (Some are now coming back because of quality problems with the imports.) "I'm worried for the kids," Sells continued. "I've had a good life, but I'm worried to death about these young people coming up. Bush is strictly for the rich. It's a split country. Everyone can see it."

But didn't he want to benefit from Bush's cuts in estate and income taxes? "Absolutely not," he said. "I'm not that way. Neither are my brothers. We're all here to help. That's what we're here for. Not to rob each other. This is just a big money-power grab. If Bush gets away with, I don't know what we'll do. I've never been worried about a president before. But he tells so many lies."

Sells' voice then choked up as he fought back tears. After a pause, he said quietly, with a weak smile, "I think we'll make it." Across the street, a group of United Auto Workers members held up a banner: "Help Is on the Way."

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