This past Sunday, an annual political rite was staged in the wonderfully flat state of Iowa. It’s called a “steak fry,” but the precious cuts of meat are mercifully grilled. Regardless of cooking methods, Sen. Tom Harkin’s annual Steak Fry signals a “beginning” of sorts to the serious campaigning season. It’s fall and people are starting to pay more attention (especially since the first primary might only be three months away), and the Democrats seem to be revving up the people quite disproportionately to the Republicans. Several thousand – some have estimated upwards of 18,000 – came to clog their arteries with talking points about health care, poverty, and the generally awesome job President Bush has done. In comparison, the Republicans managed a much smaller crowd (a fraction of the steak fry attendance, and below expectations)

What does this mean? Are those whispers of a bummed out conservative electorate true? Well, it’s too early to make hay out of this, but it would be wrong to ignore it. Combine the attendance and congenial rowdiness of the event with those mega-events that Barack Obama has been having, or the thunderous ovations John Edwards has been getting across the country, or even the huge amounts of support Hillary still has wherever she goes and we have something of a trend forming.

It’s not a far reach to state that liberals and democrats are pissed off and riled up, but it has been a serious question as to whether this would translate to voting machines. A good signal of solid voter turnout is the level of political activity leading up to an election (think of the “vaunted Republican turnout machine”). The level of participation at these events is an early indication of a potential immense Democratic turnout.

Steaks are “frying,” politicians are speechifying, and the people are ready for a change. Ahh, the presidential election is about to shift into high gear and the Democrats, at this moment, are comfortably holding the gear shift. Will it continue?