We were delighted when Senator Harkin called a few weeks ago to congratulate us on winning the Dine with Senator Harkin contest on TomHarkin.com. We are huge fans of Senator Harkin’s and we were thrilled to learn we’d get to spend an evening at the JJ Dinner.

On Saturday afternoon, we arrived early and checked in to the Hotel Ft. Des Moines suite reserved for us by Senator Harkin. In the elevator we ran into Michelle Obama and her staff who were heading out to the dinner. The elevators are a very snug fit, but we had a nice chat.

We arrived at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium and what a scene! There were 9,000 people filling the venue, with supporters from all of the different campaigns ready.

We met Senator Harkin and other guests on the floor, where, for the next 6 hours we would have dessert, dinner and speeches from many local Iowa politicians as well as the Presidential candidates. We were very excited to get to meet the first-ever female House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi.

Now while we are huge Harkin supporters, in the Presidential primary we are Senator Obama supporters. So we were concerned that our candidate was the last speaker. But as the saying goes: they saved the best for last. The noise from his estimated 5,500 supporters was deafening and electrified the crowd. His speech was, as you all know, one of the best of his career (ask David Yepsen of the Des Moines Register — he agreed).

All in all, it was exciting to watch all of our talented presidential candidates and to be the guest of our wonderful Senator, Tom Harkin.

Thank you, Senator Harkin, for an evening we’ll never forget!

Bill Stone and Amy Reasner, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.