Watch the second segment below to see how Jon Stewart's "Best F***in' News Team" gets sucked into each of the candidates' tents and, ultimately, into Palin's attention-seeking vortex.
Despite paying more than all but one candidate for tent space at the Iowa straw poll, he came in dead last.
It is a traditionally important election event in which campaign teams invest lots of money and energy; a piece of old-fashioned theatre in which candidates occupy tent space and are available for most of the day to the electorate.
Held in a carnival atmosphere with candidates setting up tents and plying GOP activists with food, drink and musical performances, the event has long been a favorite of journalists and political junkies alike.
Set of candidate locations for emergency tents indexed by n, m є {1, 2, …, N}.
News conferences are rare, but many candidates set up "election tents" in their constituencies where voters can come and speak to them.
In his current one, he engineered the Democratic takeover of the House in the 2006 by pursuing a big-tent candidate-recruiting strategy and is widely heralded for his reformist instincts and influence as chair of the party caucus.
Candidates fill the tent, each with roles to play.
The billionaire personally gave another $40 million to supporters of his own preferred candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, to pay for tents, sandwiches and the kinds of organizational details that made the Orange Revolution (and a second election) possible.
Many candidates have pitched bedouin-style tents; places to show hospitality, inform constituents, and entertain them with everything from rousing sermons by famous preachers to stockmarket tips.
