• Campaign snapshots: Rick Perry and President Obama board the bus

    By Rich Shulman

    Rick Perry ate a vegetarian corn dog on a stick, an egg on a stick and a pork chop on a stick while campaigning at the Iowa State Fair. But the strangest moment came when he posed with a cardboard cutout of a soldier in Afghanistan. The legs under the cutout are a nice touch.

    Meanwhile, President Obama seemed to be reacting to the Minnesota heat and the political heat as he criticized the GOP presidential field.

    Charles Dharapak / AP

    Republican presidential candidate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry poses with a cutout of U.S. Army Reserves Spc. James Benal of the Nebraska National Guard, serving in Afghanistan, after he was approached by his mother Patty Benal, as Perry visited the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa, Monday, Aug. 15, 2011.

    Carolyn Kaster / AP

    President Barack Obama wipes his brow as he speaks during a town hall meeting at Lower Hannah's Bend Park in Cannon Falls, Minn., Monday, Aug. 15.

  • Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

    Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin shakes hands with fair goers while visiting the Iowa State Fair August 12 in Des Moines, Iowa. Although she has not announced any intention of running for president, all of the Republican presidential hopefuls are visiting the fair ahead of Saturday's Iowa Straw Poll to greet voters and engage in traditional Iowa campaigning rituals.

    Will she or won't she? Sarah Palin visits the Iowa State Fair

    By Rich Shulman

    I wonder if she's waiting until Saturday to upstage Rick Perry. Story.

    Full coverage of the Iowa straw poll.