John Cox in Iowa Newspaper

John Cox recently gave an interview to the Storm Lake Pilot Tribune in Iowa. Cox is trying hard to get his message out, but it's tough in a strong field where the media focus on the front runners.

Jeff Jones, 6 February, 2007.

Presidential candidate and fiscal/social conservative John Cox has been campaigning around the area, trying to get his name out in a field already populated by political superstars.

Unlike many of the current presidential candidates who have been senators, representatives or otherwise held high-profile positions, Cox is a Chicago-based businessman who is looking to make serious changes in Washington.

"There are a lot of life-long politicians who don't know what it's like on the outside," Cox said in a Pilot-Tribune interview. " How can you expect changes from people like (John) McCain and (Rudi) Giuliani who have been apart of the system for over 15 years?"

Cox is the first Republican to declare his run for the White House for the 2008 election. He bills himself as the most social and fiscal conservative candidate for the election. He is also not new to the political arena as a supporter and campaign worker for different candidates since the 70s-80s.

He was a supporter of Congressman Steve King when King first started to run for campaigns.As the campaign trail has been starting to heat some subjects both social and financial information."I'm a pro life guy, if abortion was legal back in 1951 then I might not be around today," Cox said. "My mother was single and I did not have a father."

Cox is against President George W. Bush's plan to increase troops in Iraq but is opposed leaving Iraq."We need to make Iraq rich like they should be," Cox said. "They are only producing about 30 percent of their capacity. We should send troops to guard the oil wells so that the Iraqis can make themselves rich."

Cox also feels that "No child left behind" should be "buried" and that control should be given back to the local and state levels of government. He also hit on the fact that colleges should have more competition to lower the cost of post high school education."We should support the creation of new colleges," Cox said. "With more competition schools would be required to lower their cost.

With the limited colleges some schools are able to jack their rates up."Cox supports Medicare being set in the private sector instead of government control."Most of the medical advances that have been made have been done in the private sector," Cox said. "If the private sector had a lot of competition suddenly added with new plans then prices would go down as well."

The presidential hopeful does admit that he has been struggling to get his name out in the public eye."The local papers have been great with giving us coverage but the big papers like the New York Times and Washington Post do not consider me as a serious candidate," Cox said. "Right now we have been working on getting my name out and unlike the Obamas and Clintons who can pay the big bucks for people to support them, my campaign is all volunteer."

Cox current has 1,000 Iowans registered for the straw poll and hopes to have 3,000 registered for the poll in a few weeks. Cox also has a 100,000 mailings going out across the state to help get his name out.He is currently out in New Hampshire campaigning but is looking forward to getting back to Iowa."I've been to Storm Lake a few times and am looking forward to a chance to come back," Cox said.