Actor Kal Penn, best-known for his portrayal of a munchies-questing stoner in Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, has joined the ranks of Tatiana Ali, Brandon Routh, and some woman named Oprah Winfrey on the Obama campaign trail.

Penn (now the holder of a respectable role on TV's House, so don't put him in that Cheech-and-Chong- Ganja-comedy pigeon hole, okay?) only intended to visit Iowa for two days around caucus time but extended his stay after his appearances generated large amounts of interest from students—which raises the question: Did Barack win Iowa because the "facebook generation" was inspired by his message? Or could those millennials actually be fired up by a certain stoner icon's hands-on campaigning? History will decide.

And Penn, now heading to Nevada to stump for the senator, is intent on finding out. "Kal's a machine," an Iowa volunteer tells Radar. Following events, Penn would hold court on the phones, returning calls to interested caucusers who had filled out supporter cards. No word on whether conversations drifted to spectral cheetahs or Neil Patrick Harris. Supposedly, he talked about "issues."

Did he get dudes asking for directions to White Castle or quoting lines from the neo-classic stoner film? Sometimes, but Iowans can be a straight-laced bunch. "A lot of people in Iowa recognized him from House," said the volunteer. "Seriously."