Complaints surrounding the way U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann‘s campaign has conducted itself are no big secret in the Hawkeye State, but it appears even Fox News is learning that some Iowans are none too happy with the degradation of the state’s historic retail politics.
Sarah Palin announced her resignation as governor of Alaska two years ago with a speech so rambling and disjointed it became immediately iconic. She said she was not “wired for politics as usual,” that she wanted to “take a stand” and “not just hit our heads against a wall” and “watch valuable state time and money, millions of your dollars, go down the drain in this new political environment.” She said she was giving her reasons for resigning “very candidly and truthfully,” but no one knew what she was talking about. Her husband, Todd, confronted by an Alaskan in Iowa this week summed up the reasoning more succinctly and more convincingly: Palin resigned in order to earn money to pay high financial debts and to avoid legal complaints. Of course she did! Videos after the jump.
Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert might be ready to flex the muscles of his newly established Super PAC, and he seems willing to begin the work-out in Iowa. On The Colbert Report Monday night, the comedian told other potential PACs hoping to back Texas Gov. Rick Perry to back off, “I saw him first.”
Election politics analysts have been watching for signs that Texas Governor Rick Perry will jump into the GOP presidential primary. Some have argued he could replace Mitt Romney as clear frontrunner. Perry has good hair and is charismatic, like Romney, but he has never even lightly endorsed gay rights and will not have to defend an indefensible effort to socialize health care. On August 6th Perry is hosting a big right-wing evangelical Christian prayerfest in Texas. That might win him the write-in vote in the evangelical Iowa presidential caucuses even if he doesn’t declare himself as a candidate, but to non-evangelical America– the America beyond Republican Iowa and Focus-on-the-Family Colorado Springs– this event might permanently disqualify Perry for national office. It marks him as a magical-thinking provincial governor who believes Jesus concerns himself with solving problems like the debt ceiling.
When it comes to politics, there is no denying the pull of momentum. And while it is clear that for this eighth edition of our Power Rankings U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann owns it, there is also no denying that social and religious conservatives in the state still have choices to make.
Newly released information from Public Policy Polling shows that Iowans have had a “dramatic shift” toward President Barack Obama, and that he now leads potential opponents by at least nine and up to 21 points in the Hawkeye State.
With his second campaign video, Republican candidate for president Tim Pawlenty seems to be working with his media team to establish his brand as “Patriotic Midwestern Downer.” The video released today, “A Time for Truth,” presents in Depression-era black and white the candidate’s unsmiling narrow face with its deep-set eyes, and it opens with a 40-second chronicle of the nation’s woes. The message, in Pawlenty’s words: “Our country’s in big trouble.” This comes on the heels of Pawlenty’s pre-campaign video called “Courage to Stand,” which was a kind of motivational scolding. “None of this is gonna be easy,” he says. “We gotta roll up our sleeves.”
Last month, the Colorado Independent sister site in Iowa reported on an anti-gay marriage Christian group that called homosexual activity “more dangerous than smoking.”
Today, the Iowa Independent reports that the same group, the Iowa Family Policy Center, has…
Samuel “Joe the Plumber” Wurzelbacher was a late addition to the speaker lineup at the How to Take Back America Conference last weekend in St. Louis, but I don’t know what the attendees would have done without him. After his…
Colorado ranks a surprising fourth on the list of states hosting wet coal-ash dumping ponds. An Environmental Protection Agency list obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request filed by environmental groups lists 40 ponds in Colorado. The Agency…
Do you know where to vote on Election Day? Do you know what to bring with you? Get comprehensive voter information for your state here.
rss