A couple politicians I have worked with call the summer before an election year the “silly season,” meaning the focus is all about fringe issues and groups, and there’s little meaningful back and forth among candidates.  It’s mostly bio pieces and staged events.  So it is with the Iowa Caucus process in the summer runup to Iowa’s [...]

I’ve always thought there was a weird cultural incongruence in the way the two Iowa parties showcase their presidential candidates.  Democrats use the very dignified Jefferson-Jackson dinner, which features great stage lighting, video and interminable podium speeches in succession.  People who are usually comfortable in Carhartts throw on a suit just to ‘come down and [...]

The ‘Minnesota Mean’ debate featuring a pit-bull Iowa frontrunner in Michelle Bachmann getting comfortable taking sparring practice with hanging-on-for-dear-life former Governor Tim Pawlenty was better for entertainment value than the prior New Hampshire debate, but didn’t change the fortunes of any of the candidates on the stage. Several twitter observers suggested Texas Governor Rick Perry [...]

Presidential elections are all about electoral math. Republicans know they need to peel off states the President carried in ’08 to have any hope at all in ’12. Getting to 270 electoral votes will require the GOP nominee to “flip” at least 4-5 big states and some number of smaller ones. One of the reasons [...]

Much of the reporting about the President’s Afghanistan address to the nation Wednesday night has focused on his stubbornly centrist position – he’s moving too fast for the federal bureaucracy at the Pentagon, but too slow for anti-war liberals in Congress. Thus, the President faces attacks from both left and right as he stakes out [...]

Just when the GOP ’12 field started to feel like it might be gelling at last week’s New Hampshire debate, we were treated to a weekend of speculation about Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX), who is checking things out in Iowa, Sen. John Thune (R-SD) who may be reconsidering his earlier no-go decision, and of course [...]

The Gazette’s offered a very solid forum here for discussion of the Iowa Caucuses and the 2012 election generally, and I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to comment periodically from the perspective of Iowa Democrats. In one sense we’re missing out on all the fun this cycle as Republicans meet their potential nominees up close [...]