I’m with Governor Branstad: the Ames Straw Poll is uselessness on stilts, and it drags out the primaries for a whole freaking year.
Eyeing the wreckage of the 2011 Ames Straw Poll, which Rep. Michele Bachmann won only to fizzle as a candidate soon after, Mr. Branstad wants to do away with the whole thing.
“I think the straw poll has outlived its usefulness,” Mr. Branstad said of the 33-year-old GOP ritual. “It has been a great fundraiser for the party but I think its days are over.”
I just literally hit ‘Publish’ and saw this in my Twitter feed:
Obama Campaign’s Jen Psaki just said Des Moines Register given OK to report on off-the-record conversation yesterday with Pres Obama.
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) October 24, 2012
Background here: short version was that the Register was being pushed around by Obama about publishing their prior-to-endorsement interview with him. Now I have to take back some of that stuff that I said about the Register: clearly, they made Obama just a little bit… nervous. Well done, sirs.
Moe Lane
PS: See how that works, other newspapers?
Background: Iowa’s Des Moines Register had a tradition of having on-the-record interviews by its editorial board be a prerequisite for consideration for political endorsements. I say ‘had’ because the Obama administration, after ducking the Register for several months, the Obama campaign more or less forced the paper on Tuesday to compromise and take an off-the-record conference call to the Register’s owner/publisher, instead. For those wondering, Romney squeezed in time for the Register several weeks ago; the interview was duly recorded and the audio put on the site.
Anyway, here’s the teachable moment. The Register – rather stupidly, I think – wrote this:
It’s important that I emphasize the White House’s decision won’t play a factor in our board’s final endorsement decision. That would be petty and ridiculous. We take far too seriously what’s at stake this election and what our endorsement should say.
Continue reading The Des Moines Register has a chance for a teachable moment, here.
(Via Drudge) Executive summary: Obama goes to Iowa State Fair. Obama visits Bud Tent, buys a round for ten people in tent – except for the guy holding an Romney sign (because… well, I should be classy and not say ‘because the President’s a dick that way’) – and then the President goes off. Total cost to owner of the Bud Tent? 25 grand [from lost business: the Secret Service had the tent secured for two hours]. Senator Grassley happened to hear about this while at the ISF himself, and put together a few rather pointed Tweets on the topic; said topic is apparently now making the rounds in Iowa.
And this is the part that made me laugh:
The Bud Tent owner added that he hasn’t yet replied to a phone message from Obama’s staff asking him to respond publicly to Grassley’s tweet.
I suspect that they’ve figured out the owner’s response by now anyway.
Moe Lane
PS: Moral of the story? If you’re going to suck up 25 grand’s worth of somebody else’s business*, make sure that the guy isn’t from the other party. If you do it anyway, don’t ask him to push back on your behalf later. It’s that last bit that demonstrates the clown school mentality so prevalent in Obama for America these days…
*And remember, Barry: you didn’t build that.
Reports are coming in (via @CFHeather) that a former Obama ’08 staffer – one Zach Edwards, formerly with the 2008 Obama campaign in Iowa and currently up until the arrest working for Link Strategies*, a company affiliated with Sen. Tom Harken (D, IA) – has been arrested for identity theft. The Iowa Department of Public Safety puts it fairly succinctly: “According to the Criminal Complaint, on June 24, 2011, Edwards fraudulently used, or attempted to use, the identity of Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz and/or Secretary Schultz’s brother, Thomas Schultz, with the intent to obtain a benefit, in an alleged scheme to falsely implicate Secretary Schultz in perceived illegal or unethical behavior while in office.” In other words: Edwards is accused of trying to pretend to be Schultz in order to get Schultz in trouble. The crime is listed as an ‘Aggravated Misdemeanor,’ but if convicted Edwards could face jail time. Continue reading Fomer Obama staffer arrested in Iowa Secretary of State identity theft investigation.
OK, with [96%] of the vote in we can maybe start to look at the results and get some meaningful data out of them. Apologies if any of this sounds loopy: the cold that took over the rest of my family last week finally hit me, so anything weird that I say is the medication. Also… you’ll note that I avoided being rude about the actual Republicans running for office (Ron Paul can be included as one just as soon as he promises to support my party’s eventual nominee); I really suggest that the triumphalism be kept down to a dull roar.
So… right now it appears that Romney and Santorum are pole-positioning for first place with 25% of the vote each; Romney was ahead earlier, Santorum is ahead as of this moment, and that may flip back and forth. Given that the difference in their vote total is unlikely reach four digits, both campaigns will probably credibly claim a win if Romney ends up with the higher vote total. Rick Santorum is having the best night of his political life, and I figure that we can let him have it before we start pointing out anything problematical; Mitt Romney is probably already focused on New Hampshire.
These are as generic as I can make them.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
Details here and here: the short version is that the Senate back in June kicked off opposition to continued ethanol subsidies via a bipartisan amendment: it didn’t pass, but Congress has just let both the ethanol subsidy and a restrictive foreign tariff (on Brazilian sugar-cane ethanol) lapse. Given that the Iowa caucuses will be finished by the time Congress reconvenes – and given that the House of Representatives is currently chock-heavy with people who spit at the very phrase ‘ethanol subsidy’ – getting back either is going to be a problem for the domestic ethanol industry. Mind you, there are still mandates for using ethanol in place, but note again the ending of the tariff; I’m not a businessman, but effectively lowering the price of Brazilian ethanol by 54 cents/gallon while simultaneously effectively raising the price of domestic ethanol by 45 cents/gallon sounds to me like it would at least raise some intriguing alternatives. Continue reading Oh, by the way, ethanol subsidies are dead.
This is absolutely Jonah Goldberg’s fault: he called for the Republican primary to be thrown out and replaced with a musical. Then he started writing Gilbert & Sullivan filks.
Yes. I could not help myself. To the tune of The Policeman’s Song from The Pirates of Penzance:
When a pundit’s not enthused with his enjoyment (his enjoyment)
Of blighting lives to entertain his fans
His capacity for ethical employment (his employment)
Is just as much as any honest man’s.
Our cursing we with difficulty smother
When corrections to the record must be done (must be done)
Yes, take one consideration with another (with another)
And the blogger’s life is not a tranquil one.When corrections to the record must be done (must be done)
Then the blogger’s life is not a tranquil one.When a talking-headed rascal’s not repeating (not repeating)
The honeyed poison dripping from his screen,
He likes to schmooze with those that he’s defeating (he’s defeating);
…And access like that makes all of us turn green.
When the panels stop with screaming at each other,
They’ll meet again for drinking and some fun;
Yes, take one consideration with another
And the blogger’s life is not a tranquil one.Though corrections to the record must be done (must be done)
Yet a blogger’s life is not a social one.
For the record: Jonah’s all right. And he’s not the only one.
Moe Lane
Keeping from publishing the whole damn thing.
Iowa anchors the Upper American “Heartland,” the rural interior that produces much of the world’s corn, pigs, cattle, and soybeans. The corn grows so fast in Iowa — from seedlings to 7-foot-high stalks in 12 weeks — that it crackles nonstop throughout the summer months. The sound is like popcorn popping slow-motion in a microwave in your mind. That pop-pop-popping can be heard especially in the early morning hours, and especially if you’ve been out drinking and/or taking drugs. You look up from your vomit and see dew and fog cover the acres of gently swaying cornstalks that surround farming villages the way the sea encircles an island. And then the corn looks at you, in that corny way it does, and you’re like “Don’t you DARE judge me! I have a PhD!” And then, in a way that few urban minds can fathom, it flaunts and flirts and teases you with its leathery husks and silky tassels bending in unison to the shimmying breeze, begging for you to give it some hot corn sex, but then you pass out again.
