Iowa Caucus Guy’s Presidential Election Blog

In my last post , I spoke of my experiment from the 2008 election where I asked every candidate to respond to me and tell me what they were listening to. With 25-some candidates, I thought I would do the same in 2019. a little  of what I learned. For starters, every major candidate has the same exact website. The template for each one is exact. I guess I shouldn’t be that surprised but I was. For the most part, there is a gateway asking for money, or at least an email address. From there, it’s all pretty much the same. I mean, Andrew Yang’s site has cool automated Yang’s, Tim Ryan has a pic of him wearing Cleveland Browns gear and so on. Still, they are all the same. They also -are as Time magazine reported in June- all have some sort of accessibility issues if you are an user with a disability. My initial thought was with this many candidates, any positive interaction they could turn around would be an incentive. Heck, even by the numbers, I figured I would st...

In 2007, I did something that I thought would be fun. Chris Dodd had launched a Presidential Campaign and on his website, he did a neat thing, he asked supporters to send in listening suggestions. Wonkette picked up on it, and while Dodd didn’t take it down, he did obscure it after it went viral. Not before I recommended Hank Williams III, Gogol Bordello, and the Kronos Quartet to him, though. I saw Dodd a couple of times in 2007 and was able to ask him in person what he was listening to. He was a good sport, said Pearl Jam and James Taylor, acknowledged he knew Paul Simon (Dodd had dated Carrie Fisher) and the biggest bomb was that he told me he was friends with Bono. I started a website which is almost entirely lost to the Internet tubes, but I asked all of the major and many minor candidates what they were listening to. This was way before Spotify playlists, but we were moving into the Golden Age of the iPod, and a couple years removed from the downfall of th...

In May, I shared the results of the DFA poll - the group that formed as a result of Howard Dean’s failed Presidential bid. Since this is a progressive group, you should take the results with a grain of salt. They have historically supported Bernie Sanders and in Iowa and New Hampshire, there is no doubt, he has the backing of this group. The National Numbers show a bit of where Liberals are leaning (Sanders 32% Warren 26% Harris 12% Biden 10% Yang 7%) . There is little news here but a quick glance shows that Progressives are starting to abandon Buttigieg. There is real momentum for Warren and Harris, unsurprisingly. Lastly, Mike Gravel and his non campaign has seen its support dissipate. I will share the Iowa results here. Of more interest to me, they cross referenced support with what drove the numbers. It gives an interesting idea of what each candidate’s niche might be (or what is perceived, anyway). As candidates drop, you might make reasonable assumptions...

While I didn’t make the July 4 parades, I did make the Ankeny Summer Parade the following weekend. A suburb north of Des Moines, Ankeny was a very red town 20 years ago. It still has some GOP bona fides for being the home of former acting Attorney General Matt Whittaker and Iowa Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver. I have little doubt that I will see the 38 year old Whitver become Iowa Governor in my lifetime. That said, the town of about 64,000 is purplish and no longer the place it was two decades ago when a friend ran for a local race as a Democrat- a mostly futile thought to begin with, back then. Ankeny has grown though. It is still largely a very affluent suburb. It is becoming more diverse (slowly) as well. The big news is Dems are starting to win. It’s no longer a one party town. A look at results from the last election show Trump did well, but it was hardly a landslide. Obama won here, too, though, so, purple. All considered, I don’t know that any of t...

The July 4th before the Caucus is always a busy day for Presidential candidates. I have already  spoken on the Iowa Cubs naturalization ceremony . Of course, there are also parades and barbecues. Independence, Iowa is a town of 6000, but with that name, you knew it was going to draw potential candidates, and it did- Joe Biden, Beto O’Rourke and Bill DeBlasio all marched. Kamala Harris came to Iowa fresh off post-debate hype and a jump in poll numbers. A lot of good press in the Des Moines Register which seemed to focus on the fact that she hand cuts potatoes to make French Fries for her husband, as much as it did on any policy stands she might have. A quick internet search verified that this is a hobby she was proud of, but my initial thought was ‘No one asked Paul Tsongas about that.” Harris and Amy Klobuchar attended a West Des Moines Democratic Dinner. Climate activists were there to score the candidates according to the Daily Iowan (with Inslee on top and the two f...

One of the traditions around July 4 in Iowa is going to see the Iowa Cubs. I love baseball as much as Presidential politics, so I will try to keep on topic as much as I can, but seeing the Iowa Cubs in recent years means seeing a bunch of future Cubs stars (Rizzo, Bryant, Almora, Baez, Contreras) and various out of towners (Pete Alonso, Joey Gallo, Steven Piscotty) up close and personal. Not to mention some great fireworks. But there is also a Caucus component. In 2007, Barack Obama and Bill Richardson attended the July homestand. Indeed, this year was no different as Joe Biden and Beto O’Rourke attended the July 4 event. Another reason that they made this particular game (with the fireworks and numerous Iowa-brewed beers available) is it is the day that Iowa swears in the new naturalized citizens. This year, 30 new Americans from 14 countries were sworn in. Senior Iowa District Court Judge Robert Pratt does the swearing-in, as he has for several years now. Ph...

I had considered not blogging about the Democratic debates> It has all been covered, right? But, you know posterity and all. My blog may end up being the only shred of evidence of the 2020 election (You never know!) and no one will believe how ludicrous it was that 20 candidates debated over two nights. So here’s my thoughts and some thoughts I gathered from friends: -Kamala Harris is the obvious winner of the debates. I know she was an early favorite but her numbers seemed to go elsewhere. It is interesting to note that part of the Dems desired quality is to be able to go toe to toe with Trump. Trump seemingly has owned Warren (the DNA test) but Harris’s experience as a prosecutor, seems to make her the type of candidate Dems might want. - A friend whose opinion I greatly respect said (when it came out the next day that her Biden speech was preplanned), yes it was preplanned, but it was a master stroke and created an everlasting meme. It also appealed to reaso...