Iowa Caucus Guy’s Presidential Election Blog

 With the recent Vice Presidential debate, as well as the President's COVID diagnosis, I thought it worthwhile to revisit a book that came out around this time last year called Piety and Power .  Tom LoBianco has followed Mike Pence as long as any journalist on the planet.  He is about as much of an expert on Pence as one will find. Since Pence did not appear much in Michael Wolff's treatment of Jarvanka and Bannon in Fire and Fury, one may wonder his role.  This book does much in providing that insight, and more importantly, the VP's background. The title is well selected.  Pence's religious conviction is a real thing.  Some of the things we saw this week in the debate are apparent from this reading of Pence.  He does have charisma and plays the role of politician quite well. On the other hand, he has a great deal of ambition, and it would seem his ultimate goal is the White House.  My reading of this is that he has sometimes chosen inaction as a...

There might not be anyone who turns elections into the most exciting reading material than David Pietrusza.  He has received plaudits from George W. Bush, Karl Rove, and Glenn Beck, and with reason, he's a master storyteller when it comes to Presidential races. What does "The Year of the Six Presidents" mean?  The basis of this book is that the 1920 election was dominated by six personalities- former and future Presidents, and (due to the 22nd Amendment) we are unlikely to ever see that again. In 1919, Teddy Roosevelt, after his failed 1912 third party campaign- looks to be a favorite and undoubtedly headed back to the White House as a Republican. Unfortunately, he dies that same year.  Woodrow Wilson is the current President, and although he is too ill and too unpopular to likely win a third term, it is his (not so) secret desire to be nominated. William Howard Taft is not one of the six Presidents mentioned, as he is a non-contributor, only interested in ful...

There is one politician who I get more ire online from than any other. Someone attacked me when I predicted that Elizabeth Warren would have better polling numbers than he did. (I was right. This was around May of last year.)  I didn't say anything about Sanders good or bad, simply an observation. So, that is the kind of thing people complain about.  Ironically, I am a bigger Sanders guy than you might guess.  Heck, many of the arguments I get to on social media are with people I agree with.  I am used to it! You already know about books like this, and they are the type of "strike while the iron is hot" screeds written for the candidates' supporters. Politics move fast though.  Books by Ralph Nader, Jesse Ventura and Sarah Palin among others were big sellers but did they have relevance four years later? I suspect Bernie thought the same thing when he wrote it back in 2016. Hillary was going to surely win and move things back to Center.  I have ...

I have never read Maureen Dowd at length, but how could I resist this cover. Most of us are probably not nostalgic for 2016 just yet, but at some point, politicos will want to examine how Trump got elected, and this will be a good reference point. Seemingly better equipped candidates like Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio (and even Hillary Clinton) underestimated Trump's populist appeal and 'straight-talk' style. In retrospect, they would surely not have misjudged him.  While I don't think Trump has been able to fully transition those skills as President (I often wonder if Trump had pivoted to the Center, how his approval rating would have changed), one should look at Trump's strengths and how he exploited his opponents' weaknesses. Whether you like the guy or not, his style brought in the crowds for sure, and the good news for the Democrats, is that no one hanging in the GOP wings looks to have Trump's charisma. As far as Dowd, she is quite astute.  She...

I pondered what to do next with this blog as the Caucus has ended. Things surely did not go as I planned.  One of the largest, most interesting Democratic fields in history was winnowed pretty quick.  Iowa, often a battleground state, seems to be checkmarked  either as a red state or a less interesting purple state. I will continue to share humorous and interesting stories from the campaign trail, but is there even going to be a Trail in these pandemic days.  Perhaps, we are back to the 1880s when candidates like James Garfield and William McKinley gave speeches from their Front Porch . When I talk about politics, the part I love is the campaign itself.  I read a lot of books related to Presidential campaigns, and I thought it was a no brainer to share some reviews here.  I am going to try to add one each Wednesday.  We will see how it goes.  I often try to leave my opinion out of my blog (as much as I can) but of course, it will seep ...