Iowa Caucus Guy’s Presidential Election Blog

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 ...

You probably figured with me a political buff and in Iowa, that I couldn’t sit on the sidelines. So in conjunction with my last post as I talk about that weekend of January 25-26, ( I will focus on the last political rally I attended of the Caucus season) it is worth mentioning that I did my part in supporting the Buttigieg campaign. My role was minimal. As I have mentioned at various points, there are competing interests for my time, but I did do what I could. My greatest 2020 Caucus memory will be getting a text on a weekend afternoon from Chasten Buttigieg. Getting communications from candidates are not isolated incidents and what is awesome is hearing stories from staffers how Elizabeth Warren called them from out of the blue. While the caucus might be flawed, there is an element of it that puts the candidates face to face with their possible future constituents. Nobody can argue that isn’t a good thing. I only hope we don’t get completely Television studio campaigns. ...

When I started this blog, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to cover the Election better than the Media. I also knew that I wasn’t going to have the reach of the bigger Iowa blogs. What I did know was that I could tell a side of the story of the Caucus that was unique and show a side that people might not know.  In the past, I have had my friend Mike share some of his Caucus experiences. This is my favorite because it’s about more than policy or polling numbers. I recognize some of myself here (I still have my scrapbook I made of the 1984 Election when I was 10). Yes, it is an important part of the process that Iowans get to vet candidates, but let’s not forget the next generation getting a hands-on lesson in Civics.  Many dads would like to think that their son's see them as a hero. Most of the time they do start out as the hero, and that ultimately comes full circle as their child becomes an adult and comes to respect all their father had done for them growing up. There's...

In November, I embarked on putting together a list of music-related posts about the Democratic Presidential candidates.  Part 1 covered the very musically inclined Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg.  Part 2 covered Deval Patrick (son of a member of Sun Ra's Arkstra), and the musically gifted pair of Tulsi Gabbard and Marianne Williamson. Part 3 will start off with a candidate who has now dropped, Kamala Harris , but had a couple of music related stories that stepped in to distract from her campaign. One of which was that when asked about recreational marijuana, Kamala said, sure, in college she would listen to Tupac and Snoop Dogg and partake in the Chronic. All would be well in good, if Kamala hadn't graduated in 1986, Five years prior to 2Pacalypse and 7 years before Doggystyle, their respective debuts. Which gives a few possibilities.  1- She's lying to sound "cool" 2- She did smoke some weed but it was back when Dr Dre said Cess caused Brain Dama...

Iowa takes its First in the Nation status seriously.  There are a few local tv series that do a good job of getting a candidate in front of an audience. As good as any is the local CBS affiliate which had a series called The Undecideds . The idea is four undecided Democrats spend a half hour with a candidate and ask questions.  I would suggest some sort of google search around "KCCI Undecideds" and you can find the episodes. Another great series is from Iowa Public Television and it's an hour interview with former Des Moines Register journalist and one of the essential Caucus Talking Heads David Yepsen. It records not that far away from me, and so I've been meaning to take one of the tapings in. You should be able to find these episodes on the Iowa PBS YouTube Channel . As I mentioned in last post, winter weather has hit every weekend leading up to the Caucus, so I knew that would work in my favor. and it mostly did. I was one of the first one there to s...

2020 is soooo boring! I mean, we haven't had the Iowa Caucus, the New Hampshire Primary or Super Tuesday yet, but what everyone wants to know about is 2024. I mean, we have been talking about these same candidates for a year, let's get to the good stuff. Well, that is probably not true.  I think most people hate the eternal election cycle.  It's the media trying to fill the need for constant information. In any case, I suppose you can't top a headline like Donald Trump Jr and Ivanka Trump lead 2024 polls  for clickbait. Now, there will be a Republican Primary next month.  I heard it would be an up/down vote on Trump, but the Register is saying it will be a straw poll.  In any case, William Weld and Joe Walsh (who campaigned in Iowa this weekend) will challenge, and it will be uphill as the Donald had at least 76% of party support per November polls. An even longer shot is Rocky de la Fuente, running as a Republican, after a 2016 Democratic primary race...

As we get under 45 days until the Caucus, all systems are go! Elizabeth Warren looks like she may have a head-to-head battle with Pete Buttigieg, so she's changing up her strategy. Essentially going from a planned stump speech of 45 minutes to a quick 8 minute intro and open up for questions . It has its risks, but the major advantage is getting to talk to people, and that is really how the Caucus gets won. Similarly, Klobuchar's endgame is to interact with Iowas. For years, Senator Charles Grassley famously makes a stop in every county in Iowa, to the point, that it has become called "The Full Grassley" and Amy is going to do it . The news isn't that she is going to do it (she planned to do it before the caucus), but will do it by year end. John Delaney, to date, is the only candidate in this cycle to accomplish that. Indeed, this is shaping up to be a campaign coming down to a close finish to the wire. I must make mention of some of the sparring betw...

One of the most memorable moments of this Election Cycle is a video of a bunch of awkward Bloomberg supporters shuffling back and forth in a gymnasium to a parody of Maroon 5's "Moves Like Jagger". Surely, you have seen it. If not, you can watch it here (It's short): The thing, of course, is that it's completely fake. I mean, you knew it had to be right?   Sure enough all roads led back to Nick Ciarelli, who has writing credits for Comedy Bang Bang, Funny or Die, Clickhole and Onion News Network. There's a reason why we believe it, though, right?  Overenthusiastic and overworked campaign volunteers, matched with out-of-touch suits trying to capture the next viral moment.  Reminiscent of those Wal-Mart pre-shift team chants . The news, of course, to me isn't that the video of Pete Buttigeig fans dancing to High Hopes went viral, it's that something else didn't beat it out. The September Steak Fry in Des Moines was just filled with ...