Iowa Caucus Guy’s Presidential Election Blog

While the Democratic and Republican nominations ended with a whimper, and not a bang, the next two biggest parties look to name a nominee. The Green Party seems to be moving forward with naming Howie Hawkins as their nominee.  He was with the party from the first, essentially one of the founders of the party. I tried to get some of the Green Party candidates to contribute something to the blog, but was met with silence all around.  Even the briefest of looks at the Green nomination race, one can tell there was some resentment fro the other leading candidates towards Hawkins.  Then, the most recent news was that Jesse Ventura might be interested in being the nominee.  It's uncertain if we have seen the last of this race. The Libertarian Party will be naming their nominee very soon. This was a race I talked about a lot on the blog, and consider a very important one, since the Party had run Gary Johnson twice in a row, and this race will be determining their next...

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 ...

Life has been strange, of late, but I always intended to write at least three (and heck, maybe four) posts covering the Iowa Libertarian Party Presidential Forum. It was very exciting to have something like this in my backyard, and I feel obliged to write about it, since I didn't see anything about it in the Des Moines paper (Not to worry, they barely cover the Democratic and Republican races either, these days). The Libertarian Party, of note, has established itself as America's third party- in 2016, appearing on the ballot in all 50 states, gaining over 3% of the vote, and receiving in the neighborhood of Four-and-a-half million votes. There has always been a strong contingent for a Third Party.  In my lifetime, the Reform Party made a strong impact, but seemed to be tied to the personality of Ross Perot.  The Green Party under Ralph Nader similarly was able to get the nation's attention, but has become something of a boutique party for Jill Stein, and now, Howie Ha...

The Libertarian Party of Iowa Presidential Forum may have been the most fun I have ever had in politics.  The Gazette's Adam Sullivan was a fantastic moderator. I will get to that at some point, but today, I want to focus on my big three takeaways. First, I was amazed at the fraternity and camaraderie that I observed before and after the debate. Contrast this to the Democrats who have slowly aligned behind Joe Biden. If you are reading my log, you likely watched at least part of one of the Democratic debates this cycle.  I mean, there were like, a dozen of them. Can you picture any three of the candidates onstage having a cordial conversation afterwards?  Could you imagine Bernie and Elizabeth laughing together?  Did you feel the tension when Tulsi Gabbard, Mike Bloomberg, and even Tom Steyer were on stage?  Would John Delaney be welcome in a crowd? That's all speculation, of course.  The Dem Crowd of 25 may have been 'thick as thieves' off camera...

The 2020 Primary Season in Iowa ended not for me with the February Caucus but with the Iowa Libertarian Party Convention on February 29. I went as a non-Party attendee with friends in the Party and real interest to see a Presidential debate in my backyard.  I hope to share some of my thoughts over the  next few days, with today's focus on the candidates themselves. There is no clear frontman for the 2020 Nomination like Gary Johnson was in 2012 and 2016.  Indeed, though all share the same principles, the candidates sometimes come from different directions themselves. The current Libertarian Presidential field is quite large with the Party recognizing 19 candidates under their set of criteria, and there are easily a dozen more candidates with what can be considered serious campaigns. With Libertarian party conventions in every state seemingly every weekend, it is likely a costly proposition to try to attend them all.  It also makes debates unwieldy (for exampl...

This series is about combining my love for politics with my love for music. We may not fully realize it, but we are in the midst of big changes. While the Republican primary seems uneventful, we know that at some point, Donald Trump will cease to be  the party's nominee (either due to the 22nd Amendment or his fast food diet).  This will leave a huge hole for someone to try and pick up and fill.  With Reagan, it took a decade to find anyone even close to living up to that personality.  Sorry, Donald Jr,  I'm not quite convinced. The Democrats initial show of unity has given way to infighting and paranoia.  We can only guess at who the nominee will be and what the after-effects will be. The Libertarian Party is also at an interesting crossroads, which could benefit from some of the fallout from what happens in the other two parties.  The result is a wide list of candidates from across a political spectrum, with varying ideas and experien...

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...

If you have been following my blog, you know about my project to ask Presidential candidates what kind of music they like.  It goes towards a further conversation about communication, and I have been also able to use it to highlight candidates people might be interested in. I reached out to Keenan Wallace Dunham after I saw some positive buzz about him on social media.  Then, his name kept popping up.  He is one of the major candidates listed on the Torch of Liberty's 2020 Libertarian Party poll.  Dunham is one of 13 candidates that will appear on the California Libertarian primary. and one of 10 on the New Hampshire Libertarian Presidential Preference Primary. Checking out his twitter, I notice he mentions a couple of issues where there should be a big audience, but the Dems and GOP don't seem to be consistent on- privacy issues (Dunham would pardon Assange and Manning) ending war, and applying term limits. I asked Keenan to share a bit about his campaign, and...

Awhile back, I wrote about an October news story in Florida covered by the Free Thought Project, about a High Schooler who had gotten in trouble for handing out flyers and wearing "Taxation is Theft" gear. The IowaCaucusGuy blog was contacted by the Behrman 2020 campaign to share some of Dan's thoughts.  As this blog is set by the tenets of interesting election-related content and having constructive dialogue, we have decided to share that letter here - Iowa Caucus Guy An Open Letter to Schools by Dan "Taxation is Theft" Behrman Dear Public Schools of America, I am running a presidential campaign, focused on freedom from oppression and tyranny. I am promoting the ideas of freedom on which this country was founded. Many young people are reaching out to my campaign and asking if they can help. They are young adults, often 15 to 18 who want to learn more about politics and freedom. They want to be free. They are screaming it, fighting for it - and yet...

In my last post, I talked about my #VoteYerMusic project. I have been lucky to have heard from many Libertarian Presidential candidates- Dan Taxation is Theft Behrman, Ken Armstrong, and Max Abramson, as well as former candidate,  Democrat,  Joe Sestak. Today, we feature another Libertarian, Sam Robb. In an April posting on  Pittsburgh News Wire , Robb, a former naval officer and software developer for several Pittsburgh-area start-up companies said " “My intent is to seek the Libertarian Party nomination for President in 2020. We have two major parties that each want to increase government control. Both consider personal liberty a secondary issue – if they consider it at all. In contrast, The Libertarian Party embodies the freedom-loving, independent spirit of our Founders. If we are to succeed as a nation, we must once again embrace these core ideas of freedom and liberty.” Robb participated in the Olean, NY Debate in November and is starting to make inroads towar...