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Developing... Obama campaign chief of staff Jim Messina slams McCain in a meeting with Iowa Democrats. Speaking of McCain’s home state of Arizona, says: “If Senator McCain continues to be the schmuck he’s being, we’re going to play there, you know, and go tell some truth.”

DENVER -- On a night when the wife of the presumptive Democratic nominee for president would take the stage at the Democratic National Convention following an address by the party's most revered elder statesman, it would be hard to imagine how a former congressman from eastern Iowa would even get notice, let alone high marks as one of the most important speeches of the night. Unless, of course, the former congressman was a Republican. So there was Jim Leach, former diplomat, friend of the Bush family and longtime Republican congressman from Iowa City, enjoying the enthusiastic response of thousands of...

Dave Nagle told the Iowa Independent that presumptive Democratic presidential nominee U.S. Sen. Barack Obama is “throwing Iowa under the bus” by supporting a commission to study the Democratic nomination calendar. That commission will be headed by Debbie Dingell of Michigan, one of the fiercest opponents of Iowa’s first in the nation role. “The creation of this commission is a clear sellout to Hillary Clinton,” said Nagle, who chaired the Iowa Democratic Party during the 1984 caucuses and served in Congress from 1986 to 1992. Clinton supporters have been critical of the caucuses, arguing that they are too difficult to...

John McCain has cut Barack Obama’s lead in Iowa in half over the past month but still trails the Democrat 46% to 41%, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of voters in the state. When “leaners” are factored in, Obama leads his Republican opponent 49% to 44%. Last month Obama had a double-digit lead on McCain, 51% to 41%. In June, after Hillary Clinton dropped out of the Democratic presidential race, he led McCain by seven points. McCain had held steady at 38% for two months running, so the three-point uptick in the new survey is good news...

John McCain has cut Barack Obama’s lead in Iowa in half over the past month but still trails the Democrat 46% to 41%, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of voters in the state. When “leaners” are factored in, Obama leads his Republican opponent 49% to 44%. Last month Obama had a double-digit lead on McCain, 51% to 41%. In June, after Hillary Clinton dropped out of the Democratic presidential race, he led McCain by seven points. McCain had held steady at 38% for two months running, so the three-point uptick in the new survey is good news...

Des Moines, Iowa (AP) -- Republican presidential candidate John McCain didn't mince words Friday at the Iowa State Fair, telling corn producers he didn't want to subsidize their ethanol but was eager to help market farm products around the world. "My friends, we will disagree on a specific issue and that's healthy," McCain said as he stood near bales of straw at one of the nation's premier farming showcases. "I believe in renewable fuels. I don't believe in ethanol subsidies, but I believe in renewable fuels." McCain has never been shy about speaking against subsidizing ethanol when he is in...

The Ticket needs to apologize because apparently we missed something -- like the next three months and election day. Sen. Barack Obama walked into a town hall meeting in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, last week. The crowd was enthusiastic, ready to see and cheer him. But, before listening to his usual stump speech, the crowd, perhaps spontaneously, had something to do for their guy, according to the From the Road blog of CBS News' Allison O'Keefe. The nominee-to-be's fans sang "Happy Birthday." On Monday, Obama will turn 47. But the happy crowd did not sing "Happy birthday, Sen. Obama." It confidently...

Harkin: Gas cheaper because of ethanol By Ian Swanson Posted: 07/24/08 11:39 AM [ET] Ethanol is keeping gas prices as much as 40 cents cheaper, according to Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), one of the Senate’s top supporters of corn-based renewable fuels. As a result, the Bush administration should deny Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s (R) request that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cut in half the federal mandate requiring the oil industry to blend 9 million gallons of ethanol into the nation’s gas supply, Harkin said. “Ethanol is keeping gas 24 to 40 cents cheaper than it otherwise would be,” Harkin...

SNIP Mr. HUNTER. So, Mr. Speaker, thanks for letting me take this time. It's always fun to come down and take a big bite out of somebody else's time, and I want to thank the gentleman from Iowa for letting me take some of his minutes here. I really appreciate it. And the gentleman from Iowa, incidentally, is a very wonderful friend and a great colleague and a guy who really has been working this energy issue with great energy and was a wonderful host to those of us who spent our time in Iowa in that Presidential race, including...

DES MOINES -- Republican Congressman Steve King carries a copy of the Constitution with him everywhere he goes. He said it reminds him of the oath he took when first elected in 2002 to Congress. King stressed at Saturday's GOP state convention that Constitution could come under fire if Sen. Barack Obama is elected in November. "If we don't exercise our rights, we will lose them," said King, noting he has defended the Constitution even when it wasn't popular, cheap or easy. "Even when we have a Constitution (we think) is a guarantee that doesn't mean it is a guarantee...

As Senator Barack Obama courted voters in Iowa last December, Representative Keith Ellison, the country’s first Muslim congressman, stepped forward eagerly to help. Mr. Ellison ...volunteered to speak on Mr. Obama’s behalf at a mosque in Cedar Rapids, one of the nation’s oldest Muslim enclaves. But before the rally could take place, aides to Mr. Obama asked Mr. Ellison to cancel the trip because it might stir controversy. Another aide appeared at Mr. Ellison’s Washington office to explain. “I will never forget the quote,” Mr. Ellison said, leaning forward in his chair as he recalled the aide’s words. “He said,...

DES MOINES — On a recent evening here, Greg Tew, 28, considered the question: What is it like to work in a state that is creating more jobs than workers? He was sitting in the lobby of a new hotel in downtown Des Moines, part of an extensive redevelopment investment to attract workers to Iowa. “It is noticeable,” Mr. Tew, a computer programmer at EMC Insurance Companies, said of the jobs surplus. “You’re a hot commodity. Salaries go up just because companies are fighting to retain the talent they have.”

Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa is an embarrassment, both to the Senate and to the citizens of his home state of Iowa. It is Harkin that you can see cheering on Howard Dean has he makes his famous "I Have a Scream" speech in 2004, and Harkin is the guy shouting "DO IT FOR PAUL!" as he turned a memorial service into a crass political rally when he exhorted the thousands of mourners to elect Democrats because that's what the recently dead Senator Paul Wellstone supposed would have wanted. Harkin is also known for lies about his own military experience,...

DES MOINES, Iowa - Barack Obama shied away from triumphantly proclaiming total victory over Hillary Rodham Clinton last night, but he certainly annihilated the central reason she gives for staying in the race. The Clinton team claims that Sen. Obama is nothing more than a black candidate with a sidecar of liberal academics. This is why, the Clintons argue, white Democrats in working-class and rural states simply can't pull the lever for this black guy with a foreign-sounding name. And, the Clinton's implied reasoning goes, since she appeals so much to these racist white Democrats that are the "backbone" of...

Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin is catching grief for suggesting John McCain’s family history of military service makes the presumptive Republican presidential nominee unfit to be commander-in-chief. Harkin, who has a history of embellishing his own military record, told Iowa reporters last week that McCain’s background as the son and grandson of Navy admirals creates a “dangerous” situation because he can only view the world through the prism of the military. “He has a hard time thinking beyond that,” Harkin said, according to The Des Moines Register. “I think he’s trapped in that. Everything is looked at from his life experiences,...

Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin is catching grief for suggesting John McCain’s family history of military service makes the presumptive Republican presidential nominee unfit to be commander-in-chief. Harkin, who has a history of embellishing his own military record, told Iowa reporters last week that McCain’s background as the son and grandson of Navy admirals creates a “dangerous” situation because he can only view the world through the prism of the military. “He has a hard time thinking beyond that,” Harkin said, according to The Des Moines Register. “I think he’s trapped in that. Everything is looked at from his life experiences,...

In Iowa, the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds Barack Obama leading John McCain 44% to 42%. This is the third consecutive poll to find the candidates very close in the state that gave Obama his first victory on the way to the Democratic Presidential Nomination. A month ago, it was Obama by four. In February, it was Obama by three. In all three polls, Obama’s support has stayed in a narrow range from 44% to 46% while McCain has stayed at 41% or 42%/.

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin said Friday no candidate should be forced from the presidential race as pressure has built inside the Democratic Party for Hillary Clinton to drop out. Harkin said he will not throw his endorsement behind either Clinton or Barack Obama before all of the Democratic primary contests are completed on June 3. Harkin is the highest profile Democrat in Iowa who has yet to back either candidate. He said voters should have a right to cast their votes before he and other superdelegates like him make their choice. "We set up rules, and I believe that as...

In Iowa, the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds Barack Obama leading John McCain 44% to 42%. This is the third consecutive poll to find the candidates very close in the state that gave Obama his first victory on the way to the Democratic Presidential Nomination. A month ago , it was Obama by four. In February , it was Obama by three. In all three polls, Obama's support has stayed in a narrow range from 44% to 46% while McCain has stayed at 41% or 42%.

McCain says he would veto farm bill Published: May 2, 2008 at 9:11 PM DES MOINES, Iowa, May 2 (UPI) -- Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told an audience of Iowans that if he were president, he would veto a farm subsidy bill now making its way through Congress. "I do not support it. I would veto it," McCain told the audience of about 250 people in Des Moines Thursday. "I would do that because I believe that these subsidies, the subsidies are unnecessary." The Republican Party's presumptive presidential nominee later told The Des Moines Register in an interview, "At this...

Cleanup in Aisle 5... Bill Clinton wanders off, Hillary is p***ed

Where did the Hillary Clinton campaign first go wrong? How did she go from inevitable to in trouble? I think it all began with the very first contest: Iowa. Iowa is where Clinton needed to strangle the Barack Obama campaign in its crib. She needed to do him in at the very beginning, while her inevitability argument still had credibility. True, some in the Clinton campaign were worried about Iowa. Mike Henry, her deputy campaign manager, wrote a 1,500-word internal memo saying Clinton should skip the state entirely and spend her time and money elsewhere. Bill Clinton had not run...

(CNN) – In a campaign season growing more heated by the day, one word keeps making an appearance: chill. This morning, Sen. Tom Harkin — an undeclared superdelegate — became the latest politician to call for a cooldown, telling reporters on a conference call reported by Radio Iowa that former President Bill Clinton needs to “chill out.” A local journalist asked about a report of an alleged Clinton “meltdown” during a private meeting with California superdelegates, and asked whether he was doing his wife Hillary Clinton's campaign more harm than good. "I'm not going to judge that," responded Harkin. "I...

Gordon Fischer, the former director of the Iowa Democratic Party and co-chair for Sen. Barack Obama's efforts in the Hawkeye State, is still very much involved in making sure Obama gets delegates as the caucus process continues. He's also quite fired up about former President Bill Clinton's comments in front of a North Carolina VFW Hall, which the Obama campaign took to be an impugning of Obama's patriotism. In his blog, Fischer writes: "B. Clinton questions Obama's patriotism. In repsonse (sic), an Obama aide compared B. Clinton to Joe McCarthy. This is patently unfair. To McCarthy. "When Joe McCarthy questioned...

DES MOINES, Iowa - Democrat Barack Obama expanded his fragile lead in delegates over rival Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday, picking up at least seven delegates as Iowa activists took the next step in picking delegates to the national convention. Half the 14 delegates allocated to John Edwards on the basis of caucus night projections switched Saturday and Obama got most, if not all, of them. Iowa Democratic Party officials said that with more than 86 percent of the delegates picked, Obama claimed 52 percent of the delegates elected at county conventions on Saturday, compared to 32 percent for Clinton....

A spokeswoman for Sen. John McCain today condemned comments by Iowa Rep. Steve King (R), who on Friday said terrorists would be "dancing in the streets" if Barack Obama is elected president. "The Senator rejects the type of politics that degrades our civics and this campaign will be about the future of our country," Communications Director Jill Hazelbaker said. "[Sen.] McCain could not be clearer on how he views these types of comments and obviously that view extends to Congressman King's statement." King, a three-term Republican, made the remarks to a radio station Friday as he announced his bid for...

Republican Congressman Steve King says he stands by his assessment that terrorists will celebrate if Democratic candidate Barack Obama is elected president. "What is discouraging to me is to hear all the allegations that came out and all the name-calling that came my way because I pointed out something that has to do with the culture of the Middle East and how it will be viewed and how a declaration for defeat as a presidential candidate will be viewed by our enemies," King said during a telephone interview from Washington, D.C. "They'll see it as victory and that's really the...

In Iowa, the site of Barack Obama’s first victory in 2008, the Democratic Presidential hopeful leads John McCain by just three percentage points in an early look at a possible general election match-up. It’s Obama 44% McCain 41%. While Obama has a very modest edge over McCain, the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of the race also found McCain with a ten-point advantage over Hillary Clinton, 47% to 37%. These results mirror what has been seen in many other states polled recently by Rasmussen Reports--when matched against McCain, Obama typically outperforms Clinton. Nationally, Obama leads McCain and McCain leads Clinton....

Campaign workers for Hillary Clinton left such a mess when they cleared out of their headquarters in Clinton, Iowa — that the building manager says he will never rent office space to a political candidate again. The Quad-City Times reports the campaign rented six rooms from last summer until after the Iowa caucuses early this month. Building manager Duane Jones says when the staff left — he found garbage, spoiled food, holes drilled in the walls for phone lines without permission, and stains on the carpets. He also says a smoke alarm was missing — and noticed that windows were...

I don't see a thread for Hillarys speech just viewed on C-Span, so I'm starting one. I wasn't able to stomach more than five minutes at a time. It was the worst thing I have ever seen on television, and in this day and time, thats saying something. Is there anybody who watched more than five minutes? Please report! It was like a fingernail scratching a blackboard, two inches from my ear. Absolutely horrible. Applause was tepid, she had to bait them to applaud by pausing. If she were in a court, the opposition would object to leading the witness....

Hillary Clinton Thursday hurled the dirtiest four-letter Democratic epithet to describe arch-rivals Barack Obama and John Edwards: Bush....She said choosing a candidate simply because they are more likable - a thinly veiled reference to Obama and Edwards - would repeat the 2000 mistake of electing George W. Bush, a then-Texas governor with a regular guy reputation and little foreign policy chops. ...In New Hampshire, Obama did not directly respond to Clinton's comments, but pointed out she backed Bush with a vote to authorize the Iraq invasion while he consistently opposed the war.

Mike Huckabee has pulled a neat trick.His appeal so far has been limited exclusively to evangelicals, yet the press has taken him seriously as a new populist force in the Republican Party who could at any moment "break out" to appeal to_lower-income voters. Who knew a candidate of Christian identity politics would be afforded such respect? But Huckabee has managed it, which is one reason why he should open a strategic-communications firm the day after he leaves the presidential race. The ability to gull analysts into making so much from so little is a rare and potentially lucrative talent. Huckabee...

WASHINGTON -- The Republican presidential race is so unsettled that some party officials are openly talking of a scenario that seemed almost unthinkable until now: the first contested GOP convention in 60 years. Even if Republicans choose a nominee before they convene in Minneapolis-St. Paul on Sept. 1, there's a good possibility he will emerge weeks or even months after the Democratic nominee is chosen, giving Democrats an advantage in fundraising, organizing and campaigning. Congressional Republicans particularly wanted an early nominee to draw voters' attention from President Bush, whose low approval ratings could hurt the entire party in the fall....

Barack Obama is the tipping-point man, the meme of the moment, the miracle cure for that chronic American malady: feelin' bad about things. Obama may be "all that," as they say, but let's be clear: Americans are in thrall not with Obama, but with the idea of Obama. His supporters have endowed him with near-mystical powers, not unlike the old Hollywood stereotype of the wise and mystical black person who materializes as a deus ex machina to save the white protagonist. Think Bagger Vance. As one who swooned early over Obama -- the handsome bi-man of unity -- and wrote...

Pull The Plug On Iowa and New Hampshire December 20, 2007 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It gets earlier and earlier, every election cycle. This time around, Iowa voters will cast the first ballots in the presidential contest of 2008, on Jan. 3, before many Americans have even recovered from their New Year's hangovers. With the caucuses coming so soon after the holidays, Iowa's hogging the media spotlight. Republican and Democratic candidates are crisscrossing the state, squeezing in four or five events a day. Surrogates, from Hollywood stars to a former president, show up where candidates cannot. And pollsters track the daily farts and...

Archbishop Charles Chaput  Other Articles by Archbishop Charles ChaputPrinter Friendly Version   News from Iowa: The Media Simply Don't 'Get' Religion January 12, 2008 "Consider the major poll of those who attended the Iowa caucuses; it was done at the behest of the four major television networks plus CNN and the AP. Republicans were asked two questions: whether it mattered that the candidate shared his or her religious beliefs and whether the voter would describe himself or herself as a ‘born-again or evangelical Christian.' Democrats were asked - well, they were not asked anything about their religious beliefs or...

You know the political world is in turmoil when the best conservative journalist on the scene, Robert Novak, blows two big predictions in a row. Novak said Mitt Romney would win the Iowa Caucuses (Romney lost by nine points to Mike Huckabee) and that Barack Obama would beat Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire in a “blow-out” (Hillary won by a couple points).... ...My column about Rush Limbaugh losing influence, by virtue of the fact that Huckabee overcame Limbaugh’s strident attacks and won Iowa anyway, generated some interesting comments. Here’s one from an engineer in Cincinnati that drew my serious attention...

Cap Fendig, a Republican candidate for president in 2008, was in Muscatine on Thursday. “We’re in the area and we’ll be back,” Fendig, a Georgia County commissioner, said of his and his wife Catherine’s travels in Iowa. During a brief visit to the Muscatine Journal Thursday, Fendig said he is on a “meet and greet” tour of Iowa this month and in December. According to his Web site, he began Thursday in Burlington before visiting Muscatine and ending the day in Davenport, where he will also spend today. Fendig is the owner of a small business and a 30-year U.S....

RNC head denies party's responsibility to electorate for primary election process Chairman Mike Duncan responds to Keyes campaign's allegations of 'Iowa deception' January 9, 2008 WASHINGTON, D.C. — Monday, Stephen Stone, CEO of Alan Keyes for President, met with Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan to discuss "evidence of deception by the Iowa Republican Party with regard to the recent caucuses." Stone delivered a letter that described the campaign's allegations against Iowa GOP officials. According to Stone, the state party's behavior in the caucuses "disenfranchises voters" and appears to have "violated the election laws." Among the facts outlined by Stone:...

RUSH: Now, I want to remind all my Republican friends that there are many states after Iowa and New Hampshire where the Republican populations are far more indicative of the conservative base, and to get caught up in what happened in Iowa, to get caught up in what's going to happen in New Hampshire as though they're the only two states that matter and that they're going to determine the fallout on both parties is a little bit over the top.

Mitt Romney is facing an unexpected challenge in Iowa from rival Mike Huckabee, who has enjoyed a groundswell of support from religious voters, particularly evangelical Christians wary of the clean-cut former Massachusetts governor because of his Mormon religion. The common worry among evangelicals is that if Romney were to capture the White House, his presidency would give legitimacy to a religion they believe is a cult. Since the LDS church places heavy emphasis on proselytizing -- there are 53,000 LDS missionaries worldwide -- many mainstream Christians are afraid that Mormon recruiting efforts would increase and that LDS membership rolls would...

Monday, Stephen Stone, CEO of Alan Keyes for President, met with Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan to discuss "evidence of deception by the Iowa Republican Party with regard to the recent caucuses." Stone delivered a letter that described the campaign's allegations against Iowa GOP officials. According to Stone, the state party's behavior in the caucuses "disenfranchises voters" and appears to have "violated the election laws." Among the facts outlined by Stone: 1. State party leaders gave precinct chairs a "suggested ballot" of presidential candidates that was used to guide caucus-goers in the nominating and voting process, and Alan Keyes'...

Twenty million, 30 million, 40 million . . . pretty soon, Mitt Romney is going to be talking about real money here. “Washington is broken,” Mitt said last night. Unfortunately, so is his campaign. Ann Romney stood behind him, wearing black, which seemed appropriate for the occasion. According to his staff, Mitt’s in it for the “long haul,” although that all depends on what the definition of the word “long” is. This morning, how’d you like to be a Romney fund raiser? Or a Romney worker in Michigan? Or a Romney anything? On the Internet message boards last night, they...

1. We expect promises of change from Democratic candidates, but it's disappointing to watch certain Republican candidates yield to that superficially seductive sound bite, too. It's like the global-warming freight train, which few politicians have displayed the guts and character not to board. 2. It's disappointing to watch candidates from both parties accept the premise that criticizing your opponents' records and pointing out their inconsistencies and lies is engaging in dirty politics. It is not dirty but obligatory to draw distinctions between you and your opponents. Dirty politics is distorting one's record or spreading lies about a candidate. Why do...

*** It looks like Iowans pegged Sen. Hillary "I've worked 35 years for women and children" Clinton as a phony baloney Ossining *** So Clinton thinks that Iowa was a great night for Democrats. If Clinton really thinks this, then she was inhaling, even if her husband wasn't. Belleville *** Clinton took the long-overdue, well-deserved slap in the face that she has had coming to her. The secret is out, and Clinton has been exposed for what she really is. Jackson Heights *** Watch how soon the Clinton cabal's filthy McNasties get working on Obama and Edwards. The politics of...

The Iowa caucus results are in, and about the only solid conclusion that can be drawn from them is what Minnesotans like me have known and joked about for years: Iowans are morons. I know that sounds rough, but what else can you say about a state that selects one candidate backed and bankrolled by Oprah Winfrey and another simply because he purportedly waves Jesus in everyone's face, all the better to hide his awful record? And when the alternative is to realize that this is precisely how far our political discourse has fallen – that substance and maturity and...

Hillary Clinton declared her crushing defeat during the Iowa caucus as a "great night for Democrats." She followed this up by declaring that the high turnout of Dems in the Hawkeye state was a clear sign that liberals would take the White House next November. This was, of course, a lie. It wasn’t one that was quite as big as her husband trying to pass off an intimate sexual encounter with an intern as nothing more then a casual mentoring session to help an overweight young lady with her self esteem issues, but it was up there. Like everything else...

The Dirty Trick Season by Jed Babbin (more by this author) Posted 01/07/2008 ET What happened to Fred Thompson on the day of the Iowa caucus was a political dirty trick worthy of the great tricksters of the Nixon era. The rumor that Thompson would drop out after Iowa and endorse John McCain, reported by The Politico -- picked up quickly in so many print and broadcast media -- was untrue as I wrote last week. Political rumors flood our eyes, ears and e-mails every day. What qualified this as a dirty trick were the falsity and the timing. Rumored...

Confronted by Preacher Huckabee standing astride the Iowa caucus smirking, "Are you feelin' Hucky, punk?" many of my conservative pals are inclined to respond, "Shoot me now." But, if that seems a little dramatic, let's try and rustle up an alternative. In response to the evangelical tide from the west, New Hampshire primary voters have figured, "Any old crusty, cranky, craggy coot in a storm," and re-embraced John McCain. After all, Granite State conservatism is not known for its religious fervor: it prefers small government, low taxes, minimal regulation, the freedom to be left alone by the state. So they're...

The results of last Thursday's Iowa caucus not only produced a winner in Mike Huckabee; they solidified the notion former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has not made any inroads in his courtship with Christian conservatives. His dismal sixth place showing in the Hawkeye State has many political analysts uncertain as to whether Mr. Giuliani, even if he comes back and wins the Republican nomination, can unite the party. According to NBC exit polling data, 60 percent of those Republicans voting in the Iowa caucus described themselves as born-again Christians, and out of that 60 percent only 2 percent...