Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
Eleanor Clift, the Newsweek contributing editor and McLaughlin Group gadfly, is in Davenport this week. She will no doubt be taking in the grandeur of eastern Iowa’s snowbanks when she’s not taking part in classroom discussions as St. Ambrose University’s Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow.
An interview with the political pundit is below the fold.The Iowa Independent caught up with Clift after a political science classroom discussion for a brief interview.
Iowa Independent: Has the the role of the pundit changed with the advent of the Internet?
Eleanor Clift: The punditocracy is now a pretty crowded place [laughs], especially in this political season, and I think the Internet adds a sense of immediacy to all of the political talk. You have the bloggers on the right and the bloggers on the left contributing.
I think there’s a sense that the Democrats may have an edge in the blogosphere that they were never able to get in the world of talk radio. MoveOn.org is going to be a powerful force in this election, comparable to the role that big labor has played when it was in its heyday. The get-out-the-vote efforts that MoveOn is mobilizing through the Internet and through MySpace and YouTube could really have an impact on turnout and on the Democratic side of the political agenda.
Clift (center) Enjoys the Discussion During Prof. Bill Parsons Political Science Class
Iowa Independent: In Iowa, we’ve never had a woman governor, never elected a congresswoman, never had a woman senator. Do you think that affected how Iowans voted in the caucus?
Eleanor Clift: I think Hillary Clinton may think that that had something to do with the fact that she didn’t do well in this state, but I think if you go back further in Iowa’s history, Carrie Chapman Catt, who was one of the leaders of the suffrage movement, was an early graduate from an Iowa college. That was back in the days when Iowa was the true frontier, so I think the fact that Iowa hasn’t had a woman in any of these positions — it’s just a matter of time and it’s a matter of filling the pipeline and getting more young people interested in politics.
I think Iowa’s bigger problem is that they can’t keep young people in the state. That’s a bigger problem than getting a woman elected.
Iowa Independent: Do caucuses disenfranchise voters or are they consensus-building platforms?
Eleanor Clift: Talking to people here in Iowa who participated in the caucus, they feel sorry for those of us who live in places that don’t have caucuses. They say it was a wonderful time, and it was democracy at its grassroots best. I think the Clinton people might argue that because it’s a limited amount of time and people who can’t get out two hours in an evening that it somehow is discriminatory, but these rules are left up to each individual state.
As we’ve seen throughout this primary process, all the states have different rules. I don’t know that anything is exactly democratic and fair, but the Democrats have also been criticized for making it so “fair” that nobody loses. You win delegates even if you come in second. It’s an imperfect process, but nobody has come up with anything better yet.
Iowa Independent: Some would say that you’ve made a career of serving as the “limp” liberal who serves as cannon fodder for people with real convictions. True or false?
Eleanor Clift: I would never plead guilty to being a limp liberal [laughs]. I think I do pretty well with all those red-blooded right-wingers in the world of television.
Iowa Independent: Is that a problem with television punditry, that you have to play middle of the road or play kind of moderate rather than far-left?
Eleanor Clift: I don’t play either way. I speak what I believe, and obviously I’m not far enough left for some, but that’s their problem, not mine [laughs].
In the classroom, Clift discussed her recent article where she outlined the process that would give Al Gore the nomination in a second ballot at the Democratic convention in Denver:
“… Gore’s name could be introduced. All it would take is a delegate perhaps from Tennessee, his home state, to raise a point of order, and with backing from five other state delegations, Gore’s name could be put in play as a prospective nominee.”
She told the poli sci undergrads that a Gore-Obama ticket would be “unstoppable.”
Clift is a contributing editor at Newsweek magazine and blogs weekly on Newsweek.com’s “Capitol Letter.” In 2003, she published the book Founding Sisters and the Nineteenth Amendment about the women’s suffrage movement.
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