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.
“I want to make it very clear that I am pro-life, and I’m not going to apologize to anybody for being pro-life,” said Mitt Romney at a campaign stop in Muscatine on Fathers’ Day. Drawing comparisons to Reagan, a familiar motif in Romney’s presidential campaign bid, Romney punctuated his stance with: “And I think I’m in good company with Ronald Reagan.”
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney brought his “Ask Mitt Anything” tour to the Rendezvous in Muscatine. Before Romney took the stage, the event had a slice-of-Americana feel to it, literally. Free slices of pie were served to crowd members as they filled the room. A number of onlookers hadn’t committed to any of the presidential candidates but were leaning toward Romney. “I’m interested in hearing about Romney’s economic vision and have been impressed with Romney’s business accomplishments,” said Andrew Stamler of Muscatine. “He’s a turnaround artist.”Romney has been billed as turnaround artist by his campaign aids. This label stems from his track record of turning around the Olympics, which is documented in his book, “Turnaround.” Furthermore, Romney’s turnaround resume touts his history in the business sector, where he worked as a consultant with the task of turning around failing companies. Romney, as governor of Massachusetts, also takes credit for turning around the $3 billion budget deficit he inherited when he stepped into office.
In his presidential bid for the Republican nominee, Romney has been touting himself as the man who can turn around the GOP and win back the presidency. But in his efforts to win over social conservatives, Romney’s past stances while running for senate against Sen. Ted Kennedy in 1992 and his gubernatorial bid in 2002 have dogged him on the campaign trail thus far.
Romney’s stance on abortion has also come under fire by one of his main rivals, Sen. John McCain, whose “Straight Talking Express” recently painted Romney as a “flip-flopper.” On May 25, McCain’s campaign issued a press release, “Mitt vs. Fact: Say. Do. Anything,” which accuses Romney of shifting his stance on abortion.
Last night, the flip-flop issue reared its head three questions into the “Ask Mitt Anything” Q-and-A portion of the event. A woman asked Mitt: “I’m a little bit concerned about how much emphasis and energy the media has been putting on you flip-flopping on abortion. So what I want to know is what your beliefs about abortion are and where you stand on stem cell research.”
“It’s amazing, if you go from being pro-life to being pro-choice, the mainstream media doesn’t have anything to say but `congratulations,’ ” said Romney. “But if you do what Ronald Reagan did or George Herbert Walker Bush or Henry Hyde or I did, then there’s a lot of interest.”
Romney justified his shift of political views about abortion by equating the shift to his presidential predecessors: “And the answer is, just like Ronald Reagan, George Herbert Walker Bush, and Henry Hyde, I became pro-life. I’ve always been pro-life, personally.” Romney elaborated on his moment of epiphany, which happened while, as governor of Massachusetts, he was studying the issue of embryo cloning as governor: “The rhetoric became reality when I had to make a decision that affected life. Embryonic cloning is just wrong. We’ve gone too far.”
Abortion was not the only issue McCain’s campaign took issue with last week regarding Romney’s flip-flopping. McCain, a chief supporter of the recent immigration bill, took Romney’s criticism of the bill as a personal attack. Danny Diaz, a spokesman for McCain, sent the following e-mail to the Boston Globe on Sunday:
“This week alone, Mitt Romney is on both sides of campaign finance reform, gay marriage, abortion, pardons, stem cell research, and immigration. The former Massachusetts governor seems incapable of taking principled stands, and will say and do anything in his quest for the nomination.”
Despite recent criticisms, Romney brought his apple-pie optimism to Muscatine in an attempt to win voters over. Romney managed to slip in his own subtle attacks aimed at his campaign rivals by vowing that he’s committed to Iowa and the entire campaign process: “I agree with Sen. Grassley that Sen. McCain and Mayor Giuliani are making a mistake by not participating in the Ames Straw Poll. It’s part of the process in choosing the nominee.”
Using his experiences in the business sector, Romney began pitching his turnaround artistry to the audience by drawing comparisons between the private and public sector. “In the private sector, things get better and better, or you go out of business. If you don’t make it better, somebody else will and you’ll be out of business.” In the world of politics, Romney emphasized that we need to move forward, especially in a global world.
Romney, paradoxically, made a call for a return to the past as a means of moving forward, drawing on the values reminiscent of a stereotypical family of the 1950s. “The most important work that goes on in America today is the work that goes on within the four walls of the American home,” said Romney, who began sounding like the father, Jim Anderson, on the 1950′s TV show “Father Knows Best.”: “It’s a great honor to be called dad, or father.” And like Jim, Romney imparted his fatherly wisdom: “We need to, once again, in this country get our kids to understand that you get your education, then you fall in love, then you have babies.” However, Romney offered no concrete plans on how he would implement or how his policies would support these values.
Politically, Romney wants to return to the ’80s world of a Reagan brand of politics to serve as an umbrella for these family values. Like Reagan, Romney says we need to build our military by adding an additional 100,000 troops and expanding the military budget by .2 percent of the overall GDP. Romney emphasized building a strong military and restoring the market on the Cold War fears of the `80s exacerbated under President Reagan’s watch. “We need to let the world know we have the strongest military and the club to back it up.”
With less than seven months remaining before the Iowa Caucuses, rest assured, Romney’s bid will continue to be dogged by flip-flop allegations. The question is whether or not he can turn these allegations around and sell his optimistic vision of America’s future to Iowa voters.
After the event, when asked if his impression of Romney had changed, Andrew Stamler nodded his head yes and said, “I’m leaning even more towards Romney.” Looks like Romney may have moved one step closer to turning around at least one Iowa voter.
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