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.
Thirty minutes after she was initially supposed to arrive at the Iowa State Fair for a soapbox appearance, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn) kept her message to supporters — and would-be hecklers — short and sweet.
“With your help tomorrow at Ames, Iowa, we’re going to make (President) Barack Obama a one-term president,” she declared, amid cheers. “This is where Barack Obama got his start, and this is where he’s going to come to his end — in Iowa. Did you get the change and the hope you believed in?”
Candidates are allowed 30 minutes on the Des Moines Register soapbox, and may take questions from the audience if they so prefer. But Bachmann, wearing cocktail dress attire and who stuck to her well-used phrases of making Obama a “one-term president” and repealing his healthcare reform legislation — called “ObamaCare” by conservatives — spent less than three minutes on stage.
She ended the appearance by encouraging the crowd to attend Saturday’s Ames Straw Poll, and signed a few autographs for supporters sitting in the front.
“Tomorrow is the day we make the down payment on taking the country back,” she said.
Bachmann drew one of the largest crowds of the 2012er’s who have made soapbox appearances. While supporters waited in the sun for her to arrive at the fair, they weren’t the only ones. Democrats, some with Obama 2012 signs, were waiting, too. The Congresswoman did not encounter heckling as former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney did, though Obama supporters could heard yelling “You’re not from Iowa!” along with cheers and applause from her supporters as she exited.
Bachmann, who has been reported by the Washington Post as likely to take the Straw Poll’s top spot with odds of 3-1, is expected to deliver remarks at the Straw Poll at 2:20 p.m., according to Iowa GOP officials.
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