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.
[Commentary] John Edwards got some decent press yesterday in the paper of record. The former North Carolina Senator's Iowa chances were examined by the New York Times in a story titled "A Candidate Tends His Field of Dreams." The story is noticeable for its clear-eyed assessment as well as the absence of some damaging Edwards memes, which suggests Edwards has regained control of his campaign narrative at a much needed point in the race for the Iowa caucuses.
Nowhere are the hypocrisy-laden charges that invariably come with today's Edwards coverage. Those charges being the three H's–haircut, house and hedgefund–which refer to Edwards' paying $400 for a haircut, the gigantic house he built for his family and the fact that he has worked for a hedge fund, all while campaigning on an anti-poverty platform.
Why does most coverage of Edwards, including that of his recent poverty tour, include critiques of Edwards' commitment to the issue? Well, for one thing, as Marc Ambinder, among others, has noted, "fairly or unfairly, a healthy chunk of the national political press corps doesn't like John Edwards." The New York Times, in particular, has been criticized in the blogosphere for promoting these anti-Edwards story lines.
That this latest story does not include any of those anti-Edwards memes is a good sign for the Edwards campaign, especially because they have seeped into the state's consciousness. Edwards had certainly lost control of his own narrative, which can be fatal for a campaign; perhaps this story is a sign that he's regaining it.
But the story is not all roses for Edwards. The Times notes that New York Sen. Hillary Clinton and Ilinois Sen. Barack Obama do not intend to cede the state by any means. They are drawing huge crowds, while also outspending him in the state and building significant organizations on the ground.
Edwards is still the favorite son of the Hawkeye state and leads in most polls, but Clinton and Obama are hot on his heels. If he does lose the Iowa caucuses next year, it's almost certain that his candidacy would go the way of Shoeless Joe Jackson and fade into the cornfields.
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