‘Commentary’

There has been a lot of chatter recently about which potential Republican presidential candidates might be wise to skip the 2012 Iowa Caucuses.

Former Gov. Terry Branstad is building a statewide organization to run for Iowa governor again, even if he won’t admit it for personal, professional, or political reasons.
Two developments today warrant some explication:

As expected, political columnists and Republican leaders are taking shots at Gov. Chet Culver today for the 10 percent, across-the-board budget cut he ordered yesterday.
But for all the bellyaching, it’s important to remember that the political implications of slashing state spending aren’t really so bad.

Iowa Republicans outlined a fairly modest health insurance reform plan at a press conference today.
Briefly, here are the high points: They would create some sort of online hub of information for consumers to find information about insurance plans, they would prevent insurance companies from dropping coverage due to preexisting conditions if a customer switches plans [...]

Though President Barack Obama’s speech to schoolchildren today would have likely generated some controversy no matter when it had been scheduled, the White House seemed to pick a particularly bad day for it, at least for Iowans.
As Obama delivered his live address today, hundreds of school board members and candidates were trying to win elections [...]

Democrats and Republicans in the state capitol have drawn a line in the sand this summer over whether Gov. Chet Culver should call a special session of the legislature to balance Iowa’s budget, and the debate shows no signs of quieting down.

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, who has emerged as the key Republican in the senate on health care reform because of his position as Ranking Member of the Finance Committee, published an op-ed today that enumerates his objections to including a government-run insurance option in broader health care reform efforts.  But nestled in the brief column [...]

Though former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, M.D., still seems to think and act like a policy wonk, the immediate past chair of the Democratic National Committee came to Des Moines yesterday as an outsider to the policy-making process.  But that didn’t prevent last night’s forum on health care reform from feeling like a campaign stop.

Despite some efforts to cast the long nights at the capitol this weekend as a sneaky way for Democratic leaders to push through their agenda, no major policy surprises emerged from the waning hours of the 2009 legislative session.

If you are wondering why the latest sex offender bill passed the Iowa Senate 49-0 last night, here’s a guess: it is dangerous to be on the losing side of anything related to sex offenders.
There are few images more effective in a campaign mailer than a photo of a sketchy guy’s shadow superimposed on a [...]