Former Sen. John Edwards suspended his presidential campaign Wednesday afternoon after disappointing showings in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina.
I wrote previously that Edwards really drove much of the debate during the 2008 Democratic primary. He was the first candidate to release a universal health care plan, the first to really push hard [...]

My home state of Florida is holding its presidential primary tomorrow in violation of both the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee rules. The rule-breaking date was imposed on the state by its Republican state legislature and governor, and those elected officials did not make their decision until after it was absolutely certain [...]

I’m going to editorialize for a moment. I know this is a personal blog, and I should feel comfortable doing it without any pretext, but this is a touchy subject. Here, I attempt to explain why I think it is OK for a Democratic presidential candidate to criticize former president Bill Clinton. [...]

The emerging conventional wisdom seems to be that Sen. Barack Obama has made a huge mistake by engaging former President Bill Clinton on some of Clinton’s attacks against him. Clinton was, after all, a fairly popular Democratic president. He served two terms. He has a legacy. And I’ve heard of polls [...]

Kudos to Ann Seltzer, pollster for the Des Moines Register, for releasing numbers that confounded almost every bit of conventional wisdom I had ever heard before this week and getting it right. I do not envy her for having to make the decision to release that poll, knowing that her reputation and that of [...]

The recuperation period has begun. Check out Iowa Caucus coverage at Iowa Indy to get your fix. This blog will be where I cover national politics (including the continuing primaries on both sides) now that it is no longer Iowa-centric.
Perhaps the most important news to come out of last night’s caucuses for those [...]

Writing for the Huffington Post, Bev Davis breaks up the neighborhoods of Des Moines and predicts which candidates they will support.
The surprising prediction was for the Southside:
Obama takes it. Edwards comes in second. Hillary Clinton rides in third, unless Biden isn’t viable and then his supporters will actually decide the final outcome.
Mostly middle-class and white, [...]

This blog has been neglected for its far busier cousin, Iowa Independent, where I have been spending most of my time.
But not to fear, I will be posting ideas as they come into my head to this blog over the coming days. And once the caucuses are over, I’ll continue writing about the presidential [...]

On the eve of former President Bill Clinton’s visits to three Iowa colleges, Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign remains unsure of whether the roughly 40% of Iowa college students who come from out of state should participate in the January 3 caucuses.
One student at Grinnell College, where over 80% of the student body is not from [...]

The Register had a big piece about home schoolers supporting former Gov. Mike Huckabee. For some, it was news. For readers of Iowa Independent last July, it may not have come as much of a surprise.