Yesterday, anticipation was mounting for Sen. Barack Obama’s ‘major policy address’ on Iraq in Clinton, IA. Fresh from the Senate hearing in which Obama challenged two prominent proponents of the Bush administration’s Iraq policy, many believed that Obama would use the speech as an opportunity to emerge as a leader in the Senate for [...]

Last week, I called New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson out for pandering, writing
Richardson does not give poll-tested answers to questions at events, but neither does he simply give audiences straight talk. In fact, as I have remarked to many who know me over the past few months, Richardson is very much a panderer.
Since then, news [...]

New reasons emerged this week to doubt the tier system most commentators use to describe the 2008 presidential horse race.
Conventional wisdom — here in Iowa and across the country — dictates that the three candidates to watch on the Democratic side are Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama, and former Sen. John Edwards.
Sen. Chris Dodd, [...]

noneed4thneed of Century of the Common Iowan launched a new online poll last week to measure his readers’ support of Democratic presidential candidates.  He held them in the past, and the results were always unscientific but interesting to see.  Now that campaigns are taking Iowa blogs a bit more seriously, however, Iowa bloggers can’t assume [...]

Out of the saddle for a couple weeks, Iowa Independent’s usual liveblogger John Deeth is back to his old ways tonight, blogging from the Hawkeye Labor Council’s Democratic candidates’ forum in Cedar Rapids. Before the festivities have really even started, he delivers this succinctly accurate picture of what’s going on in caucus politics:
The [...]

And now, the post wherein I undermine whatever credibility I might have left by admitting that I watch the Hallmark Channel:
Yes, from midnight to 2AM central time each night, I allow the soothing action sequences and overt Republican undertones of the mediocre show Walker, Texas Ranger to lull me to sleep. It’s a guilty [...]

The primacy of the Iowa Caucuses is Chet Culver’s top priority, but (1) should it be? And (2) does it matter what Culver’s priorities are?
On the first question: being chronologically first isn’t sufficient; and, taken to the extreme, it could be a bad thing. Idaho could decide to hold its primary tomorrow, and [...]

I liveblogged the debate over on Iowa Independent tonight — or at least I tried.
So who won?  The talking heads can’t decide, but they are thrilled to have so many arguments to talk about.
 On framing, the winner is either Obama or Edwards, depending on who you think is best served by the discussion of lobbyist [...]

Big, important YearlyKos info-dump is forthcoming, I think.  Until I get that up, I thought it might be interesting to talk a bit about the differences between seeing a candidate in Iowa and seeing a candidate at a progressive bloggers’ convention.  This was going to be long and developed, but it turned out that there [...]