Chris Matthews and other MSNBC shows have featured Obama girl, Giuliani girl, and Hillary girl multiple times — both via their YouTube exploits and in live, in-studio appearances. Why isn’t this video getting any attention? Should she have worn hot pants?

Hat-tip: Common Iowan

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 [...]

I’m about to get on a plane to fly to Chicago for YearlyKos.  I’ll likely post occasional updates and thoughts from the convention throughout the weekend, but only when inspiration strikes.  To get in touch with me, shoot an email to chase [at] iowaindependent.com or give me a call.

Before leaving Iowa Independent to head to DC, writer Ben Weyl, who has been our Christian Right correspondent, wrote a final “think piece” on the social conservative movement in Iowa.  His coverage of Iowa social conservatives has, I think, been better and more comprehensive than anyone else’s for the past three months, and this culmination [...]

Here’s a little of what the mainstream Iowa media have been saying recently:
Using unfortunately-hackneyed boxing metaphors, Todd Dorman (Lee Newspapers) identifies the fundamental issues of the 2008 presidential campaign. A little “big picture” for me, but still noteworthy.
David Yepsen (Des Moines Register) blogs that the Obama-Hillary feud only helps the candidates not yet involved. [...]

According to Kay Henderson of Radio Iowa, who was on the Straw Poll call with Chuck Laudner, ED of the Iowa GOP, Fred Thompson will be on the Ames Straw Poll ballot next month. She doesn’t lead with it, but it is definitely the lede:
The Straw Poll Ballot: Sam Brownback, John Cox, Rudy [...]

Via Taegan Goddard, we get a look at the McCain “strategy memo” being leaked to McCain supporters to be used as talking points for how the Arizona Senator can come back to win the nomination. It’s nearly 10 pages long, but right on page 3 he lists bullet points describing his chances in Iowa:
Point [...]

Iowa Communications Director Tim Miller and Iowa “Coalitions Director” (actually an important position) Marlys Popma announced resignations from McCain’s Iowa campaign today.
Both are heavy hitters, but both also seem like the type to be loyal to a cause until they get the impression that the cause is no longer loyal to them. Is McCain [...]

Because “balance” is still the priority of cable news and our nation’s punditocracy, any mention of President Bush’s low approval numbers has to be accompanied by the claim that Congeress’s approval numbers are even lower.  I watch cable news all day for my job, and I hear it every day.
Somebody needs to call shenanigans.  Polling [...]

The haircut story once again rears its ugly (but really quite pretty) head in Iowa yet again — this time at an Edwards event in Ft. Dodge.  When will the story go away?
A woman first asked him if he would consider living on the “food stamp diet’ a few members of Congress are trying. He [...]