While not big news that Iowa Republicans don’t wait with bated breath for the Des Moines Register to anoint a Republican candidate the cream of the presidential crop, in recent years their recommendations have barely risen above laughable fodder. Since we could all use some comic relief from this seemingly endless campaign season, let’s take a look back at the Register’s recent forays into Presidential advocacy. What follows are two main reasons, among many others, why they should stick to merely reporting on the political pulse of Iowa—instead of trying to alter it.

Reason #1 – A Sketchy, Schizophrenic History

While nearly all the data on editorial board endorsements show that they have a miniscule impact, if any at all, well over 70% of newspapers …

When James Madison and friends put together the Constitution, one of the key things they endeavoured to do was ensure that the Chief Administrator (President) did not have the power of a king.  After all, we had just fought our tails off for the right to not have to be subjugated by King George, and as such provide sovereignty to the people and not the President.

I say this in preparation for something that Valerie Jarrett, co-chair of Obama’s transition team, said on Meet The Press Sunday:

“Given the daunting challenges that we face, it is important that President-elect Obama’s prepared to really take power and begin to rule day one.”

DavidL at BitsBlog takes this at face value, which is not in the …

From the Washington Post:

Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse White House policies on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues, according to congressional Democrats, campaign aides and experts working with the transition team.

All of you that were taken completely off-guard by this news, please raise your right hands.  Now smack yourself on the back of the head.

Any turmoil and angst over this should have been addressed months ago.  If you voted for Obama, and you were oblivious to the fact this was coming: yeah, that’s why Obama was elected.  You weren’t paying attention.

But let’s be candid.  Executive …

As I write this, John McCain is announcing his concession of today’s election.

Obama was declared the winner by most of the networks at around 11:00 PM Eastern Time.

McCain’s speech was kind and humble, and recognizing what is an historic event.

We have not been shy in our opposition to Obama here at TCR, and hopefully have been and will continue to be faithful in this regard: Obama is the rightful victor, for whatever reason I believe is the man God will place in this leadership position, and will deserve the appropriate respect due the office and office holder of the Presidency.  Assuming he does not abuse his power (a caution I would put to any who take this office).

We will, however, continue …

NBC is calling Illinois before the polls are closed there… CNN is waiting.  Different comments from the analysts, but personally I hate to see projections before polls are closed.

Granted the projections are coming from exit polls, but as we’ve seen in past elections, early projections can impact late voter turnout, which can impact other races.

The projections themselves are identical, which should be the case.

We’re watching CNN right now and monitoring NBC here on the widget at TCR (go to the Home Page).  CNN says they are being “conservative” and not calling Pennsylvania yet since no precincts have reported.  But they called South Carolina for McCain while the reported votes are in favor of Obama.…

After two years, we finally get to pull the lever.

I do not propose to get into specifics, here about what I’m going to do. I don’t suppose I will need to.

You see, when I vote today, I’m going to remember which party made possible another vote recently, and which party decided fighting for freedom wasn’t worth it.

I strongly suggest that you should, as well.

Cross-posted from BitsBlog.

Addendum (Art): Great point, Bit.  It’s also great to see American’s taking their right to vote this year as seriously as Iraqis do.…

If you need them, free voter tools and endorsement information are in the center sidebar.  We want to help you out today as much as possible.

The numbers are not completely up to date yet, but it looks like over 30 million Americans have voted in early balloting (up through November 3) for this election.  That’s almost 25% of the total votes cast in 2004!  Depending on how and when different states are counting these ballots, Tuesday and Wednesday could be an interesting time… and I doubt that exit polling will have the same level of predictability it had in years past.

Wow.

It’s awesome to see the power of the people brought to bare… the results are certainly unpredictable, but that’s part of the …

I’ve only provided endorsements for President and for legislative contests that affect me directly.  Unfortunately, personal and work commitments have kept me from providing a broader assessment of candidates.

If you have not had adequate time yourself to interact with candidates or research them at their web sites, I can make a couple of simple suggestions:

There are a number of web sites with candidate assessments from varying perspectives, including general political principals and specific policy areas.  Using various Google searches (such as “2008 Congressional candidate comparison tax“) you can find sites that provide scorecards or other comparison tools.

One site that I think provides good comprehensive information based on candidate provided content in a non-partisan presentation is at Congress.org/election/home.  The site …

Less than 72 hours remain until the polls will close across the country, and we’re already getting plenty of messages intended to demoralize McCain supporters. DON’T LISTEN TO A WORD OF IT!

The model for this was set during the primaries… a great analysis and prediction of repeat offenses are described at the HillBuzz Blog.  It’s a great read if you have time, but the point of it that they will do anything to convince you to skip voting if you’re planning to vote for McCain.  Three core efforts (and tell me you haven’t seen this already) are:

• Calls for McCain to just give up and quit, because the race is over
• Wild claims of Obama winning states that shock and surprise you
• Repeated

…

Journalists from three major newspapers that endorsed John McCain — the Washington Times, the New York Post and the Dallas Morning News — have been booted from Barack Obama’s campaign plane for the final leg of the presidential race.

The Washington Times reported Friday that it was notified of the Obama campaign’s decision Thursday evening — even though the paper has covered Obama from the start.

That from Fox, today. However you look at this, and the WFTV and KYW incidents and a half dozen others we’ve mentioned on BitsBlog,  it’s clear Obama cannot deal with any opposition.

It’s as the executive editor of the Washington times suggested:

I can only hope that the candidate who describes himself as wanting

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