I am surprised… not dismayed, but surprised.  I never expected that the results of today’s election would leave us with essentially the same political problem we’ve had for the past two years (and really four years, if you include the ineffective Democratically controlled Congress of 2009-2010).  But with a 6% approval rating, it just didn’t occur to me that the people’s decision would be to say “try again” to the team they so harshly disapprove of.

As of 11:00 PM Central Time, President Obama has been declared the winner of the election by every major news organization (although Governor Romney had not yet conceded the race).  In my home state of Iowa, we lost 1 of our 5 seats in the House in redistricting, and …

I had really hoped to get some thoughts out regarding priorities in this election this past week, but between the disaster caused by hurricane Sandy (including impacts to family and friends in the region) and finishing up fall chores, it just would not happen.  After the election and before the convening of the next Congress in January we will speak to the legislative priorities that must be addressed in Washington (beyond the typical lame-duck activities that will go on at the end of this Congress).  -Ed.

Today some brief thoughts about how the victors of the 2012 election will spin our confidence in them into mandates.  We often hear how such-and-such an office-holder has a “mandate” from their constituents, typically based on real issues discussed …

The Des Moines Register’s Editor, Rick Green, last night published some details around an interview that the Register’s editorial board held with President Obama Tuesday morning.  An interview they could not, at first, talk about publicly.  An off-the-record conversation that they say will contribute to their endorsement decision, and the conditions of which will not affect their decision.  Since Rick’s original online post, the White House has released their own transcript of the conversation.

To his credit, Rick was clearly frustrated with the White House for putting such severe restrictions on the 30 minute telephone interview.  He is convinced that Iowans need to hear what the President had to say, and that Iowans would be influenced positively by what Obama shared with the editorial …

If you’re reading this, we’re guessing you are anxious to know who we thought won last night’s debate.  That answer is simple: Bob Schieffer, who moderated the debate.  We were convinced that, based on Bob’s near ebullient post debate analysis in the first two presidential debates that he would be the epitome of liberal media bias in moderating this debate.  Bob was a pleasant surprise to us, and frankly if you were to look on his past performances in a similar role, he has been very capable of acting as an objective facilitator when the situation required it.  Our hats are off to Bob as the best of this year’s moderators.

The spotlight at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida, was of course on …

The second Presidential Debate of the 2012 election is being held tonight at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York at 8:00 PM Central Time, using a townhall style, with questions from independent voters regarding domestic and foreign policy.  After what most are now referring to as “disappointing” and “lackluster” in the performance of President Obama in the first debate, there is much anticipation that tonight could be the most critical night of the campaign.  Last week’s debate between the Vice-presidential candidates, while more lively than the first Presidential debate, held its own disappointments for many, including myself.  Many on the right were quick to deride the Vice-president for his excessive use of laughter in response to criticisms (a common debating ploy intended to minimize the …

The most impressive thing about Wednesday night’s Presidential Debate is what it was not: a contentious barrage of angry epitaths like those being thrown throughout the blogosphere or even in some of the Republican Primary Debates. Both men were smiling, civil, and even appeared to be listening as the other spoke. President Obama carried on the same criticisms of Romney’s plans, and the Governor politely said that the President’s information was wrong. They both agreed with each other regarding areas of common ground. We suspect that the rules holding applause had a positive impact on the cordial nature of the debate, although it certainly didn’t hurt that Moderator Jim Lehrer’s folksy demeaner and attempts to steer the conversation helped keep the discourse on an even …

There’s an interesting trend developing in open to foreign policy, and it’s been there since the outset;  sense Obama speech in Cairo Egypt, his supposed Arab reset, Arab Spring phenomenon and so on, every single attack on our interests, every loss of life, has been labeled a “Lone Wolf” Attack.  Te Obama administration invested quite a bit in the way of news cycles to prepare us for the idea that these were going to be “lone Wolf attacks, and not organized attacks by a AlQuieda or some other agency.

Consider for example Janet Napolitano, who advanced this idea quite a while back. Consider her speech at a Chamber of Commerce event in August of 2011:

WASHINGTON — “Lone

Finally, someone has the answer to solving the debt crisis that has hit the Federal Government! And amazing as it may seem, earlier this week the junior senator from Iowa came up with the idea, a truly out-of-the-box solution. Forget Congress, the President can go ahead and raise the debt ceiling with an Executive Order.

And, according to Tom Harkin, it’s okay because the Constitution doesn’t prohibit the President from taking this action!

With just a week to figure out what to do, this is Harkin’s answer: punt.

What he said was that the President could sign an executive order raising the debt ceiling. He said you’d rather have Congress do it, but there’s nothing in the Constitution that prohibits the President from issuing …