The Consequences of Iowa
Shana Pearlman analyses the Republican runners and riders following the Iowa Straw Poll last weekend.
22 Aug 2011, 08:34
Ever since Rep. Michelle Bachmann won the straw poll in Ames, Iowa earlier this month, a lot of people have been asking whether this means she’s going to be the Republican nominee for President? The answer is: if she does become the GOP’s nominee, it won’t be because she won the straw poll.
CBS News has said that the straw poll is “the carnival that kills campaigns”; it definitely does have a feeling of a big county fair. The event is held near the beginning of every presidential election season on the grounds of the Iowa State University in Ames. It’s called a “straw poll” as it’s an informal poll and fundraising event with non-binding results. The Iowa state Republican Party auctions off space to the candidates, who can pay thousands of dollars for an area to set up tents and booths to present their case to supporters. This year’s big spender was Rep. Ron Paul, who paid $31,000 and offered supporters a big tent, a “Sliding Dollar” inflatable slide, and a dunk tank. In addition, candidates pay the $30 entry fee for their supporters, provide buses for free transportation to the event, and dish out barbecue, hot dogs, ice cream, and other fairground treats for attendees. If this sounds to you like the candidates are buying votes, you would be absolutely right.
So what is the point of the Iowa straw poll, other than being a terrific fundraiser for the Iowa Republican Party? First of all, the poll provides a story for a media hungry for any kind of presidential election news. The straw poll is the first indication of how voters are feeling prior to the kickoff of the presidential primary process, which traditionally takes place with the Iowa caucuses. The caucuses are currently scheduled for the 6th of February 2012, and are the first meaningful votes of any presidential primary. People adore news about presidential contests; any kind of tea leaf about which candidates are faring better than others is guaranteed major media coverage. These first indications can shape the media narrative for the next several months. Since Michele Bachmann won, with Ron Paul coming a very close second, the political narrative you’ll see played out will be about either the Republican Party lurching to the Tea Party right or flirting with rock-ribbed libertarian ideas. An example is Newsweek’s Michele Bachmann cover with the headline “Queen of Rage.”
The second purpose of the Iowa straw poll is to show which candidate has the best political organization. In the early stages of any presidential campaign, candidates have to participate in what’s called “retail politics.” This phrase is common in US political commentary, and while it may be suggestive of buying votes, what it actually means is politicians go out and meet the community, like shopkeepers out to win voters as their customers. They do this by shaking hands, kissing babies, attending fairs, going to football games, and mingling at church suppers to get their message out. They also need to make a serious financial investment in early caucus and primary states like Iowa and New Hampshire by hiring consultants who familiarize them with local politics, as well as employing field staff to put out signs, organize events, plan statewide tours, etc. They’ve also got to buy television, radio, and print ads and, in state and local elections, use their political action committees to financially support key candidates. Bachmann’s win in the poll means she will find fundraising easier, which means she can hire more staff, hold more events, and buy more ads.
Bachmann’s rival, Tim Pawlenty, the governor of Minnesota, used an Iowa-based strategy in a bid for early momentum. He poured more money into Iowa than any other candidate, hired more Iowa-based staff than any other candidate, and made an enormous investment of time and energy into campaigning in the state. In the end, though, it wasn’t enough – after all this time and money, he only came in third in the straw poll. This suggested that his organization, while large, simply wasn’t effective enough to counter the more spectacular messages of Bachmann, Paul, and newly entered candidate Gov. Rick Perry. This would make it increasingly difficult to raise money and hire volunteers, so he dropped out of the race altogether.
The Iowa straw poll has been held in contested Republican fields since 1979. In that time, only two candidates who won it eventually went on to get the nomination (Sen. Bob Dole and Gov. George W. Bush) and obviously, only George W. Bush went on to become President. So as an actual predictor of who will win the election, it doesn’t have a great track record. What it does is provide a snapshot of who has the message and the organization to succeed in Iowa, which can – and I stress can – be a harbinger of early momentum in a campaign. Part of the reason that Sen. Obama had a successful 2008 campaign was his early win in the Democratic Iowa caucuses; the victory made him seem like a winner and a safe bet for donations and volunteers. However, the Republican nominee, John McCain, skipped the Iowa straw poll and caucuses altogether, and still went on to clinch the nomination. If Bachmann uses her straw poll victory to get more volunteers and raise more money, that puts her in an excellent position to win the caucuses in February and potentially give her campaign some important early momentum.
So who are the candidates who are left vying for the right to contest the general election against incumbent President Barack Obama? Here is your quick guide, in the order they finished in the Iowa straw poll:
Michele Bachmann: Rep. Bachmann is a three term Congresswoman from the 6th District of Minnesota, just outside St. Paul. She’s notable for her appeal to social conservatives, but is also spreading the small government, fiscal responsibility message Republicans now want to hear. In 2011 she gave the Tea Party response to the President’s State of the Union address. She’s young, pretty, and polished in interviews, though she does have a habit of making unforced errors, like celebrating Elvis’ birthday on the day he died. In fact, there’s now a cottage industry of bloggers and video commentators vying to get her latest “crazy” statement first. The media narrative about her is that she’s an insane, stupid, Christianist extremist; the monolithic media opposition adds to her appeal among social conservatives in Iowa.
Key legislation sponsored: Light Bulb Freedom of Choice Act, Repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (repeal of Obama’s health care plan), Repeal of Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
Ron Paul: Rep. Paul has been serving in Congress since 1976, though he did take some time off between 1985 and 1997 to return to his medical practice. He serves the 14th District in Texas, in the Greater Houston area. Paul is notable for his libertarian views; he believes in small government, low taxes, free markets, and an isolationist foreign policy. Paul’s fans are extremely internet savvy and will often crash internet polls and flood twitter feeds; they also love to call talk radio shows to complain their favourite candidate’s being ignored by the media (to which the response is invariably: “How can we be ignoring him if you’re on the air talking about him?” Cue sputter).
Key legislation sponsored: Rep. Paul authors more bills than most members of Congress; from 2009-2010, he wrote 41 bills. They deal with everything from lowering income tax to preventing federal funds from going to facilities that offer “family planning” to legalizing hemp to allowing pilots to carry guns on airplanes.
Rick Santorum: Sen. Rick Santorum served as US Senator for Pennsylvania from 1995 to 2007. He’s famous for his strong social conservative views and was particularly opposed to gay marriage and abortion. He’s also famous for an internet campaign that columnist Dan Savage ran against him, trying to get his name associated with a byproduct of gay sex. Santorum lost his Senate seat in 2006 and it’s difficult to see how his message to voters now could be at all appealing. But Iowa primary voters love social cons, and Santorum is throwing plenty of money around.
Key legislation sponsored: Welfare Reform Act, campaigned for the banning of partial birth abortion, which resulted in the Partial Birth Abortion Campaign Act of 2003, and was the sponsor of numerous anti-pet cruelty bills, earning him the support of the Humane Society
Herman Cain: Mr. Cain is interesting because he has no political experience whatsoever; he’s the founder of the Godfather’s pizza restaurant chain and was the chair of the Federal Reserve in Kansas City. He’s also African-American. His argument for his candidacy is that a successful businessman is excellent preparation for the Presidency, and he too has the fiscal message that Republicans love to hear right now. But if he gets much further than Iowa, the rap against him will be that without foreign policy experience, he’ll be a dangerous Commander-in-Chief. That will be a very tough challenge for him to answer.
Signature accomplishments: headed National Restaurant Association, named by Newsweek as the key opposition figure to Clinton-era health care reform
Rick Perry: Despite not even being on the straw poll ballot (he was announcing his candidacy in South Carolina that weekend), Gov. Rick Perry of Texas got enough write-in votes to come in sixth place. Perry is Romney’s most serious challenger for the nomination right now. He’s got a strong record of job creation and economic success in his state. He’s from Paint Creek in West Texas and boy does he sound like it. Perry embodies every stereotype about Texans, from the accent to the boots to the guns. In 2010, he shot a coyote while out jogging. With his economic record, and his “just-folks” attitude, he’s going to be very tough competition in both the primary and the general (the joke going around is: “only two people know what it’s like to inherit an economy from George W. Bush: Barack Obama and Rick Perry.” Expect that to show up in Perry’s campaign soon). His detractors are painting him as stupid, overly religious, and just like George W. Bush – but worse! Already progressive media outlets are clumsily and inaccurately trying to smear him as a racist, and a video clip is going around, which I highly recommend everyone view, of him telling a reporter, “Adios, mofo.” When these kinds of silly attacks take place, you know opponents are scared. We’ll see if his early momentum can keep going throughout the primary season.
Signature accomplishments: longest serving Governor of Texas, 37% of all new jobs in the United States in 2009 were created in Texas, prohibited taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood, signed executive order requiring all girls aged 11-12 to receive the cervical cancer vaccine.
Mitt Romney: The former governor of Massachusetts has a real chance, if he gets the Republican nomination, to beat Obama. He is a pure technocrat and his record of success at Bain Capital and the Salt Lake City Olympics are strong assets for him. A debate on the economy between Romney and Obama probably wouldn’t turn out too well for the President. Romney is likely to be the only candidate who can compete with President Obama on money, and he’s done a great job building a national field operation for 2012. But he’s vulnerable because he can come across a bit too groomed, and anybody who made money in the financial sector is going to be hit with attacks that they’re corporate fat cats. And yes, he’s a Mormon, which makes both the religious Christian right and the irreligious secular left quite nervous, although Mormonism doesn’t tend to be a problem for the majority of Americans. However, those aren’t the biggest problems he’s going to face in the upcoming campaign. Those problems are how to overcome the fact that in 1994, while running for Senate against Ted Kennedy, he said he was for gay marriage and abortion, and then in 2008 he said he was against both. Voters hate obvious hypocrisy. In addition, he spearheaded a form of universal healthcare in Massachusetts, but has come out against Obamacare. It’s going to be a real dance explaining why Romneycare is good but Obamacare is bad.
Signature accomplishments: near-universal health care in Massachusetts, eliminating Massachusetts’ budget deficit, heading the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in 2002
Newt Gingrich: The former Speaker of the House rose to prominence in 1994 as the architect of the Contract with America, leading to Congress coming under Republican control for the first time since 1952. However, after Republican losses in 1998, he resigned his speakership and his seat. In some ways, Gingrich seems like a politician from another time. Many Republicans were disheartened by the ways their representatives in Congress behaved after they gained power n 1994; those who had always wanted fiscal responsibility and smaller government were disappointed in the reliance on lobbyists and the neverending spending. Gingrich is the living symbol of that disappointment, a broken contract. Also, if Gingrich thinks that he can get very far in this election without having to deal with the rumor that he divorced his wife while she was in the hospital with cancer, he’s got another think coming. His family has disputed this famous story, but most people believe it to be true, and it certainly doesn’t add to his reputation.
Key legislation sponsored: Welfare Reform Act, the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. As Speaker, he was a major player in the 1995-96 government shutdown, and said his conduct in that period contained the “single most avoidable mistake” he made as Speaker.
Jon Huntsman: There’s nothing particularly wrong with Jon Huntsman. On paper he looks fine: former governor of Utah, former ambassador to China, served in four presidential administrations, etc. etc. And he’s quite good looking. But Republicans right now are looking for someone who is really going to stick it to the President, who gives the appearance of taking a tough line on spending, limiting the role of government, and guaranteeing personal freedoms. Huntsman’s style and message are too meek and mild for what Republicans want. He was supposed to be an alternative to Romney (although as a Mormon former governor, they are strikingly similar), but Romney seems to be doing a better job of talking the talk Republicans want to hear. Plus it didn’t help Huntsman that when he announced his candidacy, he was greeted with enthusiastic news coverage from media outlets like The Atlantic and the New York Times. He’s also the subject of a flattering Vogue feature, written by anti-Palin scribe Jacob Weisberg. To Iowa voters, these are signals to run, not walk, in the opposite direction.
Signature accomplishments: $400m tax cut for Utahns, Utah was named the “best managed state” by the Pew Center of the States. Worked for the Obama administration, calling the President “a remarkable leader…and it has been a great honor getting to know you.”
Thaddeus McCotter: Who? Exactly. Rep. McCotter is a congressman from the 11th district of Michigan, he plays guitar in a Congressional band called “The Second Amendments,” and George W. Bush once called him “that rock and roll dude.”
Key legislation sponsored: Repeal of certain sections of Obamacare, Enablement of states to opt out of Obamacare, and honoring those who “brought the murderous terrorist leader Osama bin Laden to justice.”
And where’s Sarah Palin? The former Vice Presidential nominee and Alaska governor hasn’t announced yet, though she has mixed it up a bit in the Iowa fray. One thing is for sure – she’s never done anything in the typical way and it’s no surprise that her presidential campaign, if there is one, will be equally idiosyncratic.
2012 is going to be a nasty, ugly, bitterly fought election. Unfortunately, with 9% unemployment, President Obama doesn’t have many positives in his first term to campaign on, so his message will revolve around, “do you really want THAT guy as president?” Success for Obama’s challenger is going to depend on how well they can overcome the nastiest of attacks. We’ll see how the current pack manages to deflect the heat.
CBS News has said that the straw poll is “the carnival that kills campaigns”; it definitely does have a feeling of a big county fair. The event is held near the beginning of every presidential election season on the grounds of the Iowa State University in Ames. It’s called a “straw poll” as it’s an informal poll and fundraising event with non-binding results. The Iowa state Republican Party auctions off space to the candidates, who can pay thousands of dollars for an area to set up tents and booths to present their case to supporters. This year’s big spender was Rep. Ron Paul, who paid $31,000 and offered supporters a big tent, a “Sliding Dollar” inflatable slide, and a dunk tank. In addition, candidates pay the $30 entry fee for their supporters, provide buses for free transportation to the event, and dish out barbecue, hot dogs, ice cream, and other fairground treats for attendees. If this sounds to you like the candidates are buying votes, you would be absolutely right.
So what is the point of the Iowa straw poll, other than being a terrific fundraiser for the Iowa Republican Party? First of all, the poll provides a story for a media hungry for any kind of presidential election news. The straw poll is the first indication of how voters are feeling prior to the kickoff of the presidential primary process, which traditionally takes place with the Iowa caucuses. The caucuses are currently scheduled for the 6th of February 2012, and are the first meaningful votes of any presidential primary. People adore news about presidential contests; any kind of tea leaf about which candidates are faring better than others is guaranteed major media coverage. These first indications can shape the media narrative for the next several months. Since Michele Bachmann won, with Ron Paul coming a very close second, the political narrative you’ll see played out will be about either the Republican Party lurching to the Tea Party right or flirting with rock-ribbed libertarian ideas. An example is Newsweek’s Michele Bachmann cover with the headline “Queen of Rage.”
The second purpose of the Iowa straw poll is to show which candidate has the best political organization. In the early stages of any presidential campaign, candidates have to participate in what’s called “retail politics.” This phrase is common in US political commentary, and while it may be suggestive of buying votes, what it actually means is politicians go out and meet the community, like shopkeepers out to win voters as their customers. They do this by shaking hands, kissing babies, attending fairs, going to football games, and mingling at church suppers to get their message out. They also need to make a serious financial investment in early caucus and primary states like Iowa and New Hampshire by hiring consultants who familiarize them with local politics, as well as employing field staff to put out signs, organize events, plan statewide tours, etc. They’ve also got to buy television, radio, and print ads and, in state and local elections, use their political action committees to financially support key candidates. Bachmann’s win in the poll means she will find fundraising easier, which means she can hire more staff, hold more events, and buy more ads.
Bachmann’s rival, Tim Pawlenty, the governor of Minnesota, used an Iowa-based strategy in a bid for early momentum. He poured more money into Iowa than any other candidate, hired more Iowa-based staff than any other candidate, and made an enormous investment of time and energy into campaigning in the state. In the end, though, it wasn’t enough – after all this time and money, he only came in third in the straw poll. This suggested that his organization, while large, simply wasn’t effective enough to counter the more spectacular messages of Bachmann, Paul, and newly entered candidate Gov. Rick Perry. This would make it increasingly difficult to raise money and hire volunteers, so he dropped out of the race altogether.
The Iowa straw poll has been held in contested Republican fields since 1979. In that time, only two candidates who won it eventually went on to get the nomination (Sen. Bob Dole and Gov. George W. Bush) and obviously, only George W. Bush went on to become President. So as an actual predictor of who will win the election, it doesn’t have a great track record. What it does is provide a snapshot of who has the message and the organization to succeed in Iowa, which can – and I stress can – be a harbinger of early momentum in a campaign. Part of the reason that Sen. Obama had a successful 2008 campaign was his early win in the Democratic Iowa caucuses; the victory made him seem like a winner and a safe bet for donations and volunteers. However, the Republican nominee, John McCain, skipped the Iowa straw poll and caucuses altogether, and still went on to clinch the nomination. If Bachmann uses her straw poll victory to get more volunteers and raise more money, that puts her in an excellent position to win the caucuses in February and potentially give her campaign some important early momentum.
So who are the candidates who are left vying for the right to contest the general election against incumbent President Barack Obama? Here is your quick guide, in the order they finished in the Iowa straw poll:
Michele Bachmann: Rep. Bachmann is a three term Congresswoman from the 6th District of Minnesota, just outside St. Paul. She’s notable for her appeal to social conservatives, but is also spreading the small government, fiscal responsibility message Republicans now want to hear. In 2011 she gave the Tea Party response to the President’s State of the Union address. She’s young, pretty, and polished in interviews, though she does have a habit of making unforced errors, like celebrating Elvis’ birthday on the day he died. In fact, there’s now a cottage industry of bloggers and video commentators vying to get her latest “crazy” statement first. The media narrative about her is that she’s an insane, stupid, Christianist extremist; the monolithic media opposition adds to her appeal among social conservatives in Iowa.
Key legislation sponsored: Light Bulb Freedom of Choice Act, Repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (repeal of Obama’s health care plan), Repeal of Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
Ron Paul: Rep. Paul has been serving in Congress since 1976, though he did take some time off between 1985 and 1997 to return to his medical practice. He serves the 14th District in Texas, in the Greater Houston area. Paul is notable for his libertarian views; he believes in small government, low taxes, free markets, and an isolationist foreign policy. Paul’s fans are extremely internet savvy and will often crash internet polls and flood twitter feeds; they also love to call talk radio shows to complain their favourite candidate’s being ignored by the media (to which the response is invariably: “How can we be ignoring him if you’re on the air talking about him?” Cue sputter).
Key legislation sponsored: Rep. Paul authors more bills than most members of Congress; from 2009-2010, he wrote 41 bills. They deal with everything from lowering income tax to preventing federal funds from going to facilities that offer “family planning” to legalizing hemp to allowing pilots to carry guns on airplanes.
Rick Santorum: Sen. Rick Santorum served as US Senator for Pennsylvania from 1995 to 2007. He’s famous for his strong social conservative views and was particularly opposed to gay marriage and abortion. He’s also famous for an internet campaign that columnist Dan Savage ran against him, trying to get his name associated with a byproduct of gay sex. Santorum lost his Senate seat in 2006 and it’s difficult to see how his message to voters now could be at all appealing. But Iowa primary voters love social cons, and Santorum is throwing plenty of money around.
Key legislation sponsored: Welfare Reform Act, campaigned for the banning of partial birth abortion, which resulted in the Partial Birth Abortion Campaign Act of 2003, and was the sponsor of numerous anti-pet cruelty bills, earning him the support of the Humane Society
Herman Cain: Mr. Cain is interesting because he has no political experience whatsoever; he’s the founder of the Godfather’s pizza restaurant chain and was the chair of the Federal Reserve in Kansas City. He’s also African-American. His argument for his candidacy is that a successful businessman is excellent preparation for the Presidency, and he too has the fiscal message that Republicans love to hear right now. But if he gets much further than Iowa, the rap against him will be that without foreign policy experience, he’ll be a dangerous Commander-in-Chief. That will be a very tough challenge for him to answer.
Signature accomplishments: headed National Restaurant Association, named by Newsweek as the key opposition figure to Clinton-era health care reform
Rick Perry: Despite not even being on the straw poll ballot (he was announcing his candidacy in South Carolina that weekend), Gov. Rick Perry of Texas got enough write-in votes to come in sixth place. Perry is Romney’s most serious challenger for the nomination right now. He’s got a strong record of job creation and economic success in his state. He’s from Paint Creek in West Texas and boy does he sound like it. Perry embodies every stereotype about Texans, from the accent to the boots to the guns. In 2010, he shot a coyote while out jogging. With his economic record, and his “just-folks” attitude, he’s going to be very tough competition in both the primary and the general (the joke going around is: “only two people know what it’s like to inherit an economy from George W. Bush: Barack Obama and Rick Perry.” Expect that to show up in Perry’s campaign soon). His detractors are painting him as stupid, overly religious, and just like George W. Bush – but worse! Already progressive media outlets are clumsily and inaccurately trying to smear him as a racist, and a video clip is going around, which I highly recommend everyone view, of him telling a reporter, “Adios, mofo.” When these kinds of silly attacks take place, you know opponents are scared. We’ll see if his early momentum can keep going throughout the primary season.
Signature accomplishments: longest serving Governor of Texas, 37% of all new jobs in the United States in 2009 were created in Texas, prohibited taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood, signed executive order requiring all girls aged 11-12 to receive the cervical cancer vaccine.
Mitt Romney: The former governor of Massachusetts has a real chance, if he gets the Republican nomination, to beat Obama. He is a pure technocrat and his record of success at Bain Capital and the Salt Lake City Olympics are strong assets for him. A debate on the economy between Romney and Obama probably wouldn’t turn out too well for the President. Romney is likely to be the only candidate who can compete with President Obama on money, and he’s done a great job building a national field operation for 2012. But he’s vulnerable because he can come across a bit too groomed, and anybody who made money in the financial sector is going to be hit with attacks that they’re corporate fat cats. And yes, he’s a Mormon, which makes both the religious Christian right and the irreligious secular left quite nervous, although Mormonism doesn’t tend to be a problem for the majority of Americans. However, those aren’t the biggest problems he’s going to face in the upcoming campaign. Those problems are how to overcome the fact that in 1994, while running for Senate against Ted Kennedy, he said he was for gay marriage and abortion, and then in 2008 he said he was against both. Voters hate obvious hypocrisy. In addition, he spearheaded a form of universal healthcare in Massachusetts, but has come out against Obamacare. It’s going to be a real dance explaining why Romneycare is good but Obamacare is bad.
Signature accomplishments: near-universal health care in Massachusetts, eliminating Massachusetts’ budget deficit, heading the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in 2002
Newt Gingrich: The former Speaker of the House rose to prominence in 1994 as the architect of the Contract with America, leading to Congress coming under Republican control for the first time since 1952. However, after Republican losses in 1998, he resigned his speakership and his seat. In some ways, Gingrich seems like a politician from another time. Many Republicans were disheartened by the ways their representatives in Congress behaved after they gained power n 1994; those who had always wanted fiscal responsibility and smaller government were disappointed in the reliance on lobbyists and the neverending spending. Gingrich is the living symbol of that disappointment, a broken contract. Also, if Gingrich thinks that he can get very far in this election without having to deal with the rumor that he divorced his wife while she was in the hospital with cancer, he’s got another think coming. His family has disputed this famous story, but most people believe it to be true, and it certainly doesn’t add to his reputation.
Key legislation sponsored: Welfare Reform Act, the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. As Speaker, he was a major player in the 1995-96 government shutdown, and said his conduct in that period contained the “single most avoidable mistake” he made as Speaker.
Jon Huntsman: There’s nothing particularly wrong with Jon Huntsman. On paper he looks fine: former governor of Utah, former ambassador to China, served in four presidential administrations, etc. etc. And he’s quite good looking. But Republicans right now are looking for someone who is really going to stick it to the President, who gives the appearance of taking a tough line on spending, limiting the role of government, and guaranteeing personal freedoms. Huntsman’s style and message are too meek and mild for what Republicans want. He was supposed to be an alternative to Romney (although as a Mormon former governor, they are strikingly similar), but Romney seems to be doing a better job of talking the talk Republicans want to hear. Plus it didn’t help Huntsman that when he announced his candidacy, he was greeted with enthusiastic news coverage from media outlets like The Atlantic and the New York Times. He’s also the subject of a flattering Vogue feature, written by anti-Palin scribe Jacob Weisberg. To Iowa voters, these are signals to run, not walk, in the opposite direction.
Signature accomplishments: $400m tax cut for Utahns, Utah was named the “best managed state” by the Pew Center of the States. Worked for the Obama administration, calling the President “a remarkable leader…and it has been a great honor getting to know you.”
Thaddeus McCotter: Who? Exactly. Rep. McCotter is a congressman from the 11th district of Michigan, he plays guitar in a Congressional band called “The Second Amendments,” and George W. Bush once called him “that rock and roll dude.”
Key legislation sponsored: Repeal of certain sections of Obamacare, Enablement of states to opt out of Obamacare, and honoring those who “brought the murderous terrorist leader Osama bin Laden to justice.”
And where’s Sarah Palin? The former Vice Presidential nominee and Alaska governor hasn’t announced yet, though she has mixed it up a bit in the Iowa fray. One thing is for sure – she’s never done anything in the typical way and it’s no surprise that her presidential campaign, if there is one, will be equally idiosyncratic.
2012 is going to be a nasty, ugly, bitterly fought election. Unfortunately, with 9% unemployment, President Obama doesn’t have many positives in his first term to campaign on, so his message will revolve around, “do you really want THAT guy as president?” Success for Obama’s challenger is going to depend on how well they can overcome the nastiest of attacks. We’ll see how the current pack manages to deflect the heat.
The author
Shana Pearlman
Shane Pearlman is the author of the forthcoming
book "The Palin Effect: Money, Sex, and Class in American Politics".
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