Some nice factoids from The Hotline – while Mitt Romney is the only major Republican candidate on his first wife, none of the first or second tier Democrats have been divorced.

Haha, I wish.

Seriously though, the flap about Obama’s comment here in Ames about the lives of 3000 troops being “wasted” is ridiculous.  It’s absurd because he was not only right, he was too kind.  For the lives of our troops to be wasted, the war in Iraq would have to be a zero sum game – we would have to be no better off no than when we were when we pre-emptively initiated it.

We’re not.  We’re a lot worse off.  90% of Democrats and the vast majority of Americans recognize that.  I’m willing to acknowledge that is wasn’t the most couth statement that he could have made, but it’s not like he was wrong.  I really wish the media would cover this objectively – “was he right or wasn’t he” rather than the whole “did it offend people or didn’t it” narrative that they seem to be adopting.  Maybe offending people isn’t the worse thing someone can do while trying to lead a country out of a tragedy.

First Diary anywhere.  Forgive the disjointedness.

I went to the speech.  There were around 4-5k people there by my rough estimate (bottom tier of seats at Hilton full 2/3 of the way around, 400 or so on the floor, and top tier sparsely seated 2/3 of the way around.)  In respose to the question below as to whether it would be mostly students, I would say that it appeared to be about 1/2-2/3 students. 

Seemed to be his standard speech (see the reviews of his Springfield speech.)  His speech didn’t have obvious pauses for applause, so the audience never got roaring, just moderate rounds of applause.  He included calls for increased teacher pay, which seems out of place in a presidential race given that teacher pay is a state and local issue.  Smacked too much of telling people what they want to hear.

Was dissapointed by one introduction (I think it was Tom Miller) who stated Barack was the “only major candidate” to actively oppose the Iraq war from the beginning.  That whole “major candidate” political weaselling to shut out Kucinich and Vilsack seemed unnecessary.  Sure he’s trying to win, but a shout out to those who support his views would seem to be a magnanimous gesture.  And if those other candidates are really so minor,  why not get on their good sides for when their campaigns go under?

He must have read Snipehunter’s diary, as he did actively solicit caucus pledge cards from the audience.

I was dissapointed by his use of the term “homeland”.  The term still gives me the willies and there is no reason to continue to use it.  “Our nation” worked just fine for 200 years.  Let’s take back the framing of the debate and drop this Republican coined phrase.

I was also dissapointed by another phrase he used. He stated that America must be feared AND respected, or words to that effect.  Implying that we need more active diplomacy, which is of course a good thing.  But really, I see no reason for us to be feared at all.  That’s a meme that can die with “homeland.”

But all in all, he was clean and articulate and I’d have a beer with him.

We have a new round of Iowa staffer updates.

As Chris Woods reported yesterday, Chris Hayler of John Kerry and Evan Bayh fame has been picked up by the Hillary campaign as its Iowa Political Director.

This morning’s Hotline reports that Mark Daley has been picked up by Hillary as her Iowa Communications Director.  Daley is the executive director of One Iowa, and previously held posts as Communications Director for the Iowa Democratic Party and Leonard Boswell for Congress.

I am also hearing rumblings that Steve Chasse has been picked up by the Obama campaign.  He’s a great pick up.  Formerly with John Kerry in 2004 and more recently aligned with Governor Mark Warner’s bid, Chasse has solid labor ties.

After checking out the FEC reports on U.S. House candidates available on the Web, it’s fair to say that losing an election doesn’t just put you down in the dumps emotionally.  It also puts you in the poor house.  Unfortunately, it’s a bipartisan problem.  With that said, the worst offenders are Republicans.

Check out some of these losing candidates who broke the bank (as of Dec. 31, 2006):

1st District

Richard Dickinson (D)– Cash-on-Hand: $2,300; Debt: $45,909

William Dix (R)– CoH: $10,658; Debt: $125,000

Bill Gluba (D)– CoH: $348; Debt: $50,073

Brian Kennedy (R)– CoH: $1,729; Debt: $126,000

Mike Whalen (R)– CoH: $4,963; Debt: $448,950

3rd District

Jeff Lamberti (R)– CoH: $8,476; Debt: $150,000

4th District

Selden Spencer (D)– CoH: $2,248; Debt: $35,000

5th District

Jeffrey Ballenger (R)– CoH: $33; Debt: $350,000

Robert Chambers (D)– CoH: $25; Debt: $19,400

Roy Neilsen (I)– CoH: $1,036; Debt: $48,500

Joyce Schulte (D) – CoH: $137; Debt: $48,500

Of course, winning doesn’t necessarily mean you’re in the black:

Steve King (R)– CoH: $29,332; Debt: $57,233

If you’re friends with any of these folks, expect to get a mailing or seven asking for a bailout.

The next installment of my “Meet the Legislature” series introduces everyone to Representative Andrew Wenthe.  Andrew is another member of our outstanding class of legislators under 30 years of age.

Andrew has been tapped by the Des Moines Register to blog about his experiences at the Capitol during the session.  You can find his blog here.

I couldn’t believe this story I saw in the newspaper on Saturday. I guess that Swift and Co. thinks they are the victims of the immigration raids that took place last December.

  President and CEO Sam Rovit told the Greeley Tribune in Friday’s editions that the government rejected the company’s offer to help investigate alleged identity theft.

  “They were looking for a marquee to show the administration it was tough on immigration,” he said.

I am sorry Mr. Rovitt, if the administration was looking for a marquee to show that it was tough on immigration your company would have been fined for employing over 1,200 illegal workers. So far Swift and Co. has gotten off the hook and are able to go back to hiring the cheapest labor possible. Our illegal employer problem will continue unless the companies that hire illegal workers are fined.

I don’t think it gets any more clearer than this from Iowa’s former Governor Tom Vilsack:

“It’s time for Congress to step up, and cut off funding for the status quo. I think it is time for us to end this war. I think it is very clear from the intelligence reports and from the American public … that this is a civil war and our kids are in the middle of it.

It is time for Congress to step up. They have constitutional and a moral responsibility to cut the funding and say to the President in very clear terms: we are listening to the American people …”

He makes it clear that Congress needs to send a message to President Bush, echoing the thoughts and opinions of the American people, and end this war.  And he says it in a persuasive way.

Sen. John Edwards says that silence is betrayal when it comes to Iraq and he is absolutely right.  Today he said a non-binding resolution against the President’s plan was essentially worthless.  Sens. Chris Dodd and Russ Feingold agreed.  I think that judging from Gov. Vilsack’s statements, he is in the same boat.

Kevin Thurman, Vilsack’s Deputy Internet Director for his campaign, posted just a few minutes ago over on Daily Kos highlighting Vilsack’s interview with Norah O’Donnell where he made the comments above.  As Kevin wrote:

“We can’t wait for things to happen two years from now when we win in 2008. It’s time to match our values with action. Time to match our hope with vision.”

Some candidates are taking the time to seriously lead on Iraq as an issue in this race.  Others are just backpedaling from earlier comments or simply treading water.  Vilsack and Edwards have taken strong and clear positions.  Dodd could even be categorized in the same boat.

Vilsack also has taken the lead in rejecting the idea of capping the amount of troops in Iraq, simply based on the logic of his position.  It clearly doesn’t make sense to support ending the war in Iraq and opposing escalation, while at the same time saying, “Well, if you’re going to keep up the war anyway, you can only X amount of soldiers.”  Instead, he’s advocating a position of actually fighting to end the war and bring troops home.

Vilsack’s right, and Democrats should unite behind the same message and in similar form: “It is time for us to end this war!”

MyDD has a post and a long thread about College Democrats. Both Chase from Iowa Progress and myself have posted comments there about Grinnell, which is I think a real exception for college dem chapters. I was curious what Chris and Drew and everyone else thought about College Democrats and how to get Democrats at various colleges around the state. Drew and I (though mostly Drew) wrote the state party’s college field plan for the last cycle and I thought it might be worthwhile to talk about different strengths and weakness for College Dems on a chapter by chapter, statewide and nationwide basis. I also included a poll for the sake of doing one on the most effective College Dems chapter in the state.

So Hillary Clinton might not be able to sing all that well, but at least she isn’t talking during the  national anthem.

P.S.  She is still, sadly, a better singer than I am.

Today is the last day for discounted registration for this year’s Yearly Kos convention, being held in Chicago, IL, from August 2-5.  I just paid for my registration, since I’m a student and qualify for the ‘guidelines’ of being a student.  Now I just have to find the money to make sure to pay for my hotel room for my stay there.  I also gave a $25 donation to the convention as a whole.

The schedule of events and speakers haven’t been announced yet, but last year’s conference was amazing.  I was sad I was unable to make it all of the way to Vegas, but I’m sure lots of you know just how the college life is essentially a nice money crunch.

If you can, please sign up and attend.  I’m sure there will be several (if not all of) the Democratic presidential candidates, as well as other Democratic leaders from across the nation.  Best of all, we’ll be able to network with like-minded people offline and in person.  It doesn’t get much better than that.