The Road To The Presidency Does Start In Iowa

Rick Santorum has formed a PAC in Iowa, and writer Jason Hancock rightly notes that this signals that he's "serious about a presidential bid in 2012."

The road to the Presidency begins in Iowa, and rightly so.

I don't know of any other state, except New Hampshire, that has the political culture of Iowa. Iowans are proud of their responsibility to sift through the candidates contending for the nation's highest office--and their ability to give a boost to those who deserve it.

I never hear an Iowan complain about the presidential campaign starting too early. Lesser known candidates can fill a room more than two years out from the election.

It's simply embedded in the culture--Iowans know they have an important role to play and take it very seriously.

When Rudy Giuliani was vying for the GOP nomination for President, his campaign would conduct polls among undecided voters. Campaign insiders expressed amazement that one of the top reasons that an Iowan remained undecided about Rudy was "haven't met him yet."

Potential candidates--you are welcome in our coffee shops, VFW halls, and our parades. We'll gladly give you a boost in your quest to become the leader of the free world--but frist we'd like to shake your hand and look you in the eye.

Lessons from marriage counseling for the right and the left

I was fascinated by this short piece in Slate, entitled (oddly) "What Would Scooby Do? What marriage counseling can teach liberals and conservatives." Shankar Vedantam translates the current political landscape into familiar terms...likening left and right to warring partners in a disintegrating marriage. He summarizes (and oversimplifies, but there's a grain of truth there):

The right is convinced that the left is evil. The left is convinced that the right is retarded.

The right is angry. The left is contemptuous. And therein lies the problem:

Both anger and contempt have deep psychological roots. Anger usually stems from feelings of unfairness or betrayal. Contempt is anger mixed with disgust. Anger and contempt are not just emotions. They are scripts that determine our political conversation....In recent decades, the field of marriage research has been changed by a paradigm known as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Invented by marriage researcher John Gottman, the paradigm suggests that dysfunctional relationships often have four markers—criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and stonewalling.

Readers of Gottman's research (and of Malcolm Gladwell's summaries of that work) will know that of the four horsemen, contempt is the clearest predictor of subsequent divorce. Vedantam goes on:

What couples learn in counseling is that their conflicting visions are accurate, but accurate in the way caricatures are accurate. They miss nuance and fail to see how different underlying dreams prompt each side to value things differently. Surely underlying personality and different upbringing have much to do with the desire among so many liberals to see a president who is, first and foremost, smart, and the desire among so many conservatives to have a president who is, first and foremost, a patriot?

This is the core of how Jeff and I make our bipartisan marriage "work." We default to a positive interpretation of one another's motives and desires (whenever possible; Sarah Palin may be an exception), and that keeps the debates civil and the discussions productive. Well, that and the fact that he does more than his share of cat box duty.

Losing The Independents

In both the media and in my conversations with activists, I'd noticed lately that Democrats have turned from promoting an agenda to ginning up enthusiasm among their base. Now the New York Times confirms that the White House has given up on convincing independent voters to support Democrats this year.

I was assisting GOP campaigns in 2006 when the Republicans lost the independent vote. Voters had become convinced that Republicans were corrupt after a series of high profile scandals. The proverbial "straw that broke the camel's back" that year was the Mark Foley scandal. During the week following the first reports of Foley's behavior, polling showed that independents were switching their support to Democratic candidates.

This move by the Democrats means that they will be switching their resources to races in regions that are solidly or lean Democratic in order to minimize their overall losses. They'll concede the marginal races and the areas that lean Republican.

Democrats will also work on increasing turn-out in Democratic strongholds in order to win tight statewide races.

This means more anti-Republican rhetoric and personal attacks from Democratic leaders in the next month in order to close the enthusiasm gap widely reported this cycle. It's not about convincing independents anymore; it's about getting Democrats to the polls.

Noisy Sun Chips Bag, R.I.P.

My family likes Sun Chips. And we dutifully bought the new biodegradable bag and placed it on the shelf in the cabinet with the other chips.

But our kids, as well as a bunch of consumers, noticed that the new bag is NOISY. Apparently, parent company Frito-Lay fears customer backlash after being mocked with YouTube videos and a Facebook page--they are going back to a less eco-friendly bag.

Mother nature is not pleased, but our ears are saved!

Great headline!

I figure there was probably a lot of discussion over this headline. Hmmm...what adjective to employ? Ah, how about "experimental"? That sounds science-y!

And women? Still faking, over 20 years after "When Harry Met Sally." Now there's scientific proof of this line: "It's just that all men are sure it never happened to them and all women at one time or other have done it, so you do the math."

Hey, we're going on a cruise!

Lucky us...we're going on a great Caribbean cruise in December!

When we booked it, we honestly (I promise!) did not know that it's also the CPAC cruise.

Facepalm. Anyone else want to come along, carrying protest signs while we sit at the pool?

Racy Dirndls Mar Oktoberfest!

You just can't write a better headline on a Friday.

My mother was born in Frankfurt, Germany and came to America in 1964, settling with my dad in his hometown of St. Louis, Missouri. Mom has always enjoyed the Oktoberfest celebrations organized by the thriving German communities within St. Louis.

However, controversy has apparently struck at the traditional festivals in Deutschland with the advent of racy dirndls!

Although, I am not quite sure who is complaining.