Who are the Only 2 people who can save California - Schmidt cartoon

Harry Potter and a gay wizard.

Too Much Regulation?! I think NOT!

Meth vs cigarettes- Schmidt cartoon

"The hard choices the legislature makes. Enforce existing laws or send law enforcement after people for talking on their cell phone while driving and smoking too close to an exit door of a bar."

Bailout - Schmidt Cartoon

Who ARE These Environmental Whacko's?! Cartoon by Schmidt

Happy Politics 2012 - Schmidt Cartoon

GOP 2012: A Bonanza! - Schmidt Cartoon

The End of Bipartisanship?

Is It Time for Democrats to Declare War on the GOP?

Steffen Schmidt

President Obama was in Michigan in mid-July 2009 to announce a new national community college expansion initiative in a state that has over 14% unemployment and a collapsing auto industry. A Detroit paper called Obama’s economic policy a "failed experiment." According to the Washington Post “Before Obama's arrival in Michigan, House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) issued a statement that said Democratic economic policies "will strangle even more small businesses and destroy millions more jobs. That's not what middle-class families want -- in Michigan or anywhere else in America."

Obama said the equivalent of “bring it on” to the GOP critics and pointed out that it was eight years of Bush/Cheney and the GOP in control of Congress that could be blamed for the mess in which the economy finds itself. (He actually said “"I love these folks who get us in this mess and then suddenly say it's Obama's economy," he said. “ That's fine. Give it to me. I welcome the job," - Washington Post.)

Republican strategists and all of the GOP contenders for 2012 have concluded that there is no room for bipartisanship on the economy or any other issue. In their calculus the economy is an integral part of partisan politics, the opposition party has the responsibility to offer sharp alternatives from the git go and the idea of a “loyal opposition” is bunk.

The Democrats, giddy from the 2008 victories have more or less chosen to just ignore the Republicans and push through legislation with or without GOP support, which their majorities in the House and Senate can now do.

The public is still confused about why there is an economic crisis so the GOP strategy to label the problems “Obama’s Recession” is a good strategy because without a counterattack it will stick and could produce results in 2010 and certainly pose a big threat to the democrats in 2012.

So I’ve been talking to many friends, colleagues, and former students in both parties on how the public will assess the economic crisis and the job loss/unemployment disaster in which the country finds itself.

Basically the results are as follows.

Very few Republicans will buy into the Democratic legislative arena and even fewer will jump on ANY Obama administration initiatives in either domestic or foreign policy.

Republicans actually say they DO want bipartisanship. The GOP definition of “bipartisanship” must be “ya’ll Democrats change any policy that comes up and make it look more like a Republican policy.” One strategist told me that anything else would be largely rejected except for a few “… rogue Republicans who will go AWOL on us.”
So what should the Democrats do? Play nice and ignore the Republicans? Take off their gloves and go on a full bore offensive to make the economic crisis stick to Bush, Cheney, and the GOP? Attack on some issues and play nice on others?

One academic colleague averred, “There is almost no room for bipartisanship. Actually, the Dems don’t want it any more than the Repubs. By letting the GOP control the strategic high ground of blame, in a military sense, the Democrats are taking chances. The risk is that the public will buy the GOP story and blame the recession and all the economic scandals on the Dems.”

Her advice (which she’s selling for a lot of money as a consultant but I offer you for free!) is for every Democrat at the national as well as state and local level to start calling it the “Bush/Cheney Recession” at every opportune moment whenever they talk about jobs and the economy. She feels strongly that the 2006 and 2008 victories are acting as “tranquilizers, Political Valium if you will” (her terms not mine) and has made them complacent and sure the public will continue to vote Democrat in 2010 and 2012.

She added, “Obama is making a big mistake in being so ‘nice’ and not running with scissors. The Democratic Party needs to go on a big offensive. It’s no different from what Republicans are saying about how Obama is approaching Iran, North Korea, and other foreign policy crises. Nice don’t work!”

Indeed when I polled over 300 of my students a vast majority had no idea on how to assess the economic crisis and the bleak job picture for college students. They also seemed not to know whom to blame. That means their minds were malleable mush (to borrow a phrase from the rotund one) and I certainly buy the GOP assessment that if they have a unified message – “Obama is wrong.” “Look what he has done to our economy.” The Obama recession has cost you your job.” “It’s time for “smart change.”
I believe that public opinion can in fact be reshaped between now and November of 2010. The economic crisis took about 20 years of loosy-goosy policy, unethical and even a great deal of criminal activity by corporations and by government officials at all levels. The number of scandals is huge and Teapot Dome* no longer means anything in the wake of the highway robbery that’s been taking place.

So I think the overall results of my research can be summarized as “Let the partisan wars begin.” The Health care legislation Congress is currently debating and voting on is the best proof that there is NO bipartisanship. The Senate committee voting on the bill did so 13 to 10 on a strict party line vote.

Oh by the way, the democrats won the elections in 2006 and 2008 so they are now the majority party in government. As we all learned in civics class the majority rules in the United States. The GOP certainly did so in the eight years of Bush and the 12 that they controlled the House and Senate.

* The Teapot Dome Scandal refers to a bribery scandal during the administration of President Warren G. Harding. Teapot Dome is an oil field on public land Wyoming. I am a professor so I believe I must educate and footnote.

Steffen Schmidt is a University Professor of political science at Iowa State University and lead author of the country's most widely adopted introductory college textbook, "American Government and Politics Today" (17th Edition, Wadsworth Publishing). He provides weekly political analysis for Iowa Public Radio, and periodically in Spanish for CNN en Español. He is chief political and foreign correspondent for insideriowa.com.

Who’s the Best for the GOP in 2012?

I don’t go out looking for trouble but with 40 years of teaching at Iowa State I have many, MANY politically very connected former students in all the parties and all over the USA. So trouble comes looking for me almost every week.

I mentioned on my radio show on Wednesday, July 15, 2009 that a bug was put in my ear by several politically well connected people I have known for years about the 2012 presidential race.
Here is how the story goes.

The GOP is frantically searching for a potential candidate for president in 2012. The party has been decimated by two consecutive electoral losses in 2006 and 2008 and their numbers in Congress have been badly slipping.

Second, the party finds it self with very risky demographics. It is losing younger voters, women voters, minority voters, moderate voters, independent voters, and suburban and city voters.
Third, it’s national base is slipping further South and for a national election such as the 2012 race for the White House there are not enough electoral votes in the South to win.

Fifth, Republican politicians in unacceptable numbers have been falling to sexual and financial scandals and the party itself is hurt badly by these.

Sixth, there is no national, leader to pull the GOP together around any focused philosophy.
Seventh, after eight years of President Bush, VP Cheney and a majority in the US Congress the party has lost its ideological way. Huge budget deficits in the eight years of Bush, several long and disastrous wars, serious lost battles to reform Social Security and develop a cost-effective and wide-coverage health care policy have damaged the “brand name” of the Republican Party.

As a result of these difficult conditions, there is a yearning among GOP voters and especially among the top bananas of the party inner sanctums for a “serious adult” as one of my former students now a big enchilada on the national scene put it. This person would have an impeccable personal record. “He or she must never have taken a trip to Argentina,” is how it was put. He or she must have the support of the GOP establishment, conservative voters and the party base but also needs to be admired and respected “across the aisle” by Democrats and appeal to Independent voters. The person must be fiscally prudent and “sensible.” They cannot have any baggage. "We want no more surprises," one of my contacts said.

It would be great if this person were a defender of the taxpayers hard earned dollars against fraud and abuse by the government. It would help if this individual were folksy and could connect with ordinary folks and yet be very experienced and sharp as pin on the key issues of the day.

Well, that’s a tall order for either party and so far the feeling is that the GOP has failed to finger that candidate. Newt Gingrich and Mike Huckabee are ahead of the game so far. Mitt Romney is definitely in the running. Sarah Palin is a great temptation and she has lots of buzz and zing but of course, also a lot of negatives.

But there is one dark horse lurking in the background and it’s not Colin Powell although his name pops up as well.

It’s Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley.

No one knows if he’s interested or could be drafted into presidential service. In fact, until yesterday I had not heard this but I made some phone calls and BOY, to my surprise, his name apparently has popped up all around the country. I asked if his age is not a factor. The answer was “we need an adult as candidate and besides, Ronald Reagan and then John McCain broke that barrier.” Another person said “Voters judge books by their cover and Grassley looks 10 years younger than he is and seems in excellent health.”

But what about the Iowa “First in the Nation Presidential caucuses? They’ll be ruined like Tom Harkin did when he ran!”

One of my Republican friends said “Don’t worry. Sen. Grassley would graciously not run in the caucuses but he would run in the New Hampshire primary where he would easily win because he reaches out and appeals to independent voters.”

Now that I’ve shared this with you I’m goanna take the phone off then hook and go take a nap. Don’t you LOVE to fall asleep when the rain is drumming on your bedroom roof?

Schmidt's Meager Management (tm) (c)2009

As of today I am copyrighting and trade marking the term Meager Management (c) (TM) 2009.

The term will be used to refer to a new and chronic phenomenon in government but also the private sector which is a decline in available revenue. Here is now a New York Times article summarized the dilemma in which Michigan finds itself:

"In all, even before thinking about the coming year’s $1.8 billion shortfall, Michigan’s lawmakers had — through cuts, accounting shifts and tax increases — closed more than $7 billion in budget gaps over the past eight years. While many states have experienced a year of pain or perhaps two during this downturn, Michigan is approaching nearly a decade of budget misery."

This situation more or less lipped by all of us and we were shocked, SHOCKED I SAY, when we discovered what the US auto industry disaster was doing to the State of Michigan. we know that California is worse off (is that possible?!) budget wise with 30 some billion dollars in deficit and no end in sight.

MSNBC had another very troubling piece on state pension funds:

Most state pension funds do not have enough assets to pay for their long-term pension liabilities, although experts say the median level of 85 percent is not low enough to raise alarm bells. Some states, including Illinois and West Virginia, are substantially below that level. Figures are as of June 30, 2004, the most recent date for which complete figures were available.

What! The most recent numbers are for 2004!

What the hey!

Do YOU balance your checkbook only every five years?

These people should be putting out numbers every six months and then they should be adjusting revenue sources, fees, spending, and hiring to match their miserable state of affairs.

If you try to find solid information about local government and school pension funds you hit a brick wall. the data is not much better for county and state governments but we know generally that pension obligations are for the most part in the red and used as cash cows to fund otherwise unaffordable programs. It's basically the same as Social Security only worse.

Let's keep our eye on the pension and below-the-federal-government budgeting and revenue woes ball. Keep an eye out for Schmidt's Meager Management (TM) and (c) 2009 will be up for widespread debate and discussion as well as running some workshops and other hands-on traimning activities.

Palin and Iowa

I recently got this "Political Poster" from a student of Sarah and Newt.

No doubt they meant 2012 but that raises the interesting possibility that Sarah and newt might run for Governor of Iowa first.

That would be a really awesome "maverick" thing to do wouldn't it!?

It's not hard to establish residency and run in a different state. Remember Bobby Kennedy and Hillary Clinton did it. Dick Cheney, at the time a resident of Texas, ran for VP with "W" Bush (also a resident of Texas which is prohibited by the US Constitution - not being from Texas but the Prez and Vice Prez candidates being residents of the same state). Cheney just "declared" Casper, Wyoming his "official" residency.

Actually John McCain was born in Panama but ran for President of the United States even though he would have violated the US Constitution that you must be born on US soil (the Canal Zone is NOT what the "Founders" had in mind any more than a US Embassy or a USIA Cultural Center in, say Madrid, or a US military facility in Northern Afghanistan would qualify).

Running for Governor of Iowa would seal in concrete Palin's reputation as being innovative, quirky, and pushing the envelope. It would give Newt an electrifying partner which some people say he needs.

Then, if they win in Iowa, they can launch their 2012 campaign from the "First in the Nation" state. Of course, they'll have to resign in mid-term as Gov in Iowa, but, HEY, Gov. Palin has already practiced doing that so it should be a cinch!

Wow, 2010 is going to be so much MORE fun than I ever expected!

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