Governors go to the fair
This past weekend, 30 or so Governors from across the country met in
Des Moines for their annual conference. Likely 2008 presidential
candidate and current Governor Vilsack put on quite a conference
according to most reports. The governors were even treated to a mini
state fair complete with rides and I’m guessing a corn dog or two. One
bit of good news I saw today was that Governor Schwarzenegger of
California and Governor Jeb Bush of Florida were not among the
attendees. We can only hope this means they aren’t likely to run for
President in 2008.

Bush to announce his nominee for the Supreme Court
I saw a little bit of the nightly news tonight and noticed that Bush is
set to announce his replacement for Sandra Day O’Connor on the Supreme
Court. He was asked what he thought of a particular judge who is on the
short list of nominees and he shot back, “Let me put it this way, when
I want you to know who it is, I’ll tell you who it is.” Why does
everything have to be such a Texas showdown with this guy?

Gaining new customers
I heard an interesting commentary on Marketplace Morning Report from
commentator Adrian Wooldridge, who is a correspondent for The
Economist. He looks at how businesses try to gain new customers and
applies it to politics. He contrasts Democratic chairman Howard Dean to
Ken Mehlman, saying that Howard Dean is focused on blasting Bush and
speaks more to his base in an attempt to fire up his “existing
customers,” if you will. On the other hand, Republican chairman Mehlman
is giving daily speeches to “new customers” of the Republican party; in
this case, minorities. He comments that this approach is working and
that’s why the Republicans are out fundraising Democrats 2 to 1.  

The more I look at this blog …
The more I’m impressed with the content. Let’s look back at a few
recent posts. Chad Thompson has a post up today about ethanol and the
debate on whether it takes more energy to produce ethanol than it’s
worth. His post contradicts an earlier post by Molly Regan that states
the opposite, an interesting debate no doubt. A debate whose outcome
probably depends on who is paying for the study, as Linda points out in
her comment.

Last week, Caroline Vernon had a link to a site that pointed out
pollution in Iowa and the responsible parties. On Monday, Linda posted
a follow up article on Iowa’s pollution. She points out that Woodbury
County holds the “honor” of being the Iowa county with the most
pollution. Oddly enough, she was thinking about moving to Woodbury
County and decided to check them out.  Linda, I think we all want
to know, are you still thinking about moving there?

And we can always count on Trish Nelson to go after the facts on the
issues. She has an ability to analyze the spin and read between the
lines of the propaganda being shoved on America.