Recent News

Will Iowans Give Rick Perry a Second Chance?

As the 2016 presidential race officially opens, a lot of attention is being paid to the new faces in the crowded Republican field of candidates. There’s the first official entrant Texas Senator Ted Cruz, the fresh-faced Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, and the libertarian-leaning Kentucky Senator Ron Paul. Another fresh face, Florida Senator Marco Rubio also looms as he too is expected to announce his candidacy soon.

Those four Republicans have all come on to the national scene since the 2010 elections. Three of them are in their forties, Paul is the oldest of the bunch at age 52, which means he’s just a pup as far as presidential politics goes. In a party that is desperately searching for an identity and a national leader, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that people seem most interested in these young and emerging Republicans.

However, there is another candidate that Iowans also seem to be interested in these days – former Texas Governor Rick Perry.

A paradigm shift is needed in today’s Democratic Party.

Rising stars in the Democratic Party like Tim Kaine, Jim Webb and especially Martin O’Malley and Elizabeth Warren are all formidable candidates, despite the fact that one liberal icon has amassed $328,755,858 and owns her own server. If Republicans can be proud of the fact that Ted Cruz would “most likely” be able to serve as president, Democrats should trumpet the plethora of talent within their ranks.

4 signs John Kasich will run for president

“It was sort of amazing, right?”

Gov. John Kasich beamed, basked, hammed. Whatever you’d call it, he’d had a great day back on the campaign trail.

“When I came here the last time, I couldn’t get anyone to pay attention, and now it’s, like, so totally different,” he told reporters. “You come to something like this and see how people react, and it’s pretty positive. It really does have an impact on the way you think.”

Less than a day since Sen. Ted Cruz jumped head first into the 2016 GOP presidential race, conservatives are fighting over his electability, with Fox News analyst Charles Krauthammer’s rip that “we already tried a first-term senator” taking fire from the right.

Even Krauthammer’s fans took to Twitter and Facebook to criticize him for being too quick to write the Texas senator off before his campaign even got going and the early primary and caucus states had a chance to hear his message.

Jeb’s South Carolina firewall fails to take shape

Twice before, South Carolina has delivered for the Bush family. In 1988, it famously served as George H.W. Bush’s firewall after he finished third in Iowa. Twelve years later, it served the same role for George W. Bush after John McCain’s New Hampshire victory.

But as Jeb Bush seeks to become the third in his family to win here, he’s finding the state almost unrecognizable. The electorate in the first primary state in the South is more conservative than before — and the former Florida governor is perceived as a moderate. Much of the old Bush team has defected to other candidates. And the presence of South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham is eating into Bush’s natural base of support.

Gov. Scott Walker faced criticism last week after a newly hired aide to his fledgling presidential campaign resigned under pressure for derogatory remarks she had made about Iowa and its first-in-the-nation nominating contest. But the incident wasn’t the first time Mr. Walker had run into a problem over an apparent lack of vetting of a staff member.

At last three other times in the last five years, Mr. Walker’s teams have encountered a problem that could have been caught ahead of time with proper due diligence.

Cruz says he’s raised $1M since launching bid

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) said Tuesday he has raised $1 million in the 36 hours since he officially launched his bid for the White House.

In an interview Tuesday night on Fox News Channel, anchor Megyn Kelly challenged Cruz with criticism from some of his peers who say he’s too polarizing a figure to win a national race.

“If you want a quick indication of the support we’re seeing, the incredible grassroots support — it’s been 36 hours since we launched the campaign,” Cruz said. “In the first day, we raised over $1 million. In one day.”